Russell Brand 'writes through the turnip rushes'

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• Bill Bailey had to call out mountain rescuers this week when his dog, Tiger, went missing in the Lake District. The comic contacted Cockermouth mountain rescue team after his dog was lost on the Haystacks fell. Thirty team members jointed the hunt for Tiger, who they described as 'a rather clever and crafty creature who led us on quite a merry dance around the hills above Buttermere'. He was found after a two-hour operation, safe and well…

• Anal sex is too strong for Radio 4 listeners on a Sunday evening – but not over elevenses on Monday. An extract from the new comedy series Deborah Frances White Rolls The Dice is to air as part of Radio 4's Pick Of The Week at 6.15pm this Sunday… but producers had to cut around a sexual reference they thought too strong. Originally, the comedian, and former Jehovah's Witnesses, listed things forbidden to the religion's followers, including: 'Anal sex - even if you're gay… Being gay.' However the gag went out uncensored on the show's original broadcast – at 11.30am on Monday.

• Gotta love this story about Russell Brand's book Revolution, mangled either by automatic translation software or a non-English-speaking content farm. Brand 'writes everything to him through the turnip rushes,' it says astutely. 'Some of it is humorous formulated, most of it is talky. You must be reading the book as a Barbesuch imagine: a strange type, the already three Drinks in there, chatters a, tells only his life and explains a then the world.' To be fair it's only marginally more nonsensical than some of Brand's own utterances…

• Robin Williams is to have a tunnel named after him. The California Assembly yesterday approved a bill to rename the Waldo Tunnel near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco after the late comedian. With a rainbow painted over its archway, was originally named after William Waldo, a California politician who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1853.

• Comedy writer Paul Garner – whose credits include Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show and gags for Jimmy Carr– has been ordered to pay a £10,000 fine and court costs of £25,000 after demolishing a Grade II listed outbuilding at his home in Stevenage. Some of The Old Smithy dated back to the 17th Century and was one of the first staging posts on the main London to Peterborough coach route. Garner also played Dave Millman, Sharon Horgan's police officer husband in her Channel 5 sitcom Angelos, but in real life is married to the daughter of Chas from Chas & Dave.

• Rory Bremner is fronting a £2.5million advertising campaign for Birds Eye, using the election to sell its stir-fried range. The brand has released the world's 'most stirring speech', comprising variations of political lines performed by the impressionist. Birds Eye claimed: 'Since this Election is a time for change we wanted to create a stir – so what better way than to reframe some of the most compelling political speeches of all time to rouse the nation to discover stir cooking and revolutionise their dinner.' (Who writes this stuff?):

• Josh Widdicombe has spoken of his oddest fan. 'One guy asked for a picture of my naked feet,' he tells Graham Norton on his chat show tonight. 'I thought he was working for a charity and innocently I presumed it was for an auction. I forgot to do it and he was very persistent. It turns out he was just into feet.'

• As Manchester's Frog and Bucket erects a plaque to commemorating all the comedians who have died on its stage, Mick Ferry recalls one of the worst he witnessed. He said 'This guy got heckled and so stage dived onto a table of glasses. He got kicked out but returned another week, took his shoe off, passed it around and got everyone to spit in it. Then he put it back on.'

• Peter Kay gatecrashed a Texas gig again this week – coming on stage during the band's performance at the Salford Lowry on Monday. The comic has previously made unannounced appearances at gigs by The Saw Doctors, Queen, Badly Drawn Boy, Billy Joel, the Doves, and the Kaiser Chiefs.

Peter Kay is in the house #texas #manchester #lowry pic.twitter.com/Gc2ZNr6lKF
— Vicky Boylan (@vicb1970) April 20, 2015

• Soon you'll be able have your very own Seinfeld action figures. The Funko company has announced a line of cartoonish 8in figures from the sitcom – although notably not of Jerry, Elaine or George. The line comprises Kramer, The Soup Nazi, Newman, J Peterman, Puddy, and Frank Costanza (complete with Festivus pole). They are out in July.

• An audience member came to Noel Fielding's show at the Sydney Opera House dressed as piece of French toast, a character from his Luxury Comedy series.

Tweets of the week

My mate ran out of contact lens cleaner so I suggested he used bleach. Not the solution he was looking for. #1pun
— Mostly Chris (@drofidnas) April 20, 2015