1. Emma Thompson annoying everybody when, back in 1981 as part of the Cambridge Footlights team, she bounded into the press office one day and said: "Look, I know we're part of an ensemble and we're all supposed to be pulling together and everything, but is there any way that I can get some publicity for myself?"
2. In 1991, the five nominees for the award were: Jack Dee, Eddie Izzard, Lily Savage, Avner the Eccentric and Frank Skinner. Astonishingly, Mr Knob Joke himself (Skinner) beat off Dee, Izzard and Savage.
3. In 1996, the French government carried out nuclear tests in the South Pacific. All the comics on the fringe decided, in their drunken wisdom, that because Perrier was a French product, they should boycott the whole award system as a protest. The idea was quietly dropped the next morning.
4. Dylan Moran, on accepting his gong in 1996, graciously announced that the award should have instead gone to one of the other nominees, Bill Bailey, "because he's the best comic around". Absolutely.
5. Tommy Tiernan being "hung out to dry" (his own expression) by RTE over his allegedly "blasphemous" routine on The Late Late Show and using the controversy as raw material for a show that very deservedly won him the Perrier in 1998. Revenge is a drink best drunk with sparkling bubbles. The day after he won, Gay Byrne sent him a big bunch of flowers.