Mark Simmons took this year's award for his gag with: "I was going to sail around the globe in the world's smallest ship but I bottled it".

Simmons, a Mock The Week panellist, told Sky News: "I don't think it's my best joke in my show, but I think it is probably the best one written down so that, you know, so everyone can understand it.

"Personally, I like jokes where you kind of take them down a path and then you suddenly reveal... a nice twist and it surprises everyone and they ignite big laughs.

"Whereas with some of my jokes, there's clever wordplay and you get kind of a nice little laugh as you go but it's good in a show to have a variety."

It was a vintage year for him, as another of his jokes appeared on the shortlist of 10, nominated by a panel including leading comedy critics and comedians, who watched hundreds of shows, then voted on by 2,000 people.

The gag runs: "I love the Olympics. My friend and I invented a new type of relay baton: well, he came up with the idea, I ran with it."

Simmons, who was appearing at the Scottish capital's festival for the 10th time, said "in Edinburgh there's a lot of comedy about hard-hitting topics at the moment, which is brilliant. But sometimes I think people just want to come and relax, forget about their troubles and just enjoy an hour of really silly jokes. So that's where I come in. There aren't many shows like mine where it's just all one-liners".

The comedian, who was named the UK Comics' Comic of 2022, said he never thinks about the competition he's just won, calling it "just a nice bit of fun at the festival".

And his creative process, he said, is driven by the need to deliver a different show each year.

He said: "I write so many jokes every year because I have to come up with a new hour. So I go around, I spot wordplay, then I sit down and I craft the jokes and I go to a new material night where you try everything, and that's where you find out whether it works or not, because they let you know very quickly.

"Sometimes it can take a joke three years to get right, but when it does, it's amazing."

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So, how does he cope when a joke falls flat and the room is filled with the comedian's worst enemy, silence?

"If it happens, it can sometimes just be everyone in the room's in a bad mood or something. So I actually kind of find it quite funny now when I'm on stage and I tell a joke I've told a hundred times and everyone's laughed, and then they're not laughing. Only people that have done it will know what that's like. I don't find it a big problem now."