Entertainment

Jobcentre joke voted best of Edinburgh Fringe festival

The gag from comedian Adam Rowe was voted the funniest by members of the public.
The gag from comedian Adam Rowe was voted the funniest by members of the public. The gag from comedian Adam Rowe was voted the funniest by members of the public.

A joke about the irony of being fired from a Jobcentre has been named the funniest of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Adam Rowe won the 11th annual award for Dave’s Funniest Joke Of The Fringe with the line: “Working at the Jobcentre has to be a tense job – knowing that if you get fired, you still have to come in the next day.”

The joke from Rowe’s show Undeniable won with 41% of a public vote on a shortlist of gags picked by comedy critics.

Former bartender Rowe began doing stand-up in 2010 and has previously been crowned Liverpool Comedian of the Year.

Adam Rowe
Adam Rowe Comedian Adam Rowe won the prize with a joke about getting fired from a Jobcentre (UKTV Dave/Martina Salvi) (UKTV Dave/Martina Salvi)

On winning the award, Rowe told the Press Association: “I thought my agent was lying. He rang me and told me I couldn’t tell anyone for a week which has been almost impossible.

“I’m massively taken aback by it, I’ve never seen myself as being in the running for things like this.

“It’s a massive honour and a genuinely huge surprise.”

Explaining how he came up with the punchline, Rowe said: “I actually wrote it when I was on stage when I was hosting a gig in Liverpool.

“It was a bit of crowd work that stayed with me. I was doing the usual compering thing, asking people what they do for a living.

“A guy said he worked in the Jobcentre and I said the joke that has now won the award.

“Because it got such a nice reaction on the night I thought I had to do something with it as a line.

“I didn’t expect to be winning an award for what was essentially a brain fart!”

Previous winners of the award include Tim Vine, Stewart Francis and Zoe Lyons.

Maths student  Ken Cheng won last year’s prize with the line: “I’m not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change.”

The award, which was voted on by 2,000 people, lists jokes anonymously to avoid any bias towards well-known comedians.

Dave channel director Luke Hales said: “This year, the news agenda and every day British idiosyncrasies have provided some wonderful opportunities for comedians to use their creative and comic genius in giving us all a giggle.

“As ever, we have enjoyed some quite brilliant one-liners and are delighted to crown Adam Rowe as the recipient of this year’s Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe Award.”