My cardboard cut-out dad

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

‘I don't care how funny you think you are, people are entitled to think “oh no, not him again”,’ Mrs Brown’s Boys creator Brendan O'Carroll.

Thieves have stolen a 7ft glow-in-the-dark inflatable Homer Simpson from the roof of Ivy Manchester Church, in Didsbury. ‘He had become a bit of a local landmark,’ church leader Anthony Delaney said.

Paddy McGuinness has had a run-in with Jeremy Kyle, after slagging off his ITV show. The Take Me Out comic told Digital Spy: ‘One day I was doing some filming and who should come around the corner but Jeremy himself? He came up to me and said, “Hey pal, why are you always saying things about me to the press?” I simply told him back, “It's not you that I have a problem with, Jeremy! It's the bloody idiots you have on your show.’ But will the confrontation stop McGuinness speaking his mind? You bet... ‘I'll be keeping my mouth shut in the future,’ he added.

4oD makes viewers sit through 2mins and 54sec of adverts before watching Adam Hills’ Alternative Christmas Message – which lasts for 3mins. Still worth it, though.

Stand-up John Moloney recalls on Facebook a time in the Nineties when he was the warm-up man for Victoria Wood's Christmas special at BBC TV Centre. But he was going down badly, even though the audience was filled with BBC bigwigs. So he ditched his material and tried some audience banter. ‘Hello mate, what do you do?’ he asked one man. ‘I work for the BBC.’ ‘What do you do at the BBC? ‘Actually, I booked you...’ After he came off, the floor manager was sympathetic, commenting that the audience were ‘a stiff bunch of cunts’. Moloney said that at least ‘those stiff cunts had paid enough to get a new fridge-freezer...so fuck 'em.’ But his lapel mic was still on and it beamed out into the studio...

After Les Dawson’s death, his widow Tracy installed a full-size cardboard cut-out of her husband in their baby daughter Charlotte's nursery, so she would recognise him as her dad. Charlotte says: ‘People have said the cardboard cut-out was a bit freaky but I don't think it was at all.’

Comedian Martin Soan has broken a rib after riding his bicycle into a kerb, and went straight over the handlebars.‘I had landed on my rib cage,’ he told bloggerJohn Fleming. ‘I could hear myself say: “I’m standing. I’m standing. The bike’s there. The bike’s there. You’re gonna be alright.” But it’s going to be tough...’

It’s quite an old trick for male comics indulging in some audience participation: Ask the female volunteer you chose for a peck on the cheek, then as she goes in, turn your head around for a full-lips snog. Yet it landed comedian Ron Pearson in trouble in the States, after his victim launched a lawsuit when he pulled the stunt while doing warm-up for the Disney Channel's family sitcom Good Luck Charlie. The woman, Kellie Rodriguez, also said he repeatedly spanked her on the backside after getting her on stage to dance to YMCA. And the Mouse House has just settled for what gossip website TMZ says is around $25,000.

Liam Gallagher has been watching Rising Damp in the studio while recording the next Beady Eye album. ‘I’m a big fan,’ he said.

Tweets of the week
Simon Guerrero (@ fiatpanda ): Weasel: a stand for a very small painting #ued
Bob Mortimer (@ RealBobMortimer ): ON THIS DAY IN 1980 .. Spice girl Geri Halliwell celebrates her 30th birthday with a fingering outside Digbeth bus station
Tony Cowards (@ TonyCowards ): “I’ve just been to a party held by the Norse God of Mischief”, “Loki?”, “Yes, it was a bit quiet”.