Britain’s Funniest Class haswowed the nation by appearing overnight on a giant billboard, celebrating their crowning as the nation’s funniest school class. Beano unveiled the giant billboard, which appears to have been pasted up by Voyager year 5 class themselves. The incredible artwork features the winning class in comic form with their winning joke, which also appears in the iconic comic out today.
This year is the first time that the winning class and joke have been immortalised in public. The Beano billboard aims to give the country a much-needed smile ahead of schools breaking up for the summer holidays. The competition was fierce this year with hilarious jokes coming in from across the nation and receiving over 190,000 votes by the public, but it was Whitehill Junior School that snatched the top spot. “What do you call a class of children who eat potatoes using their toes?! The Mash Street Kids!” joke won with 43.4 percent of the votes on Beano.com.
In true Dennis and Beano style, the winning jokes also appeared around Hitchin centre immortalising themselves in comic history. Locals in Hitchin were captured giggling away at the side-splitting works of art. Members of the winning class were snapped with rollers and paste in Hitchin. The witty pranksters’ billboard stands at 11 ft tall.
Mike Stirling, Director of Mischief at Beano Studios said: “Now in its fourth year, ‘Britain’s Funniest Class’ gets kids reading, creating and laughing in classrooms all over the UK. At Beano, we've always said our greatest gags come from kids, and Whitehill Primary has proved this again. It's a pun-believable joke The Bash Street Kids themselves would be proud of.”
Mr Steve Mills, Headteacher at Whitehill Junior School said: “The children had amazing fun creating their joke and for them to be immortalised on a billboard and the Beano comic is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We are delighted to be able to share their funniest joke with the rest of the nation and hopefully generate many chuckles this morning!”
10 witty schools were shortlisted by Beano’s gag masters and Head Judge comedian Suzi Ruffell, before the public were given the deciding vote to crown the winner. In second was ESMS Junior School in Edinburgh with 31.9 percent of the votes with their bonetastic joke – “Doctor: I'm afraid that we need to remove your whole spine. Patient: But why? Doctor: Because it's really holding you back.”Whitehill Junior School were presented their official Beano ‘Britain’s Funniest Class’ trophy by Beano writer Danny Pearson alongside a bundle of Beano goodies including comic subscriptions for the whole class and books courtesy of Studio Press. A timelapse video of the artworks coming together was also captured, with Voyager year 5 class kids applying the finishing touches to the billboard.
The nationwide initiative, now in its fourth year, is created in partnership with YoungMinds, the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health. It aims to lift classroom spirits and help build resilience, whilst inspiring the next generation of comedy geniuses through joke-writing lessons.
The comic featuring Britain’s Funniest Class and the shortlisted jokes is on sale now. Find out more at beano.com/funniest-class
