Stewart Lee calls out German 'plagiarist'

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• I've always thought of myself of a cross between Gordon Brown and Pippa Middleton’ Miles Jupp

• Stewart Lee has called out a German comedian for stealing his act. Nico Semsrott has made the Plagiarists’ Corner on Lee’s website for a routine he does about the far-right AFD party, which is similar to segments on Comedy Vehicle about Ukip’s former deputy leader, Paul Nuttall. Semsrott has often cited Lee as an influence, but said it was ‘not cool’ that he didn’t do so in this case because of nerves, adding: ‘That was stupid of me.’ We asked self-appointed German Comedy Ambassador to the UK, the stand-up Henning Wehn, to take a look at the video below, and he told us: ‘It gets relevant from 06:50 to the end. That's when he does the "My name is Bernd Hoecke" stuff. While the drive and structure is the same the content differs. ie. Poles harvesting fruit and veg. We would prefer to do it ourselves/ The Romans and all their roads. I preferred it when we got stuck in the mud, etc’.

And here’s the original:

• London Hughes said she had such bad eczema as a child that kids used to call her ‘crispy chicken – but now swears by sunflower oil to cure it. ‘I now oil my skin with sunflower oil everyday and I haven’t had a flare-up in years,’ she told The Sun.

• ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic is actively encouraging fans to pirate one of his parodies – after James Blunt denied him permission to release it commercially. In 2006, the comedian recorded a parody of James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful called You’re Pitiful which was initially meant to appear on the Straight Outta Lynwood album. But Blunt’s people revoked permission to use the music, so it was never officially released. Blunt was recently approached again for permission to include You’re Pitiful as a rarity on next year’s box set entitled Squeeze Box: The Collected Works of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic – but again the singer denied permission. So, Yankovic is encouraging fans to listen to one of the hundreds of illicit copies on the Internet, including this one.

• Robbie Coltrane this week starred as an ageing comedian at the heart of an Operation Yewtree-type scandal in Channel 4’s powerful and emotive National Treasure. But the Daily Star knows its audience, reporting that the actor ‘has found himself an unlikely pin-up after stripping off for a topless shower scene’.

• ’I’ve never had a comedic rival that worried me. If you’re into the weird shit that I do, I’m the only guy selling. It’s a very small, niche fan base of weird people that’ll fly from all over the world to come and sit in 150 seats.’ Doug Stanhope.

Tweets of the week

I do possess 99 quarrels, but a wench can not be identified as one.
— Shakespeare Lyrics (@ShakespeareSong) September 4, 2016

Seeing the leaves change in autumn always reminds me of my Grandpa. He died falling out of a tree too.
— Nathan Usher (@thenatewolf) September 21, 2016