Edinburgh Fringe: Vegetable gag told by Swede named festival's best joke

A vegetable gag told by a Swedish comedian has been named the best joke at Edinburgh Fringe.

Olaf Falafel, a seven-year veteran of the festival, beat off jokes about nepotism, semaphore, anti-depressants, Brexit, and cowboys to claim the coveted honour.

The comic said the annual event was painful "like pregnancy" though he nevertheless returned to deliver what has been judged the best gag.

His winning joke was: "I keep randomly shouting out 'broccoli' and 'cauliflower' - I think I might have florets."

The vegetable pun was deemed the Dave's Funniest Joke At The Fringe by 2000 voting members of the public, after being shortlisted by an expert panel.

Mr Falafel was delighted his niche culinary one-liner has won the prize.

The top 10 jokes

The top jokes at this year's festival:

- 1 Olaf Falafel

I keep randomly shouting out 'Broccoli' and 'Cauliflower' - I think I might have Florets.

- 2 Richard Stott

Someone stole my antidepressants. Whoever they are, I hope they're happy."

- 3 Milton Jones

What's driving Brexit? From here it looks like it's probably the Duke of Edinburgh.

- 4 Jake Lambert

A cowboy asked me if I could help him round up 18 cows. I said, 'Yes, of course. That's 20 cows'.

- 5 Ross Smith

A thesaurus is great. There's no other word for it.

- 6 Ross Smith

Sleep is my favourite thing in the world. It's the reason I get up in the morning.

- 7 Adele Cliff

I accidentally booked myself onto an escapology course; I'm really struggling to get out of it.

- 8 Richard Pulsford

After learning six hours of basic semaphore, I was flagging.

- 9 Mark Simmons

To be or not to be a horse rider, that is equestrian.

- 10 Ivo Graham

I've got an Eton-themed Advent calendar, where all the doors are opened for me by my dad's contacts.

He said: "It's been really good fun, I would definitely say that winning this award has been a highlight, and just being able to make people laugh with my stupid jokes."

The comedian and children's book author has been returning to the Fringe for seven years, despite the pain he feels each time.

He said: "I think this is my seventh year at the Fringe, it's like pregnancy - you go through a lot of pain and then the child is born and enough time passes and you forget about the pain and decide that you fancy having another one, but straight after you're like 'I'm never doing that again'."

He said his rise from consideration with past jokes to claiming the coveted prize mirrors the success of his beloved Luton Town.

He said: "It's like going from non-league to the Championship in a few seasons."

On his joke claiming the top spot, Olaf Falafel said: “This is a fantastic honour but it’s like I’ve always said, jokes about white sugar are rare, jokes about brown sugar... Demerara.“