Vine wins funniest joke award at Edinburgh

Stand-up comedian Tim Vine has had one of his quips judged to be the funniest joke at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His winning gag was selected by public vote from a shortlist of 24 chosen by critics from the 883 comedy shows on the Fringe.

Vine, who won the Perrier award for Best Newcomer in 1995, clinched this prize with a one-liner about holidays: "I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again."

He told the BBC this morning he was delighted with the award, presented to him by satellite TV station Dave, but added: “It’s not even the funniest joke in my act.” Asked for a better one, he suggested: “Sooty’s having a barbecue: sweepstake.”

And Vine was critical of the decision to also nominate the worst jokes of the festival, saying many of them were just as funny as his winning quip. He suggested the ‘worst’ category should be abandoned next year.

This year’s official worst joke was told by Dan Antopolski: “How many Spaniards does it take to change a lightbulb? Juan.” Curiously, Antopolski is the comic who won the best joke award last year, with: “Hedgehogs – why can’t they just share the hedge?”

Tim Vine, brother of BBC presenter Jeremy Vine, is known less for the quality of his gags than for their quantity: his act is a quick-fire stream of often laboured puns which cumulatively induce hilarity. He once held the world record for most jokes told in an hour – 499.

TOP TEN JOKES OF THE 2010 FRINGE:
1. Tim Vine: "I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again."

2. David Gibson: "I'm currently dating a couple of anorexics. Two birds, one stone."

3. Emo Philips: "I picked up a hitch-hiker. You've got to when you hit them."

4: Jack Whitehall: "I bought one of those anti-bullying wristbands when they first came out. I say 'bought', I actually stole it off a short, fat ginger kid."

5. Gary Delaney: "As a kid I was made to walk the plank. We couldn't afford a dog."

6. John Bishop: "Being an England supporter is like being the over-optimistic parents of the fat kid on sports day."

7. Bo Burnham: "What do you call a kid with no arms and an eye-patch? Names."

8. Gary Delaney: "Dave drowned. So at the funeral we got him a wreath in the shape of a lifebelt. Well, it's what he would have wanted."

9. Robert White: "For Vanessa Feltz, life is like a box of chocolates - empty."

10. Gareth Richards: "Wooden spoons are great. You can either use them to prepare food. Or, if you can't be bothered with that, just write a number on one and walk into a pub…" ·