Funniest joke at this year's Edinburgh fringe - 2024 edition

dear god in heaven

sorry I voted for the one I hated the most, reflexively (Grease)

the tables one is prob the most amusing to me

big congrats on finding one of them funny

lol I wouldn't go quite that far

The Gaslight one reminds me of this Bluesky post from this weekend:

"<chuckling> I'm pretty sure I'd remember a band called the Gaslight Anthem, dear"

I like the House joke

I like Eleanor Morton, who just does very funny character stuff, so voted for her unfunny one liner.

That might be the worst of the lot. These people get paid for this shite.

Barely.

This seems a new low even for the Fringe.

I like the Shakira one but it’s not really a joke

the tables joke is too Jerry Seinfeld.

Is this stuff comedy for crossword puzzle obsessives?

It's comedy for BBC Radio 4 commissioning editors and Channel 4 panel show producers.

I don't think this is the official Fringe poll, that comes a bit later in August. This is just a list of gags that the Guardian has thrown together.

you mean... there's more? *gulps*

the spirit level one isn't funny but I don't find it aggravating like most of the others, it's just a Christmas cracker type joke

The Gaslight one reminds me of this Bluesky post from this weekend:

"<chuckling> I'm pretty sure I'd remember a band called the Gaslight Anthem, dear"

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Monday, 12 August 2024 21:21 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

here's another version of the Gaslight joke that's better than the one in the poll

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zijqvcafgixq55vpmu7atl2g/bafkreiemaurop7nci3c3pyhaoo56rb2mw3x7u67yznz37mgtzslpi25wde@jpeg

I like the House joke

― laughter is the best weapon (DJP), Monday, August 12, 2024 3:34 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah it would've been good a decade ago

The gaslight one might have been funny if it hadn't already been made by literally everyone else who has ever heard of the concept. The comedian responsible would have to work very hard to convince me they didn't just lift it directly off twitter.

And of course they're all vastly inferior to this Simpsons joke:

MARGE: Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon.
HOMER: That's not how I remember it.

I like the jerry Seinfeld joke

The surrounding context of all that has-been is really putting in some legwork for it tho

dont we vote for worst and not best?

i cant in any conscience pick a best because even the ok ones are just nicked from the internet

the faff about one is there a joke there? thats the worst.

It’s literal gaslighting to have us believe that gaslighting joke is original.

Tbh if someone told me the “a whim away” joke irl I would probably snort, or say “heh.”

o

House one is the worst one

Spirit level one is a literal Christmas cracker joke and I’m baffled that anyone was able to recall it for long enough to put it into an article

yep all wretched

no 'how you tell em' saves any of these ffs

As usual, if you imagine them being performed by Ken Dodd some are actually funny.

Or maybe just the ancient grease one.

Are you guys ignoring the table "joke" on purpose?

The cabinet part is holding most of the weight in that couplet

Table joke is bargain bin Mitch Hedberg

yes but not even

"Buses: Are they even a vehicle and not a waiting room on wheels?"

What's the deal with houses? They're just the wilderness with walls and floors.

Yesssss, I live for these polls. So excruciatingly bad! I did a silent chuckle over the gaslight gag. But yeah. You could probably extract as many causally farted-out ILX posts from any given day that are funnier than anything on offer here.

I mean...are they specifically instructed to make jokes that your dad would have second thoughts about?

is comedy at the fringe genuinely this bad or is this more of a reflection of the guardian's terrible sense of humor

What is RE? Religious Education? Do you guys have that in school?

(xp) Both.

jesus god the House joke is cringe at even higher levels that usual, since it's not like a failed pun, it's just a terrible attempt at misdirection humor based on an outdated reference

agree with the gaslight insults above, like ILX made better gaslighting jokes five or six years ago when the term exploded in the general public

What is RE? Religious Education? Do you guys have that in school?

Mostly involved defacing the textbooks by drawing bums and willies on the illustrations of Jesus in the wilderness iirc, while the teacher droned on about God

xxp yeah, RE is Religious Education

It would be easy to blame all this on the abysmal standard of UK comedy but half the comedians at the Fringe are Australian or Irish.

these jokes all remind me of the time on ComicView where JB Smoove went on for 5 minutes about how he heard Jodici was coming to his town and he was so excited to see them but it turned out to be a guy named Joe from D.C.

As a lover of puns and jokes that provoke groans, there's a few solid ones in this poll.

The comedian responsible would have to work very hard to convince me they didn't just lift it directly off twitter.

ZCM has evidently not seen the film herself either, as the full bit repeatedly refers to it being directed by Hitchcock.

