ED2011 News

Cock-gate seemingly divides Fringe comedy communty

By | Published on Friday 19 August 2011

Cockgate

When someone chooses the moniker Kunt And The Gang – even with the ‘k’ – I think it’s fair to say they’re going just a little bit out of their way to court controversy.

So, it seems, job done for the comedy music outfit from Basildon, because – albeit according to their own press release – they’ve put a few Fringe noses out of joint by encouraging their audiences to stick promotional cock stickers on other comedian’s posters.

Anyone wandering around the Fringe’s George Square/Bristo Square hub last weekend can’t have failed to see the cock shaped stickers, complete with a QR code that took smartphone users to a webpage containing the single word ‘Kunt’. The aim was to promote the free KATG show appearing as part of the Free Festival this year.

As KATG fans placed cock stickers on the posters of other Fringe comics, the comedy music man behind the promotion claims he received complaints from various Fringe promoters, legal threats from Underbelly, a telling off from the Fringe Society and a visit from Edinburgh Council officials. Though, he says, they did struggle to keep a straight face as they told Free Festival staff that they’d been forced to spend the day “pulling off over 100 cocks around Edinburgh”.

And some comedians do see the funny side of having large white cock stickers placed on their posters, while one key Edinburgh comedy promoter – The Stand’s Tommy Sheppard – reportedly said he’d be happy to see the cock stickers on his venue’s publicity. With chatter about what KATG themselves are trying to dub Cock-gate spilling over onto the net and into the media, some are speculating that the act is now favourite to win the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award. Certainly award organiser John Fleming has noted the stunt on his blog.

So, while Cock-gate is earning KATG as many enemies as friends, it could all still result in a happy climax for the Kunt. By which I mean he could get an award to take back to Basildon.



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