Ned Woodman couldn’t resist taking a pop at Simon Cowell’s less-than-thrilled reaction to the news he was through to the last round of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, during his performance in Saturday’s (2 June) final.
The eight-year-old comedian was named one of the runners-up in the semi-finals earlier this week, but Simon made headlines when he seemed less than impressed that Ned had landed his place over singer Sarah Ikumu, visibly rolling his eyes while the young contestant celebrated on stage.
During his comedy routine in Saturday’s live show, Ned made light of the moment, incorporating it in his stand-up.
After getting off to a shaky start, he got a laugh from all four members of the panel, as he joked: “For my first trick I’m going to make all the judges’ smiles disappear… oh wait, I already did that when I got through to the final.”
Ned’s routine was as barbed as ever, but this time it wasn’t just the judges who were on the receiving end of his jokes.
Sending up ‘X Factor’ judge Sharon Osbourne, he said: “How scary were those clowns last night, eh? The last time I saw make-up and crazy costumes like that was when Sharon Osbourne was a judge.”
He also came for former ‘X Factor’ judge Gary Barlow, who Ned branded a “singing robot”, which clearly tickled Simon Cowell.
Having commented on the “irony” of a group called One Direction having now “gone their separate ways”, he concluded: “For those of you who don’t know what ironic means, it’s like these guys judging a talent competition.”
Simon was full of praise for the young hopeful, commenting: “I have to hand it to you, you’ve stuck to what you’ve done from day one. You’ve taken the pee out of us, it has worked, you are funny… and god help the Royal Family if you win.”
Amanda Holden then added: “I’m just relieved Ned, because I honestly thought that Sharon Osbourne gag was for me. So, sorry Sharon…”
The ‘Stepping Out’ star had reason to be paranoid, she was previously the butt of Ned’s jokes during his initial audition, which made headlines for all the wrong reasons.