Winner ... comedian Nick Helm - The Sun

HERE'S the perfect antidote for the miserable weather a pick of the best new jokes from this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Confrontational comic Nick Helm scooped the prize from Dave TV for the funniest gag for his quip about computer passwords.

There were 21,000 performers at more than 2,500 shows across 258 venues at the Fringe this year and comedy made up more than a third of it.

Dave general manager Steve North said: "The competition was hotly contested but Nick Helm (above) is a brilliant and thoroughly deserving winner."

But spare a thought for 73-year-old magician Paul Daniels, who returned for the first time since his Fringe debut in 2003 only to go home with the worst gag prize for:

"I said to a fella, 'Is there a B&Q in Henley?' He said, 'No, there's an H, an E, an N, an L and a Y'." Bad luck Paul and congrats Nick.

Now laugh along with our pick of the funniest jokes:

Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels.

Uncle Ben has died. No more Mr Rice Guy.

- both TIM VINE

People say: "I'm taking it one day at a time." You know what? So is everybody. That's how time works.

- HANNIBAL BURESS

Drive-through McDonald's was more expensive than I thought, once you've hired the car.

- TIM KEY

I was playing chess with my friend and he said, "Let's make this interesting." So we stopped playing.

- MATT KIRSHEN

My friend died doing what he loved... heroin.

- DeANNE SMITH

I was in a band which we called The Prevention, because we hoped people would say we were better than The Cure.

- ALAN SHARP

Someone asked me recently, what would I rather give up, food or sex? Neither! I'm not falling for that one again, wife.

- MARK WATSON

I used to collect crash mats. I don't any more but at least I have something to fall back on.

- ALEX HORNE

And here are a couple of the corniest...

Due to the economy, profiteroles will now be called deficiteroles.

- TOM WEBB

I went to see this show and the guy said, "Hey kid, do you like magic?" And I said, "Yeah!" So he asked if I wanted to see a trick and I said, "Yeah!" So he said, "Think of a number, times it by two and if it's odd... " Oh no, he's a MATHmagician.

- CARD NINJA