WTF: Weekly Trivia File

‘My favourite comedian of all time is Eddie Murphy.’ Jim Davidson.

• After Jason Manford's Facebook post about finding a lump in a testicle earlier this week made national headlines, he now reports the results of the check-up are nothing too serious: a cyst and varicocele, which is like varicose veins and can occur in people who spend a lot of time standing up. 'So basically like tennis elbow, I've got "Stand Up Comedian's Bollock",'he posted.

• The launch of a new competition for the best comedy poster at the Edinburgh Fringe has caused something of an upset... since there's already an award for the exact-same thing. Announcing the award yesterday, organiser Gina Lyons said she came up with the idea after telling comic Harry Deansway: 'If there was an award for posters you would take first place.' But there HAS been an award for posters for the past nine years – the Zebra award, backed by local printing company Dupliquick. 'We are a little annoyed,' said director Nigel Harper. 'The quote from Gina Lyons is obviously inaccurate.' Previous winners of the Zebra Award, which is not confined to comedy, include magician Chris Cox and comic Mike Bubbins, and it's running again this year.

• Next week Rhod Gilbert will be training at RAF Valley in Angelsea, learning how to fly a BAE Hawk T2 jet for his Work Experience TV show. He’d better be careful as they cost £18million each and have a top speed of 635mph.

• Tony Law is the new face of Halfords, playing a ‘bike whisperer’ in an online series:

• Blogger John Fleming today recalls Ian Hinchliffe, an old alternative cabaret performance artist whose act would usually involve taking all his clothes off, getting blind drunk and eating glass – ‘which he usually did quite badly’, often leaving blood poring out of his mouth. Yet even with that horrifying act, the British Council would send him abroad as an ambassador for Britain culture.

• Sarah Pascoe’s dad Derek, was a musician in the Seventies boy band Flintlock, a regular on children’s comedy series You Must Be Joking! who had one No 30 hit in 1976, Dawn. He’s the guy with the sax:

• Bad timing from TV channel Dave which, on the day Rolf Harris was found guilty, repeated the Drugs episode of Not Going Out – which featured Two Little Boys blaring out from Lee Mack and Tim Vine’s car...

• Comedians Eddie Ifft and Tim McLaughlin came out of their show in Kansas City this week to find a very, erm 'confused' heckler passed out in their car...

• ‘Watching a comedian from the back of an arena on a video screen is not my idea of entertainment’ Phill Jupitus.

• Next week Groupon will be auctioning off a date with comic Max Dickins… the climax of a year he’s spent obsessed with the discount website. The stand-up has spent 12 months doing something new from the site every week – including becoming a Lord, having a colonic and trying bee-keeping – for a blog and a new Edinburgh show. He said he started to feel ‘a bit empty’ after all the adventures, adding: ‘ I realised I needed someone to share the fun with. I needed to find love.So naturally, I asked Groupon for help and they said yes. So on Tuesday I am becoming a Groupon. They are selling a date with me on the website.’

• Tweets of the week: Celebrity special
Chris Addison (@mrchrisaddison): Woah! Please don't wrap me round all that cat shit. Come on, man." - What The Papers Say.
Dave Gorman (@DaveGorman ): I reckon the right person could persuade Will⬝i⬝am to name a CD, Brill⬝i⬝Aint & get it released before he'd worked out it's not a compliment.
Robin Ince (@Robi Ince): My copy of The Myth of Sisyphus keeps falling off the bloody bookshelf.

Published: 4 Jul 2014