WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• Bec Hill has an answer for interviewers who ask her what it's like being a female comedian: 'A lot like being a male comedian, but you get asked that question a lot more.'

• If you stopped following Ricky Gervais’s Twitter account because of the ceaseless retweets of people praising him, you’ll have missed the following brilliant exchange for Father’s Day last weekend. Gervais began by asking the twitter account The TweetOfGod: What did you, as your son, get you, your own dad, for father's day?'
TweetOfGod replied: As My own son, for Father's Day I bought Myself a necktie. And as My own father, I thanked Myself and silently felt disappointed yet again...
By the way @rickygervais, thanks as always for the many prayers you directed My way last night, as you secretly do every night. #faitheist.
Gervais: They were to Zeus actually but you just kept listening in… What were you thinking with that result though [Italy’s World Cup defeat of England]? You're English for fuck’s sake. Have a bit of patriotism.
TweetOfGod: No, @rickygervais, I'm not English. I save your queen purely out of the goodness of my heart.
Gervais: Oh, my mistake. You did give Rock and Roll to us though, right? And it is you who's been giving and taking away stuff yeah?’

• Meanwhile, Gervais has won £200 after betting AGAINST England. He tweeted a picture of his unpatriotic 20/1 bet with William Hill for a 2-1 victory for Uruguay last night saying the payout was ‘small consolation’

• Noel Fielding has spoken of how he went AWOL after one Mighty Boosh tour date at the Brighton Dome. Living the rock and roll lifestyle, he wound up partying late into the night, but next morning, when it was time to head off to the next town, he was nowhere to be found. Eventually an irate tour manager found him in a vintage shop in the chi-chi Lanes district... working behind the counter. It turns out one of the girls he was out on the tiles with worked there, but was in no fit state to do the job by morning, so Fielding lent a hand. ‘People kept coming in and going, “Are you Noel Fielding?”,’ he told Alan Davies on his new Dave TV show As Yet Untitled. So he had to reply: ‘I always get that, I just look like him.’ But Fielding said he ‘loved’ his new vocation, adding: ‘I stayed there all day’ – or at least until the tour manager tracked him down.

• A band of comics are walking the 60 miles from London to Portsmouth, doing gigs on the way, to raise money for Macmillan cancer research. The acts, including Katherine Ryan, Carl Donnelly and Jarred Christmas, will be setting off from BT Tower on July 21, gigging in Twickenham, Guildford and Petersfield en route... while three of the party will be cycling ahead so they can set up the gigs in time. Here are the details.

• An exclusive few Monty Python fans will get to join the team on stage at the O2 – as long as they have deep pockets. The team are auctioning off the chance to appear as one of the Australian Bruces in the famous sketches over the ten nights they are playing at the O2, which proceeds going to various charities. Bidding on this auction for the Mercury Phoenix Trust currently stands at £820, for example. Here's the explanation:

• Rhod Gilbert has been out working on the trawlers in Devon this week for the next series of his Work Experience show, set to be broadcast on BBC Two in the autumn. 'It is very hard work working 17 or 18 hour days and not what I am used to,' he said.

• Comedians – real ones, not Paddy McGuinness - will be taking part in a dating game based on Take Me Out at the Edinburgh Fringe. Four single girls could win a date with 1 of 20 stand-up comedians, turning their lights off if they don't like their banter. Among those taking part are the happily married Romesh Ranganathan, and Jen Brister, so it's not just for the straight girls...

• Tweets of the week
Q-Tizzle (@QuebecTango): Condoms are labour-saving devices.
Rob Dicken (@1970RobD): A4: A classic, always a winner
A5: Handy size, ideal for cards
A3: Serious stuff, professionals only
That was my review of the papers
Tony Cowards (@TonyCowards): You'd expect a defence with that many Dutch caps to be slightly more impregnable.#WorldCupPUNditry #AUSvsNED #itvworldcup

Published: 20 Jun 2014