Comedian Suzi Ruffell has been announced as special Head Judge in Beano’s nationwide search to find Britain’s Funniest Class.
The nationwide initiative, now in its fourth year, is created in partnership with YoungMinds, the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health. It aims to lift classroom spirits and help build resilience, whilst inspiring the next generation of comedy geniuses through joke-writing lessons.
Hundreds of primary schools across Britain submitted their best gags, which have been whittled down by Suzi with Beano’s best gagmakers and now go forward to a public vote on beano.com to decide the winner.
Suzi Ruffell said: “I am so excited to be a part of this year’s competition, it’s such an incredible opportunity for kids to find their inner-comedian and let their imaginations run wild in true Beano style. Judging the jokes was a tough job and now it’s over to the public to decide who will appear in the comic with me!”
The winning class will be turned into characters and feature in the iconic Beano comic in late June, as well as winning comic subscriptions and Beano books for the whole class.
Mike Stirling, Director of Mischief at Beano Studios said: “Now in our fourth year of Britain’s Funniest Class, we’re honoured to have Suzi and her many comedy gongs join us as Head Judge. At Beano we know the power of a good laugh and are very proud to work with YoungMinds on an initiative that grows in importance for kids each year. The jokes were as ever, incredible, and I’m very pleased it’s up to the public to pick to our winner – I don’t know how they’ll choose!”
Britain’s Funniest Class is based around free, downloadable emotional literacy and resilience teaching resources, developed in partnership with YoungMinds. The lesson plans teach children about mental health wellbeing with step-by-step lessons linked to the English, Welsh and Scottish PSHE Curriculums.
Olly Parker, Head of External Affairs at YoungMinds said: “We’re delighted to continue our initiative with Beano to find Britain’s Funniest Class for another year. Laughing together can help children build relationships, cope with challenges and express themselves and we hope the lessons plans downloaded by hundreds of schools have helped students have important, healthy conversations about their mental health.”
Britain’s Funniest Class was launched in 2019, when Foxes Class from Castlewood Primary in Horsham, West Sussex took the crown with their joke, “At the bank a lady asked me to check her balance, so I pushed her over”. In 2020 with schools shut, the competition became Britain’s Funniest Family and The Millers from Ipswich took home the trophy with their hilarious lockdown life video. The current reigning champions are Class 5B from Forthill Primary School in Dundee with their winning joke “What did the facemask say to the face? I’ll cover you.”.
The winner of Beano’s Funniest Class will be revealed on Wednesday 29th June 2022
