The Stage

Lee who dares, wins

Published Tuesday 31 August 2010 at 15:01

So, Stewart Lee got his wish and the Edinburgh ‘Comedy God’ award was won by the obscure Japanese comedy troupe the Frank Chickens.

The prize was launched earlier this year when beer brand Foster’s took over the sponsorship of the awards and decided they wanted to find the public’s favourite nominee or winner from 30 years of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

Lee, never backwards in coming forward, described the idea as “idiotic”, saying that for all the public knew, Frank Chickens - a little known nominee from 1984 - could be the best thing on the list, but they’d most likely just lose out to the better known names.

But lo, the internet got hold of the comic’s complaint and a campaign was born. The end result was that more than 30,0000 people logged on and voted for the Chickens, who last weekend were announced as the Foster’s Comedy God. In the process, they beat Michael McIntyre, Tim Minchin and Russell Howard.

Slightly bizarrely, to commemorate the event, a “unique piece of artwork” was made of the top four, created from empty Foster’s cans.