Comedian Ken Cheng wins ‘Dave’s Funniest Joke of The Fringe’ Award with one-liner about the new pound coin
Top 15 gags of the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival revealed
Tuesday 22nd August 2017 - Award-winning entertainment channel Dave has announced the winner of the tenth annual Dave's Funniest Joke of the Fringe award.
- Jokes shortlisted by a panel of UK's foremost comedy critics and voted for anonymously by the British public
- Top 15 jokes from comedians including Frankie Boyle, Alexei Sayle, Lew Fitz and Angela Barnes
- Jokes about the new pound coin, Trump, Wimbledon, veganism and camping all feature in the winning witticisms
- 2017 marks the tenth anniversary of Dave's Funniest Joke of the Fringe Award
Ken's witty one-liner about the UK's most recent currency change, "I'm not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change.", from his show Ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian, at Cellar, Pleasance was crowned the funniest of the Fringe with 33% of votes.
Now in its tenth year, previous winners of the coveted award include Masai Graham, Tim Vine, Rob Auton, Stewart Francis, Zoe Lyons and Nick Helm.
In its mission to find the most hilarious one-liners, Dave enlisted the help of an expert panel of ten judges, consisting of the UK's foremost comedy critics. They scoured venues at the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe to nominate their six favourite jokes. The shortlisted gags were then voted on by 2,000 Brits, with no reference to the comedians that told them, for the jokes they found the funniest.
Dave's Top 15 Funniest Jokes of the Fringe Festival 2017:
- I'm not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change.
Ken Cheng 33% - Trump's nothing like Hitler. There's no way he could write a book.
Frankie Boyle 30% - I've given up asking rhetorical questions. What's the point?
Alexei Sayle 29% - I'm looking for the girl next door type. I'm just gonna keep moving house till I find her.
Lew Fitz 28% - I like to imagine the guy who invented the umbrella was going to call it the 'brella'. But he hesitated.
Andy Field 27% - Combine Harvesters. And you'll have a really big restaurant.
Mark Simmons 27% - I'm rubbish with names. It's not my fault, it's a condition. There's a name for it...
Jimeoin 26% - I have two boys, 5 and 6. We're no good at naming things in our house.
Ed Byrne 24% - I wasn't particularly close to my dad before he died... which was lucky, because he trod on a land mine.
Olaf Falafel 24% - Whenever someone says, 'I don't believe in coincidences.' I say, 'Oh my God, me neither!'.
Alasdair Beckett-King 23% - A friend tricked me into going to Wimbledon by telling me it was a men's singles event.
Angela Barnes 20% - As a vegan, I think people who sell meat are disgusting; but apparently people who sell fruit and veg are grocer.
Adele Cliff 20% - For me dying is a lot like going camping. I don't want to do it.
Phil Wang 20% - I wonder how many chameleons snuck onto the Ark.
Adam Hess 18% - I went to a Pretenders gig. It was a tribute act.
Tim Vine 18%
Award-winner Ken first studied Maths at Cambridge for a year, before dropping out to play online poker professionally. His big break in comedy came after reaching the final of the 2015 BBC Radio New Comedy Award, and this year, he was listed on the BBC's New Talent Hotlist 2017.
On his joke claiming the top spot, Ken Cheng said:
I am very proud to have won. As a tribute, I will name my firstborn son after this award and call him 'Joke of the Fringe'.
The Dave award, which is open to both established and up-and-coming comedians, pays homage to the wealth of talent on offer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and shines a spotlight on the skill of individual jokes, not just the performances. To ensure that there is no bias towards well-known or favourite comedians during the public vote, the jokes are listed anonymously - meaning it is purely judged on the jokes themselves.
Steve North, General Manager of Dave commented:
From Trump and veganism to the new pound coin, this year's news agenda has certainly also provided some great inspiration for comedians to get grips with - it's fantastic to see that, even after ten years of the Joke of the Fringe award, there is no shortage of brilliant one-liners delivered at the Festival to get us all laughing!
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is widely acknowledged to be the biggest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Scotland's capital city. Starting in 1947, it was seen as a post-war initiative to reunite Europe through culture, and was so successful that it inspired more performers than there was room for.
2017 marks the tenth year of Dave's Funniest Joke of the Fringe.
You can follow Dave on Twitter at @davechannel and on Facebook.
To celebrate 10 years of the Dave's Joke of the Fringe Award, a selection of 30 jokes from the last ten years are available on request.
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Notes to editors
The 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival takes place 4th - 28th August 2017.
The Dave Joke of the Fringe Panel
The Dave Panel for 2017 included Steve Bennett (Editor, Chortle.co.uk), Mark Boosey (Editor, British Comedy Guide), Bruce Dessau (Comedy Critic, Evening Standard), Brian Donaldson (Comedy Critic, The Scotsman; Comedy Editor, The List), Rupert Hawksley (Arts Writer, Daily Telegraph), Sarah Henley (Director, ComComedy.com), Veronica Lee (comedy journalist, The Arts Desk), Sharon Lougher (Comedy Reviewer, Metro), Kate Stone (Editor, FunnyWomen.co.uk) and Mark Wareham (Comedy Reviewer, Mail on Sunday).
The Dave panel each submitted their six 'best jokes' nominations. These were then put anonymously to a vote of 2,000 Brits who chose their funniest one-liners.
About Dave
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Dave's had a haircut and shave in recent years as it grows from awkward teenager to fully-fledged commissioner of new and original shows. And it's not just comedy these days but entertainment and even some knock-out live sport. Hit UKTV Original commissions include Taskmaster, Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and Crackanory, all laden with the biggest names in British comedy.
Dave enjoyed critical success with two series of Hoff the Record, a mockumentary ensemble comedy led by the living legend David Hasselhoff.
As well as home-grown delights Dave also goes stateside, cherry-picking cult US Shows including the sharp-witted and sharp-suited Suits and much-loved Parks and Recreation along with Emmy-nominated The Last Man on Earth. This all contributed to Dave's award win at the 2016 Broadcast Digital Awards for Best Entertainment Channel.
Dave is the UK's most watched non-PSB channel broadcasting to over 27 million people per month, and viewers continue to enjoy the ludicrously addictive American Pickers and UK remake of Storage Hunters. The channel continues to grow its original commissioning slate with political show Unspun With Matt Forde, Red Dwarf XI, Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit, fantasy comedy Zapped! and Celebrity Storage Hunters airing later this year.
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