'Being eaten out by a lesbian called Shaniqua'

WTF: Weekly trivia file

• Katherine Ryan once dressed her little sister up as Hitler for a school project about the Second World War. 'I didn't realise how offensive I was being,' she claims.

• Russell Howard's demographic skews young, but just how young? The ticket restrictions for his run at the Royal Albert Hall say 'no under 5s'. That might sound like it's going to be a family-friendly show, but he drops the c-bomb, and jokes about fucking a dog or the Queen being eaten out by a lesbian called Shaniqua… so probably not the usual bedtime story for a six-year-old.

• There are plenty of crowdfunding campaigns seeking money to fund vanity projects and pipe dreams, but Brendon Burns's is probably the most honest. He's seeking up to $50,000 from IndieGoGo that will 'go towards nothing, you won't get anything and rest assured, I won't put the money into a project or even give it to charity'. The campaign – subtitled 'I can't be bothered doing club gigs' – came after he tried other fundraisers offering substantial benefits for donating, but found that 'didn't seem to chime with people'. So far someone's given him $10.

• The Sun is starting to act like an elderly man losing his grip on what's going on the world (no jokes about its proprietor please). In the past week alone its website has run stories headlined: Who is Paddy McGuinness? Who is Dara O'Brian? Who is Craig Charles? Who is Jack Whitehall? Who is Jim Tavare? Who is Rob Beckett? Who is Rob Delaney? Who is John Bishop? Clickbait's got a lot to answer for...

• Jim Davidson has confessed when he was young he used to drive to Fulham in West London and root through the bins of Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s recording studio looking for souvenirs.

• John Oliver owes some of this US success to Ricky Gervais. The pair had never met, but Gervais recommended him to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 'Even getting to ping on his radar was pretty weird for me,' Oliver said of Stewart. 'He's a singular, remarkable figure. If you worked under him and didn't at least get competent, that's your fault.'

• Much sniggering as sex toy manufacturers Lovehoney announced their sponsorship of the Bath Comedy Festival. But we think Leslie Redwood, who has the rather sober title of Head of Business Development and Partnerships at tourist outfit VisitBath, didn't quite realise what he was saying here: 'We want Bath Comedy Festival to be a reason for people from all over the country to come.'

• Canadian comic Dana Alexander was interrupted while recording her podcast by Red Dwarf star Craig Charles... but thought he was Fine Young Cannibals star Roland Gift. She was interviewing stand-up Imran Yusuf in the Hospital Club, a media haunt in London's Covent Garden, and clearly knew she recognised him from somewhere. So towards the end of their recording, the actor wandered over and joined them. 'Are you Canadian? Does Coronation Street go out in Canada?' Alexander said her mum loved the show and asked: 'Are you from Coronation Street?' 'You have no idea how modest he's being - that's Craig Charles from Red Dwarf. He's the biggest deal in the world!' Yusuf gushed. As the penny dropped Alexander said: 'I did a gig with him one time. Black gig. And the worst part about it was that I thought he was the guy from Fine Young Cannibals and I started singing at him' You can hear it about 1hr 3mins into this recording. Reminds us of the guy at the Chortle Awards a few years back who spent ages gushing to Terry Christian about what a great fan he was, thinking he was Stewart Lee.

• At the Chortle Student Comedy Award heat in Manchester on Wednesday, hosy Katie Mulgrew compared the gig to a hostage situation that could be the plot for Die Hard 25, and suggested someone make a Wikipedia page about the potential film. And sure enough...

As requested by @KatieMulg at tonight's @chortle @studentcomedy Award Heat: pic.twitter.com/NXy2GaexDk
— Mark Grimshaw (@markgrimshaw16) March 9, 2017

Though sadly the entry is no longer there.

• It's mere coincidence, but on Wednesday, Australian comic Tom Ballard released a podcast with Adelaide MP Kate Ellis, in which she seemed surprised to learn she had been in Parliament for 13 years: 'Maybe it could be this here interview which could be my downfall!' she joked. And yesterday she announced she was going to stand down at the next election to spend more time with her family. Fear the power of the comedy podcast!

• Johnny & The Baptists guitarist Paddy Gervers has revealed he blagged free accommodation at the Edinburgh Fringe for a month – but posing as a caterer and sleeping in the back of a van. 'We couldn't afford accommodation so we bought a catering van and a load of things that that looked like catering clothes,' he told Arthur Smith on Radio 4 Extra's The Comedy Club. 'We showed up at the Pleasance Courtyard and we couldn't find anywhere to park so we said, "We're caterers for the Fringe" and parked in the Pleasance Courtyard and sleep on a mattress in the back of the van for a month.

Tweets of the week

My taxi business is picking up.
— Jake Lambert (@LittleLostLad) March 3, 2017

Brutus: I had a lovely lamb shank last night
Caesar: Ate ewe, Brute?
Brutus: If that doesn't deserve a stabbing, nothing does
— Andy Ryan (@ItsAndyRyan) March 6, 2017