Fringepig names worst reviews of the 2016 Fringe

Comedy website Fringepig has determined the worst reviews of the 2016 Edinburgh Festival, via its Ham Fist Awards.

An event was held at the Fringe last night (Thursday 25th) on Bob's Blundabus with the aim of highlighting bad journalism at the festival. The 'awards ceremony' was hosted by creator Liam Mullone, in the presence of the website's editor, Mr Kipper (a stuffed elephant).

This is the second year that Fringepig - a website on which 'stuffed toys' review the reviewers - has run its awards, and this year there were three categories. All the results were decided by public vote on the night.

A cash prize of £250, raised by a FringeFunder campaign, and donations on the night, will be split between the comedians on the receiving end of the worst reviews.

Ham Fist Award for Worst Review

The magazine explains: "'Worst review' can be one of a number of things. It can be a review that is excessively brutal, badly written, ignorant of its subject, just bizarre or wrongly attributed. As long as the reviewer is in some way subject to righteous ridicule, then the recipient of that review is a valid contender."

The nominees this year included a 'excessively brutal' 1* review of Dave Lemkin from Chortle, an 'ignorant' review of Ed Aczel from @FringeBiscuit (for a start, Aczel has never called himself 'Eddie'), a review of Britney by Mumble Comedy (the reviewer only gave 3 stars despite appearing to love the show), and a confusing One4Review write-up of Gillian Cosgriff.

However, the 'winner' selected by the audience was Arts Award Voice's review of Tim Renkow

Reviewer Idriss Assoumanou had thought he was watching Tim Renkow and referenced the comedian's name and show title (King of the Tramps) several times in his assessment of the show. However, it later transpired he had actually been watching Paul Currie. Renkow and Currie are both performing at the same venue, Heroes @ The Hive, within 10 minutes of each other.

The review has now been attributed to the correct show online, however the initial write-up - copied below - comes across particularly badly when you take into account that Renkow has cerebral palsy and thus some of the physical comedy described in the review couldn't have been carried out by him.

To describe Tim Renkow as a funny comedian would not do justice to the performance he gives at Edinburgh Fringe's Heroes @ The Hive. Tim goes above and beyond in his latest show, King of the Tramps.

The Hive is a space which cannot produce a full black-out because of the ceiling lights, and the level of creativity was impressive. He had two sticks with boxes at the end of each and had myself and another audience member hold them above the lights to create his desired black-out so that he could fly onto the stage for his entrance. Confused? Well imagine a mini figurine of himself at the end of a stick, lit by a flashlight, flying through the audience as his way to the front - now that's how you make an entrance.

From the get go it was a brilliant show, from his ridiculous lip-syncing to swallowing the background music and slowly farting it out. There were too many hilarious moments.

King of the Tramps has a series of different sketches where the audience can get involved. In one particular sketch, this involved playing the flute to summon a snake out of a box (the audience provided the flute noise), and it quickly turned inappropriately funny.

Other moments featured a Brazilian dancing brick and an amazing Christopher Walken impression, but the best part was a recreation of the scene in Star Wars where Tim as Yoda used The Force to pick up a rubber duck which crashed into an audience member, the guy slowly brought the duck back to the stage as Tim gestured.

If all of the above sounds ludicrous, it is. It's also great fun and hilarious - To manage even making the task of eating cereal really funny is a win in my book. King of the tramps? More like King of the Fringe!"

Fringepig says: "We feel bad about this because Arts Award Voice is a website aimed at getting unintelligent young people engaged with the arts, aided and abetted by grown-ups who should be arrested for inciting minors to criminal behaviour. But this IS very funny. It's a review of Tim Renkow written by a reviewer who was actually watching Paul Currie in the room next door. Note: Paul Currie is a very funny, very physical absurdist comedian. Tim Renkow is a hilarious practitioner of deep, dark humour largely on the subject of his own cerebral palsy."

Most Politically Correct Review Prize

Damian Beeson Bullen from Mumble Comedy was singled out in this category for his review of Norris & Parker, in which he wrote:

"Throughout 2016, it seems, women are slowly taking over the western world. Teresa May owns the UK, Clinton should take the States, Merkel dominates Europe & in the world of comedy, the Mumble has noticed that the best comedians at this year's fringe have been, in the main, female. Last night I saw the veritable queens of these amazonians - a couple of intensely brilliant feminazis who strut onto stage in cat-suits barking, 'I am woman, hear me roar!' Bouncing off each other like lightning bolts thrashing a perfect storm, this is a comedy couple working at the highest possible pitch; sociopathic comedy, dramatic soliloquies, sexy vignettes are all stitched together to form a never-ceasing tapestry of fun, which the girls' sheer excellence in accent-variation rises to the fore.

Fringepig says: "Wonderful. Apparently women are now owning the term 'feminazi'. Or Damian, who knows what they really want, has owned it for them. Worry not, egalitarians: Damian is in your corner."

Other reviewers nominated in this category included Nina Keen from Three Weeks ("a zealous lieutenant of what is and is not allowed in comedy") for her reviews of Michelle Wolf: Brave and Adam Rowe: Bittersweet Little Lies; Iona Gaskell from Broadway Baby; and Laura from One4Review.

Fringepig says: "Reviewing is how a lot of students and young people like to show how politically correct they are. The opportunities for seeing something laddish or boorish at the Fringe are numerous, and so are the opportunities for reviewers to point out that they absolutely, unequivocally disapprove of that sort of thing. The chances to hitch your wagon to something that flies the flag of Liberal Received Wisdom is equally compelling."

The How to Lose Friends and Irritate People Award

Will Franken came out top in this category, for his regular complaints about the Fringe being too commercial, safe and bland. This year he has set up the Defining The Norm Awards which "celebrate the safety, sameness and sycophancy so integral to the world's largest and most expensive comedy festival." The shortlists, which name many respected comedians, has been heavily criticised by other comedians via platforms such as Facebook.

Among the people Franken beat in this category were himself, as Sarah Franken, the identity he took up when he was transgender. The other nominees were blogger John Fleming, and Fringepig editor Liam Mullone, who nominated himself.

FringePig says: "Fringepig's own Liam Mullone was hoping to walk away with this one after three years of trying to alienate almost everyone important, but on the night there was no standing in the way of the Franken irritant juggernaut."

For more information on the Fringepig awards and to read the publication's reviews of all reviewers visit fringepig.co.uk