What do the late Michael Jackson, MPs cheating on their expenses (particularly the MP Sir Peter Viggers who claimed for a floating house for his ducks), swine flu, Gordon Ramsay and Jesus have in common?

All are the subjects of jokes on the Edinburgh Fringe this August. None of them, though, are the subject of the funniest joke to be heard at Edinburgh. According to comedy television channel Dave, that's about hedgehogs.

Nine judges appointed by the TV channel sat through 3600 minutes of comedy and heard, at a rough estimate, 7200 jokes to come up with a shortlist of 27. Those 27 were then put to a public vote and the hedgehogs won.

Or rather London comedian Dan Antopolski won with a very brief one-liner about the spiny mammalian members of the Erinaceinae family which goes like this: "Hedgehogs. Why can't they share the hedge?"

Some 18% of the 3000 members of the public who voted online reckoned that was the funniest line heard at Edinburgh this year. Antopolski featured twice in the top 10 jokes in the public vote. He registered in ninth place with the line: "I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't."

Humour is purely subjective and there are some who may find Antopolski's humour too twee to amuse.

But it's unlikely to cause the same controversy as last year's winning joke by Zoe Lyons: "I can't believe Amy Winehouse self-harms. She's so irritating she must be able to find someone to do it for her." Germaine Greer later described the gag as "astonishingly vicious".

Lyons made it into the top 10 again this year with another near-the-knuckle line: "I went on a girl's night out recently. The invitation said dress to kill.' I went as Rose West."

Inevitably, the jokes reflect trends of obsessions. "To the people who've got iPhones," familiar telly face Marcus Brigstoke says, "you've just bought one, you didn't invent it!"

Is it as funny as Phil Nichols's line which didn't make the top 10?

"A lot of people say I'm egocentric - but enough about them."

Possibly not. But that's the danger with democracy. You don't always get the right result. Which reminds me. Have you heard any one- liners about George Bush this year?

The best jokes: Dan Antopolski "Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?" Paddy Lennox "I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought, This could be interesting'." Sarah Millican "I had my boobs measured and bought a new bra. Now I call them Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes because they're up where they belong." Zoe Lyons "I went on a girls' night out recently. The invitation said dress to kill. I went as Rose West." Jack Whitehall "I'm sure wherever my dad is he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just condescending." Marcus Brigstocke "To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!" Rhod Gilbert "A spa hotel? It's like a normal hotel, only in reception there's a picture of a pebble." Dan Antopolski "I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't." Simon Brodkin (Lee Nelson) "I started so many fights at my school - I had that attention-deficit disorder. So I didn't finish a lot of them."