For the fun of it

What joke made Stewart Francis the winner of the one-liner contest?

"You know who really gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks."

"I was raised as an only child, which really annoyed my sister."

Which of the jokes isn't mentioned in the interview?

"Last night me and my girlfriend watched three DVDs back to back. Luckily I was the one facing the telly. "

"I took part in the sun tanning Olympics - I just got Bronze."

What is Stewart's style like?

black humour

deadpan

slapstick

In Stewart's view, what constitutes a really good one-liner?

Joking about sensitive subjects.

No harm, no foul, sticking to the point.

How does he make jokes?

He sits down, talks to himself and words pop up in his head.

He reads other's jokes and changes them to his own.

My style is kind of deadpan because if I laughed at all my hilarious jokes, where would we be?
But the days you had certainly in this country no mother-in-law jokes, or drug jokes that were, you know, vaguely racist, those days are gone.
Words, I just put them in the sentence and see how it plays out.
But the joke shouldn't be offensive?
Jokes can be about anything, and I do jokes that are close to the bone, and I don't make a theme of it.
The subject matter might be a little touchy for some but it's just wordplay as I see it.
"I was raised as an only child, which really annoyed my sister." - It's a cracker.

Read the sentences from the video and explain the following words:

hilarious - deadpan - touchy - close to the bone - racist - plays out - offensive - cracker

Read some more 'lines' and say what makes them funny:

1.Stewart Francis - "You know who really gives kids a bad name? Posh and Becks."

2.Will Marsh - "I was raised as an only child, which really annoyed my sister."

3.Rob Beckett - "You know you're working class when your TV is bigger than your book case."

4.Chris Turner - "I'm good friends with 25 letters of the alphabet... I don't know Y."

5.Tim Vine - "I took part in the sun tanning Olympics - I just got Bronze."

6.Stewart Francis - "I saw a documentary on how ships are kept together. Riveting!"

7.Lou Sanders - "I waited an hour for my starter so I complained: 'It's not rocket salad."

8.Nish Kumar - "My mum's so pessimistic, that if there was an Olympics for pessimism... she wouldn't fancy her chances."

Read the definitions and find words that match below:

joking or humorous, particularly when there is some doubt as to whether a person is joking or serious
a technique used by comedians to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule
pretending to be serious
humorous remarks that are made about unpleasant or worrying subjects such as death and illness
comedy in which a comedian stands on stage and delivers a humorous monologue to an audience
a series of short comedy scenes, called “sketches”, commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors in which they play different characters each time
make a person laugh hard, sometimes even when they don’t want to
comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions, humorously embarrassing events, or exaggerated physicality
made a person laugh hard

Look at the examples to help you:

Stephen Colbert plays a conservative American political commentator who is so wrapped up in his ego that he can’t even imagine anyone thinks differently than he does. His show is classic political satire.
When he told me that he missed the meeting because his house burned down, I thought he was being facetious at first.
As I gave a presentation to my colleagues, Joe was in the first row making silly faces at me. It was hard, but I managed to keep a straight face the whole time.
At first, I didn’t know she was always joking because she always seemed so deadpan; then I realized she was actually making fun of everything all the time.
Many comic actors, like Jerry Seinfeld, started their careers in stand-up comedy talking to audiences from the scene.
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” That's an example of black humour.
“Saturday Night Live” has been performing sketch comedy for over 40 years, and many of the actors on the show have gone on to achieve significant fame.
Almost every joke Louis CK makes cracks me up.
Sometimes Rowan Atkinson, as his famous character Mr. Bean, makes brilliant use of slapstick comedy.
That Saturday Night Live sketch about the woman who freaks out about surprise parties had me in stitches.
Sometimes I wish you would be serious instead of cracking a joke every time something makes you uncomfortable.

Fun and English