Olaf Falafel Reveals His Favourite Fringe Jokes
Every year the Edinburgh Fringe is positively awash with jokes. I've just sent in my nominations for the annual Dave's Joke of the Fringe Award, which selects the funniest one-liners at the Festival. It's a tough job watching comedians making everyone laugh but someone's got to do it. The winner of the prestigious prize will be announced on August 19.
But writing a one-liner is not all fun and games. Olaf Falafel is a previous winner and one of the front runners in this year's race to the punchline. Here is one of his latest contenders: "The conspiracy theory about the moon being made of cheese was started by the hallouminati.”
Below Falafel – probably not his real name – has selected his ten favourite Fringe zingers by other acts and has analysed them to explain why they are such superior rib-ticklers.
I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Nick Helm (2011)
I love this joke of Nick’s, it won the best joke in the year I started doing comedy and it definitely inspired me at a time when I would only have been dreaming of appearing on a funniest jokes list myself.
Red sky at night. Shepherd's delight. Blue sky at night. Day.
Tom Parry (2015)
I do like gags that don’t necessarily follow the typical joke structure - I’m also a big fan of silliness and for me, “Blue sky at night. Day” ticks both those boxes perfectly.
Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels.
Tim Vine (2011)
I could probably make a top ten consisting solely of Tim Vine jokes. He’s a real hero to me so picking just one was tough. This one gets my vote although his hoover joke from 2014 ran it close.
I'm rubbish with names. It's not my fault, it's a condition. There's a name for it...
Jimeoin (2017)
Jokes that you read on a list are never quite as good as when you actually hear the comedian deliver them. If you can imagine this one in Jimeoin’s voice along with one of his trademark expressions it becomes even funnier.
Clowns divorce. Custardy battle.
Simon Munnery (2015)
The shortest joke on the list, but these four words paint a perfect comedic picture. It’s poetry!
Dave drowned. So at the funeral we got him a wreath in the shape of a lifebelt. Well, it’s what he would have wanted.
Gary Delaney (2010)
You can always rely on Gary Delaney to come up with something that has a slightly dark underside but please remember, nobody actually died here – these are just jokes.
What's the difference between a 'hippo' and a 'Zippo'? One is really heavy, the other is a little lighter.
Masai Graham (2015)
Such a neat bit of wordplay and you can tell it’s a great joke because so many people online have tried to pass it off as their own.
Why is Henry's wife covered in tooth marks? Because he's Tudor.
Adele Cliff (2016)
It’s surprising to me just how male-dominated past Top Ten joke lists have been, Adele Cliff, however, has featured multiple times and this is one of my favourite jokes of hers.
To be or not to be a horse rider, that is Equestrian.
Mark Simmons (2019)
This is another one that isn’t your stereotypical joke structure, it also has that same poetic quality as Simon Munnery’s ‘Custardy battle’.
I wasn't particularly close to my dad before he died... Which was lucky, because he trod on a land mine.
Olaf Falafel (2017)
This joke was from the first time I got into the Funniest Jokes list and I know it might be a bit frowned upon to put myself in my own top ten list but I remember feeling incredibly proud at the time so I wanted to include it. Please forgive me!
Olaf Falefel's show Has Anyone Actually Ever Woven A Sigourney? is at the Laughing Horse at the Pear Tree untul August 25 at 3.45pm. Details at edfringe.com
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