‘I thought it would be a man'

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• Jason Manford and Phill Jupitus took part in such ‘an absolute car crash’ of an interview on BBC One Northern Ireland’s Nolan Live last night that they both recorded an YoTube video to complain. Their interview – about the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stage musical – came straight off the back of a heavy debate about the sectarian murder of prison officer Adrian Ismay. Manford acknowledged the tension the moment they went on stage, but most of the jokes the pair tried, died. ‘It was a tough gig. That was badly produced. It was absolutely bonkers,’ Manford said later. Rubberneck at the disaster here, from 29 minutes in.

• Jerry Seinfeld has auctioned off 17 of his classic cars, netting $22.3million. A 1995 Porsche 550 Spyder was the biggest draw, fetching $5.3million in Florida. But the comedian won’t be short of wheels, as he still has at least 30 Porsches in his collection.

• The Chuckle Brothers have masterminded a killing spree at a stately home in Devon. They ordered an assassin to take out a Serbian arms dealer at Oldway Mansion in Paignton. It was a live action version of the video game Hitman, part of a promotional stunt.

• Lee Mack has made an attempt on a major world record: Most tea bags thrown into mugs in 30 seconds. The comic mentioned that was how he passed the time waiting for the kettle to boil during his Sky 1 show Duck Quacks Don’t Echo, so the folks at Guinness World Records set up a category just for him. Officials set a minimum of five to beat – but Mack didn’t make it. But a spokesman for the authoritative chroniclers of human achievement said: ‘With a bit of practice, I think he’ll nail it.’

Tea time challenge: 'Most tea bags thrown into mugs in 30 seconds'
Here's comedian @LeeMack at GWR HQ yesterdayhttps://t.co/1NzdKU0nyz
— GuinnessWorldRecords (@GWR) 17 March 2016

• Meanwhile, Jason Cook is backing another world record bid: for the largest human shamrock. The stand-up will be performing a gig to the hundreds of people expected at Tynemouth Longsands beach tomorrow to form the shape of the Irish emblem. The current record stands at 815 participants, set by the students of Blackrock College, Dublin, in March 2013.

• Sketch trio Pappy’s have directed a music video for The Spook School’s latest jaunty indie rock song, Speak When You're Spoken To – which they also happen to star in, alongside Josie Long. Here it is:

• Jeremy Hardy has been out on the road in support of Jeremy Corbyn at the JC4PM gigs. But the backing hasn’t always been appreciated by the leader. At one show, Hardy blasted former defence secretary Kevan Jones’s support for Trident, by linking it to his mental health history – saying ‘if your view of existence is so bleak you’re prepared to help with the extermination of the entire northern hemisphere, that kind of suggests depression’. When Jones asked Corbyn to condemn the comments, he came back saying there was ‘no excuse’ for Hardy’s ‘categorically disrespectful’. The Politics Home website reports that Corbyn added: ‘I can only hope that the audience at the event was not impressed by that contribution either, and that there is no such repetition of it.’

• Laura Lexx, who’s up for best compere at next week’s Chortle Awards, put down a sexist heckler at Brighton’s Komedia in a clip now whizzing around the internet. The grumpy misogynist told anyone in earshot that he was ‘miserable’ at the gig and added: ‘I thought it would be a man.’ Among a string of put-downs, Lexx told him: ‘The thing with stand-up comedy is it’s just like sex with your missus - it is just better if you let her get on with it on her own. You know what I mean don’t you? With comedy, you get into the rhythm, and then you hear that voice coming out of the darkness, and suddenly it is very hard to finish.’ Here’s their exchange:

• Mind you, he got off lightly. A comedian at a Hong Kong comedy club allegedly smashed a glass into the face of one heckler who challenged him on jokes he thought were racist. Ravi Kanasamoorthe needed 40 stitches to his face after the unnamed open-mic comedian struck at Comedy HK on Tuesday night, and may be scarred for life. ‘This dude walks off stage, calmly picks up his glass… grabs the glass and smashes it across my face,’ Kanasamoorthe told the Hong Kong Free Press.

Tweets of the week

Today I finally told my kids that St Patrick isn't real, and it's been me putting the snakes under their pillows all these years.
— Frank Whitehouse (@WheelTod) 17 March 2016

'The Irish dancing in Riverdance isn't nearly as complicated as it appears. It's just a collection of stamps.'
:Michael Philately
— Stu. (@dysondoc) 17 March 2016