Josh: I auditioned to be a Hobbit

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• 'Saying that I'm obsessed with race and racism in America, is like saying that I'm obsessed with swimming while I'm drowning.' Hari Kondabolu, who visits the Soho Theatre this weekend.

• Josh Widdicombe was asked to audition for The Hobbit. He tells Graham Norton on his BBC One chat show tonight that although he didn't get it. 'I thought I would at least get some extras work out of it. The most galling thing about it is that they lowered the maximum height requirement because they had so many people, and my agent called me to say I'd still qualify as a Hobbit.' Widdicombe also told Norton about one of his early gigs, saying: 'I performed to an audience of two. It was their first date and clearly it didn't go well because in the second half I was performing to an audience of one.'

• Fancy having your own Seinfeld-style theme tune greet your entrance to any room? One electronics whiz rigged up this device, using an infra-red detector and various MP3s stored on a micro SD card, to make that dream a reality. This video was posted in March but has just gone rival thanks to Reddit:

• Bill Bailey has been the victim of identity theft. In his stand-up show Limboland, he reveals that his email account was hacked by fraudsters who sent his accountant a message to wire money to a Turkish bank account. To his shock, he says she agreed, despite the sudden change in tone of their correspondence from light banter to harsh, urgent demands in broken English.

• When the new biographical film Joy wanted to feature a brief appearance from Joan Rivers, they didn't need to look far for an actress – and cast her daughter Melissa in the part. She appears briefly in a scene set in home shopping channel QVC, where Joy Mangano, played by Jennifer Lawrence, hawked the Miracle Mop she invented, and Rivers famously sold her jewellery. Fittingly, the scene involves a comment about fashion, but not the acidic comments the comedian would become known for on the red carpet:

• Katherine Ryan's cat is called Sara Pascoe.

• Nick Frost has lent his voice to a new video game for the Gear VR virtual reality headsets for Samsung phones. He can be heard in this trailer for Esper 2, a puzzle game set in a world where people gain telekinetic powers. .

• A teenager waving a knife in the streets of Newton Abbot man was disarmed by a have-a-go-hero dressed as Herr Flick from Allo Allo. Tim Dobson had been at a German themed fancy dress party and admitted: 'It must have looked quite funny to see me jump into action.' He detained drunken Ryan Gooding, 18, for 15 minutes until police arrived, a court has heard.

• Philip Simon, who was named Jewish Comedian Of The Year last weekend, once played Peppa Pig's father in a stage show.

• Looks like an unusual show at London's Soho Theatre, at least if viewed on a narrow screen:

@sohotheatre viewing your website with a small screen… #nsfw @chortle pic.twitter.com/W4Y8PEC4KD
— Bernie Nelson (@Iambernienelson) December 7, 2015

• Ring HSBC's call centre and you might find yourself listening to Russell Howard. The comic has recorded a message on behalf of the NHS to promote organ donation, which the bank has agreed to play to customers being held in a queue. Sheffield Wednesday football club has also agreed to play the message to its callers. 'No one likes being put on hold, but it is really just a short amount of time compared to the wait endured by thousands of people due to a lack of organ donors,' Howard said: