The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which kicked off earlier this month and featured a bunch of our homegrown talent including Vir Das, Sumukhi Suresh and Kanan Gill among others, is going to come to an end on 26 August. This means the award section of the festival is underway. While we don’t have any Indian comedians in the running for any awards (Yet. fingers crossed), we did notice English comedian Mark Simmons win the Funniest Joke Of The Fringe award with his boat pun.

The joke goes—I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship but I bottled it.

Started in 2008 by British free-to-air television channel U&Dave, 15 one-liners are nominated by a group of judges to win the prestigious award. The jokes are then shared with 2000 public members without naming the comedians. 40 percent of the people who voted this year considered Simmons’ joke to be worthy of the top prize.

This was not his only joke in the running though. The comedian also had an Olympic gag that made it to the shortlist. It goes—I love the Olympics. My friend and I invented a new type of relay baton. Well, he came up with the idea, I ran with it.

“I needed some good news as I was just fired from my job marking exam papers,” Simmons told The Guardian in an interview. “Can’t understand it, I always gave 110%.”

With this win, Simmons joins the ranks of Tim Vine, Stewart Francis and Zoe Lyons. A quick look at the previous winners will tell you that the people at the Fringe love their puns. While we manifest Sahil Shah belting out a winning zinger at the festival, here are the winners of the last 10 years.

Lorna Rose Treen, 2023

“I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah.”

Masai Graham, 2022

“I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn’t get pasta.”

Olaf Falafel, 2019

“I keep randomly shouting out ‘broccoli’ and ‘cauliflower’ – I think I might have florets.”

Alan Rowe, 2018

“Working at the Jobcentre has to be a tense job – knowing that if you get fired, you still have to come in the next day.”

Ken Cheng, 2017

“I’m not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change.”

Masai Graham, 2016

“My dad suggested I register for a donor card, he is a man after my own heart”

Darren Walsh, 2015

“I just deleted all the German names off my phone. It’s Hans free.”

Time Vine, 2014

“I decided to sell my Hoover… well it was just collecting dust.”

Rob Auton, 2013

“I heard a rumour Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa.”