Lafferty laugh-line is front-page news
An extended gag about Britain’s Brexit woes on the new BBC Scotland channel has ended up on the front page of the New York Times.
Edinburgh comic Jay Lafferty was appearing on the BBC Scotland panel show when she set off on a rant about Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure to get her deal through the House of Commons and the deadlock over Britain’s departure from the EU.
The comic’s 38-second gag was used in full to help promote the show, hosted by Des Clarke, on BBC Scot
land’s social medial channels.
A clip was sent to New York Times writer Roger Cohen by a friend. He then quoted it to help illustrate where Britain has arrived at after almost three years after the EU referendum.
Under the headline “Brexit heads for that big black hole,” the paper run her gag in full.
“She told the show: ‘So the way I understand it is that Parliament have said no to Theresa’s deal. And they’ve said no to no deal, but some of them said yes to no deal but no to Theresa’s deal, but not as many that said no to no deal and no to Theresa’s deal, but they don’t actually have a deal of their own, which is a big deal because without a deal then no deal is more likely to be the deal that’s dealt, and the people who want the deal can’t be dealing with that.’”
Lafferty, who wrote the gag for a recording of Breaking the News at the end of last month, said she had been messaged by friends in New York to tell her she was on the front page of the paper.
She said: “I was bit blown away when I first heard about it. It’s been a bit of a shock to the system. I’ve had other comedians get in touch with me to tell them they’ve been sent the clip by people all over the world.
“You write so many little bits for each show and you don’t get a chance to say all of them – you pick and choose what to say in the moment.
“You never really know what is going to spark the interest of people. If people laugh in the room they will also generally laugh online. It got a great response at the time that I said it. You can tell from my reaction afterwards that I’m just relieved to have got it out.”