Maybe she's trying to convince you it was.

Oh this joke has levels now oooo

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I'm voting "Cabinets: what are they hiding?" Just that half of the joke.

Fucking cabinets

am actually boycotting my own poll, it's that bad

If you search the "whim away" joke, it's been done a million times

War, sister it’s just a whim away

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Delete ilx

delete Edinburgh more like

Here are the actual top 10 funniest jokes at the Fringe...

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/19/mark-simmons-ship-joke-named-funniest-of-edinburgh-fringe

... can we bear another poll though?

Definitely:

Official funniest joke of the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 (accept no imitations)

I'm voting "Cabinets: what are they hiding?" Just that half of the joke.

― jmm, Sunday, 18 August 2024 16:38 (yesterday

whats the joke?

Going to see Demi do a backflip on sat. Very excited.

He was great. Obv I knew he'd be funny but somehow I didn't expect it to also be moving. He said a lot of ppl from streaming services where there and it was being filmed so hopefully it will get picked up by someone.

End of an era https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/jul/22/edinburgh-funniest-fringe-joke-award-scrapped-for-2025

cowards

That's funny, was just coming to say this:

Edinburgh funniest fringe joke award scrapped for 2025

I thought I was in with a chance for the Edinburgh funniest fringe joke award but then my hairdresser cancelled on me

Best I can manage, sorry

It was time to stop, the show has been off the air since 2013.

Sorry, that's even worse.

Are there any joke contests beyond the fringe?

Bad dates and bath bombs: 10 of the funniest jokes from the Edinburgh fringe 2025

The festival’s best joke award may have been binned this year, but the one-liners keep coming. Here are our favourites

Olaf Falafel: We named our children War and Peace – it’s a long story.

Andrew Doherty: At my lowest, I was kicked out of the museum for being inappropriate with Michelangelo’s David. I’d hit rock bottom.

Bella Hull: I just got a personal trainer. She’s horrible to me but my body goal is a thicker skin.

Rob Auton: Everyone is worried about AI. I’m more concerned with what the other vowels are up to.

Ian Smith: People who say bath bombs are relaxing have clearly never tried to carry one home in the rain.

Amelia Hamilton: I love getting Latin chat-up lines. I carpe every DM.

Sikisa: This spider has been in my house so long, it should pay half the wifi. As a web developer, it can afford to.

Chris Grace: I went on a date with a matador but there were too many red flags.

Candace Bryan: America is like my ex-boyfriend. Our relationship was toxic, when I left everyone called me brave, and now every morning I pull up social media to see how ugly he’s getting.

Rajiv Karia: I’m not nostalgic but I used to be. Those were the days.

God they are so dore

Dire

The one about America is at least a sturdy joke if not particularly insightful or funny

it follows the John Oliver template where everything is an unlikely comparison to something else - "you know, watching TV news these days is a little like preparing basmati rice - first, you (x) then it's (x) and before you know it you've (x) all down your (x)"

the bath bomb one was passable

AI vowels

yeah I like the bath bomb one

I am clearly going through some things because I chuckled at a good 6-7 of these

They are definitely better than the usual standard, I don't know who used to pick them

Bath bomb, spider and matador ones are passably diverting. The rest are as it ever was.

Does Olaf Falafel have a puppet sidekick?

Previous winners:

Funniest Joke of the Fringe

These are the worst. Maaaybe the first one works OK. If you're a dad.

Rajiv Karia: I’m not nostalgic but I used to be. Those were the days.

these were definitely not as grim as the 2024 entries. i could see the personal trainer joke working if the delivery is just right.

Rock bottom for me

is the joke that all the jokes are terrible

are we the joke

I don't think I get the America one - in the toxic / brave half., it sounds like she's America?

No, America is the toxic ex-boyfriend everyone said she was brave to leave who looks uglier every time she looks at (him) on social media

Right, that's definitely how the back end of the joke works, but if he's America in "Our relationship was toxic, when I left everyone called me brave", is she idk the Philippines? There's not a lot of countries that have left the US, I think that situation is more often heard about these days regarding the US at its start (thanks to Hamilton the musical)

No, I think people just called her brave to leave the USA, and that was like her leaving a toxic relationship.

Feeling that leaving the US for the UK is just going from one declining shithole to one that is a little more advanced in its decline.

I wish commercially colonised/terminally Atlanticist vassal state UK could find some way of leaving the US, but the fuckers did have it coming for centuries tbf.

^^^
This is my neurodiverse concept of a really hilarious Edinburgh festival joke!