War on Woge! Google thinks this is Terry Wogan

Comedian's mock-up tops image search results

comedy He is an icon of British broadcasting, enjoyed by millions of people every day at his peak.

Yet Google ‘Terry Wogan’ today and you don't get the Radio 2 legend, but an image of comedian Benjamin Alborough.

The stand-up loosely impersonates the talk-show pioneer in a cult live show – which was apparently enough to baffle the Google algorithm, making the mock-up photo the No1 result of an image search for Wogan's name.

Alborough said it was ‘absolutely insane (and quite funny) that Google is putting this image at the top of its search results, though it should be corrected, really.’

He told Chortle: ‘It is mad that my periodic tweeting of this image with the words "Terry Wogan" has completely broken Google’s AI.

‘This definitely should be changed but, in my defence, my version of Wogan has been posting more on Instagram of late.

‘I hope that the world’s most used search engine being unable to distinguish between a titan of entertainment and an image knocked up in 30 minutes doesn’t bode for ticket sales as it does for the future of the human race.’

The mix-up was first spotted by a user on BlueSky, prompting several reactions, include one calling it ‘Temu Wogan’.

Another commentator said: ‘Poor Terry. I think even he would find it hard to joke about that image. It's grim.'

And a third said: ‘Disappointed but not surprised to see Google formally join the War on Woge’

Although it appears similar to an AI image, the phoney Wogan picture was actually created by comedian Sean Morley/

Alborough performed his Terry Wogan show at the Edinburgh Fringe in August, and will next be reviving it for two nights at Soho Theatre in December. Here’s what to expect: