Fife comedian is crowned UK Pun Champion 2022 at comedy festival

Richard Pulsford, who is from Burntisland, triumphed at the live final of the UK Pun Championship on February 7.

The one-liner comedian won the top prize at the event, which took place as part of Leicester Comedy Festival.

The competition, which has been running since 2014, takes place in a boxing ring and this year's show was hosted, as in previous years, by comedian Jason Byrne.

The format sees the contestants having to deliver gags on various topics, with the audience deciding which of two comedians goes through to the next round.

The other finalists were Pauline Eyre, Friz Frizzle, Iain MacDonald, Rob Thomas, Chris Norton Walker, Richard Woolford and Jenan Younis.

Richard’s winning puns included:

‘My old Looney Tunes app still has Bugs in it’

‘Today I sent a food parcel to my first wife. Fed Ex,’

‘No matter where I went in London, dogwalkers always ignored me. Until I tried Barking.’ … and ‘ ‘A newspaper once ran a series of articles by Stephen Hawking on underwear through the ages. It was called The Times History of Briefs’.

Richard explained: “We are given a list of topics which may come up in advance, but then the topics get drawn at random on the night.

"I was up against Glaswegian comedian Iain MacDonald in round one, then Rob Thomas (who has won the competition before) in the semi-final and Chris Norton-Walker in the final.

"Jason Byrne was the host and he made a call on which of us got the loudest cheer from the audience in a 'cheer-off' after we had delivered all our puns.”

When asked how he felt about winning, he said: “It was a mixture of happiness and relief, after the tension and nerves on the night, and it being my sixth attempt at winning the competition.”

His prize included a bottle of bubbly and a trophy which he gets to hold onto for a year (a boxer's belt).

Richard, who has recently published a new book containing over 600 one-liners and puns called ‘The Punball Wizard’, is set to take part in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August, in the Space venue at Surgeon's Hall, Nicolson Street.

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