“We're just going to draw the raffle numbers now…”
As if being an Olympic champion, Tour De France cycling champ and 2012’s Sports Personality of the Year wasn’t enough, Bradley Wiggins has been named as Britain’s greatest living wit. In a national survey commissioned by Dave to mark the start of the Leicester Comedy Festival, Wiggins triumphed as the king of quips over a whole host of celebrities from fields as diverse as sports, politics, music and film.
Over 2,000 British adults took part in the survey, choosing from a shortlist of 25 of the wittiest UK celebrities of recent years. The shortlist was compiled by a panel from comedy channel Dave and excluded any professional comedians and those working directly within the field of comedy. The shortlist was then put to the public in an effort to determine just who was the wittiest celebrity in the British Isles.
Cycling hero Bradley Wiggins came out on top with over a fifth (20.75%) of the public vote. Coming in second was London’s Mayor Boris Johnson, who garnered an admirable 17.65% of the public vote. Though BoJo is infamous known for his comic gaffes, it was Wiggo’s deft and timely wisecracks that put him out on top the mop haired politico.
Wiggins has often been in the spotlight for his witticisms but the funniests among them might just be his acceptance speech for Sportsman of the Year Award in which he remarked: “Nan, the cheques in the post, because you hit redial god knows how many times.”
In third place was much loved Ian Holloway (14.30%), manager of football club Crystal Palace, with witticisms such as: “Right now, everything is going wrong for me - if I fell in a barrel of boobs, I'd come out sucking my thumb!”
Ranking within the top 10 were Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, musicians Robbie Williams, Noel Gallagher and Rod Stuart, The Apprentice’s Lord Sugar, actor Colin Firth and TV presenter Ant McPartlin.
Dave’ General Manager, Steve North commented that “Britain is a hotbed of comedy talent and it’s clear you don’t have to be on the comedy payroll to get the nation laughing.”
The complete programme for the 2013 Dave's Leicester Comedy festival is now available at www.comedy-festival.co.uk
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