...and you might be surprised

Forget Frankie Boyle, the most controversial comedy act at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe was a physical duo called The Two Wrongies.

The pair – Avis Cockbill and Janine Fletcher – most divided the critics with their show, according to statistical analysis of all the 2012 festival reviews, conducted by comic Gareth Morinan.

They had the greatest standard deviation in the spread of their star ratings, garnering scores widely spread between one and five. (Chortle gave their ‘relentlessly genital-obsessed’ show a 2)

Just two other shows managed to achieve both 1 and 5 star reviews: sketch duo Toby and Benny Boot.

By the same token, the least controversial comedian was Imran Yusuf, who scored a solid three stars from eight of the nine reviews he received, with the other awarding him a nine.

According to Morinan’s research, published on The Guardian website, the highest rated show was The Pajama Men, which averaged an almost unbeatable 4.9 stars, with the lowest rated show being Mabbs & Justice: Love Machine, averaging just 1.4 stars.

His calculations were based on the 226 comedy shows that had more than four reviews.

Morinan also found that the Pleasance boasted the best reviewed shows (with an average of 3.5 stars) but The Stand was the most controversial.

He also found that with 233 reviews, Chortle critiqued more comedy shows than any other source other than Three Weeks, which usually dedicates just a paragraph or two to each review. We were followed by The List at 211 and The Scotsman at 194.

Published: 19 Jun 2012