Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Satirical take on festival goes viral

The Satirical BBC show the Mash Report had viewers in stitches with a '˜news' report on the Edinburgh Festival that had capital locals '˜wondering where all the twats had come from'.

Picture: Pleasance Courtyard, one of the main Fringe venues TSPL

The BBC2 programme, which is fronted by former Fringe standout Nish Kumar, is based on the wildly popular satire website the Daily Mash, which has a long history of poking gentle fun at the Edinburgh Festival.

In 2009, the website, which was founded by Scottish journalists, including former Scotsman Business Editor Paul Stokes, wrote a story claiming that 68 per cent of Britain’s ‘tosspots’ would migrate to Edinburgh for the Festival.

Wednesday’s ‘news report’ went to a local correspondent on Edinburgh’s “idiot packed streets” who described the thousands of hopefuls who descend on the capital armed with “ukeleles, monologues, and overconfidence”.

The hilarious sketch, which has been viewed 125,000 times on Facebook alone, even featured first-person testimony from a beleaguered Edinburgh local who said he was accidentally caught up in a piece of performance art while buying his shopping.

As he describes the ordeal, which apparently was given a four-star review, the weary resident spots a mime artist in the background, and says: “If he gives me a leaflet I’m going to lose it.”

The Edinburgh Festival is the World’s largest of its time, but not all locals in the city are enamoured by the massive influx of performers, artists, comedians, and musicians.

Viewers on Facebook were quick to agree with the Mash Report’s item.

One wrote: ““If he hands me a flyer I’m going to ******* lose it” - this just sums up my last 2 days pretty well”.

Another added: “We’ll be joining them in Edinburgh on Monday! Will not be going to anything with audience participation!”