The funniest joke in prestigious festival has been revealed - but the top pick is branded 'beyond bad'

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By Nasima Khatun

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What makes a joke funny?

Maybe it's the delivery or maybe it's the punchline, but whatever it is, it just has to land perfectly.

One woman did just that and earned herself the title of having the funniest gag at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Lorna Rose Treen, a comedian and former student at the University of Edinburgh, was awarded the accolade after recalling a joke about an unfaithful zookeeper but before we reveal exactly what her joke was, let's see which other wisecracks made it into the top 10.

10. "My grandma describes herself as being in her 'twilight years', which I love because they're great films" came courtesy of Daniel Foxx.

9. "Nationwide must have looked pretty silly when they opened their first branch," William Stone said. Nationwide, get it?

Yeah, it took me a second to get there too.

8. Bennett Arron came in eighth place with this banger: "I entered the 'How not to surrender' competition and I won hands down."

7. Roger Swift recalled his joke: "My friend got locked in a coffee place overnight. Now he only ever goes into Starbucks, not the rivals. He's Costa-phobic" and came in seventh.

I see what you did there, Roger.

6. "How do coeliac Germans greet each other? Gluten tag." Frank Lavender managed to sneak into sixth place with that one. Yikes.

5. This one must have been done before, right?

"I thought I'd start off with a joke about The Titanic - just to break the ice..." Oh Masai Graham, at least it's one that we all get.

4. "When women gossip we get called bitchy; but when men do it's called a podcast," witty and relatable in the age of podcasts. Sikisa is my winner.

3. Amos Gill said: "Last year I had a great joke about inflation. But it's hardly worth it now." Cringey. We love it.

2. "The most British thing I've ever heard? A lady who said 'Well I'm sorry, but I don't apologize," courtesy of Liz Guterbock. That is pretty British, I'm not going to lie.

And, at number one is none other than Lorna and her joke about the zookeeper.

It went like this: "I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah." Get it? Cheetah? Cheater? This one's all in the spelling.

While I may be a slightly easier audience member to impress, some people on social media weren't in the mood to laugh at any of these so-called jokes, especially number one.

"I think this 'joke' was in my Christmas cracker in 1997," wrote one user.

"'Why do you never play poker in a zoo? It's full of cheetahs.' Literally a joke as old as the hills reworded. This is the state of the Fringe..." another added.

A third even branded the joke as "beyond bad" writing: "The Fringe’s 'funniest joke' this year is beyond bad – it doesn’t even make sense."

He continued: "If a six year old child came up with it you would say 'very good' just to humour them. But as usual these days, they pick the person they want to promote and the comedy follows later, if at all."

This last user was slightly more forgiving: "Well it made me smile slightly, but if that is the funniest joke of the entire festival comedy is in trouble."

As per the BBC, Lorna is the first female comedian to win the award since Zoe Lyons at the very first Fringe joke award in 2008.

She described herself as "blooming chuffed" - which means very happy for those who weren't aware - after being voted number one by a bunch of audience members who had to pick from the list of jokes.

"A huge thank you for awarding my stupid joke with this title," she added.

Congrats, I guess.

Featured Image Credit: Klaus Vedfelt/Getty