Edinburgh Fringe’s annual competition for the funniest gags at the comedy festival has been scrapped for 2025.
UKTV, which owns the TV channel U&Dave that presents the annual Joke of Fringe award, has said that it is taking the opportunity to “reflect on how we continue to support comedy in the best way possible” as its “commissioning evolves”.
The statement said: “While we’re resting the award this year, we remain committed to championing great comedy across U&Dave and beyond, and we’ll always look for ways to bring laughter to audiences in exciting ways.”
The award was launched in 2008 by the channel, formerly called Dave, and has been held every year since, apart from during the pandemic. The winner is chosen by 2,000 members of the public who vote from an anonymous shortlist drawn up by a judging panel made up of comedy critics.
Last year, comedian Mark Simmons won for his nautical gag: “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it.”
In 2023, Lorna Rose Treen became the second woman to win the award with her gag about an unfaithful zoo worker: “I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah.”
After his victory, Simmons said of the win: “I’m really chuffed to win U&Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe. I needed some good news as I was just fired from my job marking exam papers – can’t understand it, I always gave 110 per cent.”
Previous winners include three-time champion Masai Graham, two-time winner Tim Vine and Olaf Falafel.
The shortlist of jokes often receives criticism for not capturing the full depth of comedy on offer at the Edinburgh Fringe, with the gags often consisting of one-line puns. In 2023, The Independent’s Ryan Coogan compared the jokes to reading like they were “rejected from a discount Christmas cracker”.
Coogan continued: “Maybe the judges are just so tired at the end of the Fringe, after watching weeks of cutting-edge, groundbreaking comedy, that the only thing that can get through to them is the bold simplicity of a really crap pun.”
However, others have argued that the award provides good exposure for new comics and provides light entertainment.
Within hours of the announcement, the production company Need to Know Comedy announced that it was reviving its pandemic substitute (Some Guy Called) Dave award. The company asked fringe performers to email five one-liners from their show for a chance at receiving the £250 prize.
The festival’s most prestigious prize is the Edinburgh Comedy Award (formerly known as the Perrier), which has been running for 43 years. Last summer, it was won by Amy Gledhill, for her show Make Me Look Fit on the Poster.
The Edinburgh Fringe begins on 1 August and will run throughout the month. Some acts begin performing previews later this month.
Robin Williams reportedly wanted to buy a comedy club to impress David Bowie
Monty Python star says he’d be in ‘select company’ if thrown out of Trump’s America
Romesh Ranganathan ‘taking a step back’ from his career
Ruth Buzzi death: Laugh-In comedian dies aged 88
Romesh Ranganathan doesn’t think he’d have become a comedian if it wasn’t for his eye
