Jason Byrne Hosts Leicester Comedy Festival's Annual UK Pun Championships

Today Monday, or as we like to call it 'Punday', marks the UK's fourth ever UK PunDay, an annual event in which pun fans around the country unite to share their best (and worst) puns on social media, using hashtag #UKPunDay.

Each year #UKPunDay trends on Twitter, with thousands of people tweeting throughout the day, attracting over 30 million impressions, with the best jokes making it onto BBC Radio One, BBC Radio Two, Metro, Daily Mirror and The Sun.

#UKPunDay is Britain's first and only national day celebrating puns, and was founded by Leicester Comedy Festival following the cult success of The UK Pun Championships.

The culmination of the day takes place tonight at Leicester Comedy Festival, where comedian Jason Byrne hosts the sixth annual UK Pun Championships; a rap-battle style pun-off, in which budding contestants from around the UK compete for the title of UK Pun Champion 2019. The live show follows the format of a rap battle and takes place in a boxing ring surrounded by the audience who sit in the round. Topics are picked randomly on the night and competitors then take it in turns to pun about that particular topic. Audiences vote for their favourite pun (by way of woops & cheers) and the winner goes through to the next round. After a full evening of pun based comedy, which is billed as a "celebration of Puns", two finalists then fight it out until a winner is crowned.