Footage of the stand up routine that led to Simon Bird being disqualified from a student comedy awards is a must-watch:
But the year before he debuted on our screens as the constantly awkward ‘briefcase w*****r’ Will McKenzie in the hit E4 show, Bird took part in the 2007 Chortle Student Comedy awards sponsored by Revels.
And believe us, the sponsorship part is very important here.
In the 15-year-old footage above, the actor, comedian and director begins by mentioning that it’s his third time taking part in the competition having previously competed in 2005 and 2006.
But this routine then takes a hilarious turn.
While joking about his years of experience in taking part, the young comedian says he was interested in hearing about the fact the 2007 event was being sponsored by the confectionary company Revels.
“When I heard I thought ‘that’s good’ and they send you all the rules and regulations that you have to read and it’s just stuff like ‘acts must be at an event half an hour before its starts’… fine. ‘Acts must use their own material…’ a bit annoying but, fine. And then I got into this passage…”
Which is where the fun begins.
“‘Organisers reserve the right to disqualify any artiste’, a bit pretentious, ‘any artiste who during the event or for one month after the event mentions any of the sponsor’s products,’ so, Revels.
‘Any of the products or any of the sponsor’s competitors, the consumption of confectionery, or the contents of these rules’.”
So, Mr. Bird has just willingly violated two of the golden rules to roars of laughter, in case you missed it.
He adds: “And then it goes on to say that the organisers ‘reserve the right to disqualify anyone for any reason’, so, in a way, pointless.”
And the joke didn’t end there. Like the true funny man he is, Bird went one step further by handing out chocolate bars to the audience, like his own version of Willy Wonka.
Unfortunately this part wasn’t captured on camera – it was 2007 after all – but he did open about his set and being disqualified as a result of the ‘quasi-fascist’ rules in a 2009 interview with York Vision.
“It didn’t seem to be ironic or anything so I thought this was so ridiculous that I had to mention it,” he recalled. “The joke was just how long I could go on talking about Revels really.
“I don’t remember exactly what I did but I remember it involved me giving the audience every type of chocolate bar I could find [except] for revels.”
Give this man an Oscar made of Revels immediately.
