Olaf Falafel wins Dave's Joke of the Fringe
- Olaf Falafel has taken the 2019 Joke Of The Fringe award
- "I keep randomly shouting out 'broccoli' and 'cauliflower' - I think I might have florets"
- Other comedians in the top 10 include Ross Smith, Richard Stott and Milton Jones
Dave has announced the winners of its twelfth annual Joke Of The Fringe award in Edinburgh.
The winning gag comes from comic Olaf Falafel:
"I keep randomly shouting out 'broccoli' and 'cauliflower' - I think I might have florets."
Olaf says: "This is a fantastic honour but it's like I've always said, jokes about white sugar are rare, jokes about brown sugar... Demerara."
A panel of ten comedy experts were put to work by TV channel Dave to find the best one-liners being performed at the Festival Fringe this year, each submitting their six favourites for public consideration. These were then put to a public panel. 41% of Dave's 2,000 public voters chose Falafel's gag as their favourite, with the rest of the top 10 as follows:
10: "I've got an Eton-themed Advent calendar, where all the doors are opened for me by my dad's contacts." - Ivo Graham
9: "To be or not to be a horse rider, that is Equestrian." - Mark Simmons
8: "After learning 6 hours of basic semaphore, I was flagging." - Richard Pulsford
7: "I accidentally booked myself onto an escapology course; I'm really struggling to get out of it." - Adele Cliff
6: "Sleep is my favourite thing in the world. It's the reason I get up in the morning." - Ross Smith
5: "A thesaurus is great. There's no other word for it." - Ross Smith
4: "A cowboy asked me if I could help him round up 18 cows. I said, 'Yes, of course. That's 20 cows'." - Jake Lambert
3: "What's driving Brexit? From here it looks like it's probably the Duke of Edinburgh." - Milton Jones
2: "Someone stole my antidepressants. Whoever they are, I hope they're happy." - Richard Stott
Falafel, a surrealist comedian and illustrator who claims to be Sweden's 8th funniest comedian, also authors children's books.
This year he has performed two shows at the Fringe: It's One Giant Leek For Mankind (2nd - 11th August), and Olaf Falafel Presents Knitting With Maracas (1st - 25th August), both at The Pear Tree.
Luke Hales, Dave channel director, says: "What a year it's been for current affairs and British eccentricities! The comedic opportunities to be creative are endless and above all we've all needed a good laugh in 2019. We have really enjoyed the great anecdotes and one liners submitted this year and we couldn't be happier to crown Olaf Falafel as the winner of this year's Dave's Funniest Joke of the Fringe Award!"
This year Dave has also taken over sponsorship of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Founded by theatre producer Nica Burns, the awards have previously been sponsored by the likes of Perrier, Foster's and Lastminute.com. The shortlist for this year's Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards is expected to be published on Wednesday (21st August), with winners announced on Saturday.