WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• 'Women tend to be more inhibited and less willing to behave in a way that is comical.’ Lynn Parker, producer of Funny Women.

• Russ Abbot was once drinking with his friend Tommy Cooper, when the fez-wearing comic nipped to the loo. After a couple of minutes supping alone, the barman called over the younger man and said: ‘Excuse me, Mr Abbot, you’re wanted on the phone.’ He handed over the receiver, and as Abbot put it to his ear, water squirted out of the handset, to the delight of Cooper, who’d been hiding behind the bar. ‘He’d actually gone to the trouble of going to the pub early to set it up,‘ Abbot recalls. ‘He was that kind of guy.’

• Stand-up George Egg used to live next door to a family called the Bacons.

• An official Alan Partridge Twitter feed has been launched this week to promote his new book, I, Partridge – although his spoof posts will have some work to do to outdo this one: ‘AN APOLOGY. Earlier I recommended people to follow. I now understand that FFS does not stand for "Follow Fridays." Sorry for any offence.’ That was Jeremy Vine this very morning.

• Meanwhile, Steve Coogan is reportedly dating 21-year-old lingerie model Elle Basey after meeting her on a photoshoot for Loaded magazine.

• Ricky Gervais flew over to the States this week to appear on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Bear Grylls was a fellow guest, and on the same plane. Gervais had a doze on the flight, and when he woke up there was a note on his pillow, reading: ‘Day one of assassin school... always sleep with one eye open. Bear.’ Gervais looked over and saw that the survival expert was now asleep and left him a note in return: ‘Day one of public school... never sleep with your mouth open. Ricky.’

• A primary rule of stand-up: know your audience. In which case, this is an epic fail:
  

• The Australian comedy pop quiz Spicks and Specks has landed in trouble with Apple. The show, hosted by Adam Hills, has just launched an iPhone app... but the computer giant feels the title is offensive and lists it as ‘S***ks and Speck’. Broadcaster ABC has asked iTunes to reverse its decision, as the show is named after a Bee Gees track, not a racial insult against Hispanics – although the original song is also asterixed-out on iTunes. Hills tweeted: ‘So, Apple censored the Spicks and Specks app for being racist. Turns out you can be a Mac and PC at the same time.’

• The Daily Telegraph this week called Miranda Hart  ‘the daughter of a navel captain’, which is a strange image indeed.

• Jo Brand is trying to cast Morrissey in the TV adaptation of her book The More You Ignore Me, about a troubled young girl who finds solace in his music. She said: ‘I've just completed the final draft of the script... I'm really, really pleased about that. I'm going to try to get Morrissey to play the vicar in it, but I'm not holding out much hope.’

• Sarah Silverman locked herself out of her flat at 1am this morning.

• Tweets Of The Week
  jacques_aih (@jacques_aih): There are three types of lice; Lice, damned lice and dyslexics
  Megan Amram (@meganamram): What's a good rhyme for "mostly horse-hooves"?? (I'm writing a new jingle for Taco Bell)
  Gareth Davies (@GarethinHenley): Barman says, 'We don't serve time travellers here.' Time traveller walks into a bar.

SOURCES: The Green, The Green Room podcast, Twitter, The People, rickygervais.com, YouTube, Herald Sun Melbourne, Daily Telegraph, Belfast Telegraph, Twitter, Twitter

Published: 16 Sep 2011