A university student has been crowned UK pun champion after serving up gags about King Henry VIII and takeaway pizza at the Leicester Comedy Festival.

Adam Ernest Pickard beat seven other comedians in the jokey battle royale at De Montfort Hall on Monday to claim the 2026 title.

Pickard got the audience laughing with his wisecrack: "The song Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII. I'd play some of it here, but it's not royalty-free."

He also quipped: "I've compiled everyone who works at my local takeaway pizza place into a book. It's my Domino's Who's Who."

Another gag went: "Only women can use the herbal dumbbells. Thyme weights for no man."

I have a standing order with them, but half the time I don't know whether I owe them money or if they're overcharging or anything

One of those days when I look at the general state of affairs.

Don't mind me

Curious how we're viewed across the water these days. Obviously our lot did a wee bit of terrorism over there a while back, but sure it's all Semtex under the bridge now 👀

I like the English. Nicest people I've ever met, in fact. Obviously excluding Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and similar moonfruits, but we've plenty of similar dick-knuckles over here, can't be helped. But yeah, great people and a gorgeous country. Ireland gets a lot of press for its scenery, but I don't think it compares to some parts of England. For one, we don't have any giant drawings of fellas with massive willies on our hillsides! Certainly none that are protected by World Heritage Sites. We have the Giant's Causeway, a place so fascinating and amazing that I've never bothered my arse to go there in 40-odd years of life even though it's only a 30-minute drive from where I live 😴

If you hate us and want rid of us, I couldn't agree more. I hate us too. So don't worry about hurting my feelings, have at it!

Before we continue: I'm not the original author of the Reddit post, however I did partake in this event and am reposting here with permission.

From my r/AskUK post I’ve learned that people have very strong opinions about beans. This was a blind taste test so my friends had no idea what beans they were trying, please be mindful of that in your comments.

I refrained from scoring as I cooked them and I didn't want to skew the results. I did however try all of them and I have to admit, quite a lot of them had a unique taste and texture. There were some very good beans, some (I quote my friends here) tasted like ‘Baphomet's balls’ or ‘animal feed’.

A few brands unfortunately didn’t manage to get: HP, Co-op own brand, Amazon own brand , Ocado own brand, Biona, Mr Organic Baked beans, Suma (just managed to get low sugar one). I think by the last round, everyone was fed up with beans and would not be able to eat any more as we tried 23 different brands!

The spreadsheet with all results.

Edit 2: The very reason this bean tasting party started was because my partner loves Branston so much, I couldn't buy any other beans. There were some people in the group that loved Branston. We were all shocked at the results

Edit 3: I almost forgot I didn't stress enough how bad the low scored beans were, they were truly disguising

Photo album link

In the UK a 14-Day cooling off period applies where you have the right to cancel most online, phone, or mail order purchases of goods and services.

With this in mind I’d like to cancel my subscription to 2026, and revert to an earlier version. I hoped the new version would come with improvements over 2025, but the same problems seem to exist and the price of the optional extras have just gone up.

I think you will find I am still within the 14 day window, thank you for your attention to this matter.