A Tourette’s syndrome charity has asked for an apology over an award-winning joke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Swedish comedian Olaf Falafel won Dave’s Funniest Joke At The Fringe award for a pun involving vegetables. His winning effort was: “I keep randomly shouting out ‘broccoli’ and ‘cauliflower’ – I think I might have florets.”
However, the charity did not find it funny, and said the joke was about the neurological disorder – not vegetables.
A tweet from the charity’s Twitter account said: “Why is it still OK to joke about disability, or more alarmingly provide a platform to further perpetuate tired, stereotypical jokes that only reinforce stigma?”
Its chief executive, Suzanne Dobson, reportedly said the joke had brought “shame on Dave”. She is now asking for an apology.
She told the BBC: “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?”
Dobson said the charity had been due to launch a campaign asking comics not to use the disorder as a punchline, but it “has come about a week too late”.
She also said the charity’s helpline received several calls on Monday from parents of children with Tourette’s, who were upset by the joke.
Falafel’s joke was judged the best gag by 2,000 voting members of the public after being shortlisted by an expert panel.
The comic was performing at the Fringe for a seventh year. After winning, 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’.”
Tourette’s syndrome is a condition which causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements called tics.