One of this year’s candidates on The Apprentice has claimed Lord Sugar’s jokes are pre-written.
Though Lord Sugar has always said his jokes are improvised, businessman Dan Miller - the owner of a student recruitment company - has claimed he ticks off his jokes from a list.
“When he says all of his jokes, he’s got a piece of paper on the desk, and he crosses them off every time he says them,” he told The Sun.
Miller continued: “I mean, most of his jokes I didn’t get or didn’t find very funny.
“Probably because of my Asperger’s, and on a few occasions, I had to ask him to repeat the jokes multiple times for me to understand what it was, and I think everyone in the boardroom found it quite funny.”
But this isn’t what Lord Sugar claims, as he told The Express in 2024 his jokes are improvised.
“Well, first of all, my jokes are on the spur of the moment,” he told the paper.
“They do roll off my tongue. They just come out as we’re going along.”
And it’s something Baroness Karren Brady has also backed up, saying there’s “no autocue, no retakes, no nothing” while filming.
“His jokes are all off the cuff. Nothing is scripted,” she added.
The Standard have contacted the BBC and a representative of Lord Sugar for comment.
Miller works with some of the world’s biggest companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Goldman Sachs after starting the business from his bedroom in Derby at the age of 17.
Now based in Richmond, London, he said he would like Lord Sugar’s help to take his company to the next level after running it on his own for almost 10 years.
He said he always sees the best in people, and his “whole brand and business has been built around community, giving back and opportunity”.
The Standard have contacted the BBC and a representative of Lord Sugar for comment.
In the first episode of the new series, Lord Sugar sacked project leaders Nikki Jetha and Georgina Newton after their team lost the episode’s task.
At the beginning of the episode, Lord Sugar told candidates: “Welcome to my boardroom – now it’s a special occasion this, it’s the 20th year since our own Mr (Tim) Campbell here was the first winner of The Apprentice, he never made me any money.
“Now, a lot has changed in the past 20 years, I mean, there’s been financial crashes and pandemics, not to mention Liz Truss, but there’s been two constant positives, one is this process, and the other is that Arsenal never won the league.
“Now, 20 years ago, there was a statement that I made, I don’t like liars, I don’t like cheats, I don’t like bullshitters, and I don’t like schmoozers, still remains the same, other than that, I’m quite a nice bloke.
“Right, now just because we’ve been doing this for a while, it doesn’t mean you know what’s coming next, let me tell you, you don’t.”
Lord Sugar then introduced two surprise candidates, bringing the total number of contestants to 20.
He then challenged the group to go to Hong Kong, where his Amstrad business had an office in its early days, and find nine items including a dragon boat head, a Chinese calligraphy brush and an erhu musical instrument.
