Tourette's Charity Demands Apology Over Winning Edinburgh Fringe Joke

20 August 2019, 11:04 | Updated: 20 August 2019, 11:06

Tourette's Action has asked a comedian to apologise for his pun about Tourette's syndrome, which won Dave's "Funniest Joke of The Fringe" award.

A charity for people with Tourette's syndrome has asked Swedish comedian Olaf Falafel to apologise for a joke made during his Edinburgh Fringe Festival performance.

Tourette's Action has spoken out against the joke, which they called "so disappointing."

They said that the fact the joke won on a public vote shoed "how we as a nation deal with people who are different."

Olaf Falafel's won the award with the joke: "I keep randomly shouting out 'Broccoli' and 'Cauliflower' - I think I might have florets."

The award was sponsored by TV channel Dave and was put to a public vote after a shortlist was put to 2000 people.

41% of those asked voted for Falafel's joke.

The shortlist was comprised of a selection of comedy critics. One of the panellists, Kate Stone, stated, "it's intended to be a joke and I think that's one of the things that matters the most for this."

Suzanne Dobson, the had of the charity called the joke "rubbish" and said that it brought "shame on Dave."

She continued, "humour is a great way of educating people, but not only is it not funny to poke fun at people with Tourette's, it's not even that funny a joke, is it?"

Ms Dobson also said that the charity had been about to launch a campaign to stop Tourette's being used as a punchline. She commented "unfortunately it has come about a week too late."

She said the charity's helpline had multiple calls after the festival from parents of children with Tourette's syndrome who were upset by the joke.