There will be one less award for performers to win at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, with TV channel Dave “resting” its annual and high profile Joke Of The Fringe prize after eighteen years. Although comedian Will Mars plans to fill the gap with his own prize, so actually, the same number of awards as normal then.

Launched in 2008, the Dave award celebrated the best one-liners that were being told as part of Edinburgh comedy shows each August. It was won last year by Mark Simmons with the joke, “I was going to sail around the globe in the world’s smallest ship, but I bottled it”.

The award always got quite a lot of mainstream media coverage because audiences didn’t really need to know the comedians being celebrated – or even much about the Fringe itself – to enjoy reading the one-liners that had been shortlisted.

While on one level that meant the Fringe as a festival got more media coverage, some expressed concern that – by focusing on the one-liner – the award didn’t really represent the diverse mix of stand-up being staged in Edinburgh, and obviously excluded many comedians who don’t do that sort of comedy.

Broadcaster UKTV, which owns Dave, confirmed to Chortle that the Joke Of The Year Award would not take place this year, stating that, while “we’re incredibly proud of its legacy and the laughter it has inspired, as our commissioning focus evolves, we are taking the opportunity to reflect on how we continue to support comedy in the best way possible”.

Dave’s award was also not presented in 2021, when a streamlined Fringe took place towards the end of the COVID pandemic.

Spotting an opportunity, that year Will Mars launched his own competition called the (Some Guy Called) Dave Joke Of The Fringe. With the official Dave prize absent once again, he’s planning on repeating that this August.