Del Boy Tops Favourite Comedy Accident Poll

The infamous Only Fools and Horses scene where Del Boy utters the immortal words: "Play it nice and cool, son. Nice and cool, you know what I mean," to Trigger before falling through the bar, won 51% of the votes in a poll of comedy TV or film accidents. The iconic pratfall beat even Mr Bean, Laurel and Hardy, and the Home Alone burglars to the number one spot.

The infamous Only Fools and Horses scene where Del Boy utters the immortal words: "Play it nice and cool, son. Nice and cool, you know what I mean," to Trigger before falling through the bar, won 51% of the votes in a poll of comedy TV or film accidents. The iconic pratfall beat even Mr Bean, Laurel and Hardy, and the Home Alone burglars to the number one spot.

In fact Del Boy steals first and second place in the poll, with dropping the antique chandelier on the floor in the episode A Touch of Glass voted second favourite.

The poll, conducted on behalf of family focussed insurance brand There^®, placed the Vicar of Dibley jumping into a deep muddy puddle in third place with 19% of the votes. The legendary Music Box episode of Laurel and Hardy got just 5% of the votes.

The majority (62%) of respondents felt such scenes had enduring popularity because they appeal to the traditional British sense of humour. More than a quarter of the population believe slapstick is the best form of comedy and is something the whole family can enjoy.

Philippa McLaglen, Marketing Manager for There^®, said: "We Brits are unique in our sense of humour and our research celebrates this love of slapstick. Del Boy won by a country mile, even the Home Alone pratfalls only came 6^th in the rankings. Sadly such accidents wouldn't feel nearly so funny in real life and the serious side of the story is the potential financial consequence of taking a tumble that sees you out of work for a while."

Silly accidents are a monthly occurrence for three quarters of us, with a hapless 14% having one mishap a week. No surprise then that more than a third of us consider ourselves or our family to be accident prone. Despite this, only 16% of parents have insurance to cover their income if they are too ill to work.

The nation's top 10 comedy accidents are:

Source: The research was conducted by OnePoll on behalf of There® surveying 2,000 UK population. Carried out online April 2015.

http://www.there.co.uk