Edinburgh Fridge 2016 gets awards for bland, safe comedy

It will have an 'austere, liturgical ceremony suitable to the drabness of the occasion'

(Will Franken/Facebook)

The Edinburgh Fringe festival is to get an award ceremony celebrating the ‘comedic monotony, safety, sameness and sycophancy so integral to it’.

It was conceived by comedian Will Franken after he was stunned by the Fringe’s latest theme.

“This year, in what many assumed was a typographical error, the Fringe’s theme, printed on the cover of this year’s programme, was ‘Defying the Norm’,” he wrote on Spiked, which is sponsoring his awards.

“So, in response, I’m presenting the inaugural Defining the Norm Awards, celebrating the safety, sameness and sycophancy so integral to the world’s largest and most expensive comedy festival.”

“Historically,” Will continued, “comedy awards committees have tended to downplay their vital role in reinforcing innocuous blandness, employing misleading expressions like ‘innovation’ and ‘excellence’ to belie their promotion of harmless uniformity.”

This is perhaps typified in the Fringe’s latest ‘best joke’ winner.

The Defining the Norm Awards will be presented at midday on 28 August on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, at an “austere, liturgical ceremony suitable to the drabness of the occasion”.