Funniest joke of the world renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival revealed

Comedian Adam Rowe said the gag was a 'brain fart', thought up on the spot.

You've heard the one about the chicken that crossed the road right?

Well, that gag is old news. The funniest joke of 2018 involves a sacked Centrelink worker. It's official.

Every year the public decide which one-liner performed at the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival should win the most side-splitting gag award.

Liverpool comedian Adam Rowe took out UK TV channel Dave's Funniest Joke of the Fringe gong. But Mr Rowe said it wasn't a planned joke but rather a "brain fart" when an audience member revealed they worked in a Jobcentre, the UK equivalent of a Centrelink office.

With 41 per cent of the vote, the winning joke was: "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."

Talking to the BBC, Mr Rowe said he thought his agent was lying about the award.

"He rang me and told me I couldn't tell anyone for a week which has been almost impossible.

"I'm massively taken aback by it. I've never seen myself as being in the running for things like this. It's a massive honour and a genuinely huge surprise."

He said the line came about by accident at a performance when he was quizzing the audience.

"A guy said he worked in the Jobcentre and I said the joke that has now won the award.

"Because it got such a nice reaction on the night I thought I had to do something with it as a line. I didn't expect to be winning an award for what was essentially a brain fart."

Last year's best joke came from student Ken Cheng. "I'm not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change."

FUNNIEST JOKE FINALISTS

These are the runners up in the funniest gag of the year competition.

• Leo Kearse: "I had a job drilling holes for water — it was well boring."

• Olaf Falafel: "I took out a loan to pay for an exorcism. If I don't pay it back, I'm going to get repossessed."

• Daniel Audritt: "In my last relationship, I hated being treated like a piece of meat. She was a vegan and refused to touch me."

• Flo and Joan: "What do colour blind people do when they are told to eat their greens?"

• Darren Walsh: "I've got a new job collecting all the jumpers left in the park at the weekends, but it's not easy. They keep moving the goalposts."

• Justin Moorhouse: "Trump said he'd build a wall but he hasn't even picked up a brick. He's just another middle-aged man failing on a DIY project."

• Adele Cliff: "I lost a friend after we had an argument about the Tardis. I thought it was a little thing, but it seemed much bigger once we got into it."

• Alex Edelman: "Why are they calling it Brexit and not The Great British Break Off?"

• Laura Lexx: "I think love is like central heating. You turn it on before guests arrive and pretend it's like this all the time."