Tourette’s punchline is no joke for charity
A TOURETTE’S charity has demanded an apology from a comedian after his joke referencing the syndrome was deemed the “best joke” at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Olaf Falafel, a veteran performer at the festival, claimed the honour of Dave’s Funniest Joke with a vegetable pun.
His winning joke is: “I keep randomly shouting out ‘broccoli’ and ‘cauliflower’ – I think I might have florets.”
Suzanne Dobson, of the UK’S Tourettes Action charity, said the “rubbish” joke had brought “shame” on Dave, the TV channel that sponsors the award.
Ms Dobson said: “Humour is a great way of educating people – but not only is it not funny to poke fun at people with Tourette’s, it’s not even that funny a joke, is it?”
She added that the charity had been about to launch a campaign asking people to stop using the syndrome as a punchline.
Ms Dobson said the charity’s helpline had several calls yesterday from parents of children with the syndrome who were upset by the joke.
The vegetable pun was deemed the best gag by 2,000 voting members of the public, after being shortlisted by an expert panel. It saw off competition from jokes about nepotism, semaphore, anti-depressants, Brexit and cowboys.
Meanwhile, Falafel compared taking part in the Fringe with pregnancy, saying that each year was painful, but then the pain fades and he decides to do it again. The Swedish comedian has performed at seven festivals.