WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• 'I don’t know how to write jokes and I don’t have punchlines.' Russell Kane.

• Stand-up Robert White spent three months in jail for attempting to threaten with an imitation firearm... for jokingly trying to hold up the shop where his ex-boyfriend worked with a music stand. And he was dressed in a ballgown. White – who has Asperger's Syndrome – had second thoughts about the prank (in which he was going to demand: 'Music stand and deliver!') but was still pulled over by police. As he explained to blogger John Fleming, cops brought charges because in the subsequent interview he referred to the music stand as a gun 'because – for the joke – I was a comedy armed robber'. His lawyer suggested a plea bargain as explaining his actions to the jury would be difficult. 'Incidents like that used to happen but comedy has cured me,' White told Fleming. 'Well, not cured me, but it has resolved many, many issues.'

• Milton Jones once used an idea from his eight-year-old son as a sketch in his radio show, then put his name in the credits.

• Last year, we reviewed a show called Stand-Up: The Musical in New Brighton… Well, here’s another take on the idea from American comics Jason Saenz and Jake Young, who’ve penned a song about the jealousy among stand-ups competing for bookings:

• Russell Brand has been nominated for both hero of the year and villain of the year in the NME Awards.

• This might be stretching Chortle's brief to cover comedy a little too much, but here's news of Paddy McGuinness's next game show project for ITV. 'Contestants will go head to head with some of Britain's most talented pensioners in a bid to win a cash prize of £20,000!' shrieks the advert seeking participants. The name of the show? Amazing Greys...

• An American couple hired comedian Adam Hunter to perform at their wedding, requesting that he be as rude as he liked. And although bride and groom took the roasting in good spirits, one guest took offence and kinda spoiled the mood:

• Girls star Lena Dunham isn't so good at sex scenes, she reveals on tonight's Graham Norton show. She recalls one director telling her: ‘You need to do it one more time because you look like you are being murdered and you need to look like you might be enjoying it just for one minute.'

• Want to buy Alan Davies's old motorbike? He is selling his DL1000 V-Strom – which he bought in 2004 to undertake a trip around Europe and barely ridden since – for the Riders For Health charity. It has 5,500 miles on the clock and is on sale for £3,250 here.

• Tweets of the week
Keri (@kerihw): Just read an article saying the cast of 12 Years A Slave should clean up at the Oscars - awful that people still think like that in 2014.
Sanjeev Kohli (@govindajeggy): Under the government's '30 year rule', you can pretty much eat anything off the floor
Nick Harvey (@mrnickharvey): I have arrived for the positive thinking workshop. The class is half empty.

Published: 17 Jan 2014