best joke of the Edinburgh Fringe and jokes in our own land !

Those with a good sense of humour make the environment lively and reduce the stress – be it in Office or in life.

Stage comedy or Comedy dramas have been quite popular in Tamilnadu and two names that have ruled the roost are : S Ve Shekhar and Crazy Mohan – both in their own way.  SV Shekhar ventured in the politics and represented Mylapore constituency earlier.   His dramas are known for their political satire and the timing of jokes.  They would be interspersed with so many jokes that there were even comments that they were only beads containing jokes.

To recall some :

-          he will ask his lady love (when she is offering coffee) – ‘why is water in your house so brown shaded’

-          when the lady love expresses her will to speak to him in person – colloquially we say ‘I want to talk alone’ – he retorts – there is so much of space outside, do go there and talk to yourself  !!

-          one of his dramas would start with rather a tragic scene – when the mother of a big family would speak of all the failures that they had in their lives; she would prefer all the family members taking poison and ending their lives together.  Then she wants to complete her vow to a village God by stitching an old carpet – she would say that her ill-luck is so bad that even for this, she is unable to pull the thread through the needle.   Shekar on entry would say ‘ amma, not you ! no one in the World can ever pull the thread through that needle – for it is not a sewing needle but gundoosi (the pin that we use for putting papers together)

In yet another one, the School Master would ask the student to name – eight dreaded jungle animals.  The immediate response is “Five tigers and 3 Lions”.   He and his fans have reasons to feel ‘missed out’.

You probably would have heard and read about the  Edinburgh Festival Fringe (The Fringe) -  the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 it takes place in Scotland's capital during four weeks every August. The Fringe mostly attracts events from the performing arts, particularly theatre and comedy  alongside dance and music.   There is some story that just after Second WW, when everyone was miserable and fed up of eating ham from a tin,  a group of like-minded individuals decided to do just that and started the first Edinburgh International Festival.  And over the years,  comedy emerged to be a dominant art form on show.   Comedy has come to define the Fringe, largely because it's much cheaper for one person to turn up on stage in front of a microphone than a full touring theatrical company.

Comedian Nick Helm has won an award for the best joke of the Edinburgh Fringe. The up-and-coming funnyman was given the prize by digital TV channel Dave, whose panel put a selection of their favourites to a public vote.  With the lengthy introduction to this piece, can you imagine which joke got him the coveted first prize ??

He won for the joke: "I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."

Last year's winner, quick-fire joker Tim Vine, was beaten into second place by Helm.  The top 10 festival funnies were judged to be:

1) Nick Helm: "I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."

2) Tim Vine: "Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels."

3) Hannibal Buress: "People say 'I'm taking it one day at a time'. You know what? So is everybody. That's how time works."

4) Tim Key: "Drive-Thru McDonalds was more expensive than I thought... once you've hired the car..."

5) Matt Kirshen: "I was playing chess with my friend and he said, 'Let's make this interesting'. So we stopped playing chess."

6) Sarah Millican: "My mother told me, you don't have to put anything in your mouth you don't want to. Then she made me eat broccoli, which felt like double standards."

7) Alan Sharp: "I was in a band which we called The Prevention, because we hoped people would say we were better than The Cure."

8) Mark Watson: "Someone asked me recently - what would I rather give up, food or sex. Neither! I'm not falling for that one again, wife."

9) Andrew Lawrence: "I admire these phone hackers. I think they have a lot of patience. I can't even be bothered to check my OWN voicemails."

10) DeAnne Smith: "My friend died doing what he loved ... Heroin."

Some times, it is good to start the day with a ‘good joke’

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.