Russell Howard recalled the embarrassing moment he tried to make Stephen Hawking laugh only to be drowned out by Jimmy Carr.
The comedian, Russell Howard, 45, explained how he tried to get ‘a big laugh’ from the late scientist as he heard he had an ‘amazing sense of humour’ but unfortunately he couldn’t hear him over the sound of Jimmy’s hysterics.
Joining Chris Moyles on his on Radio X show on Friday, he admitted he was ‘very conscious’ of trying to get a giggle out of Stephen but had no such luck.
Russell Forward said: ‘Whenever I go to a showbiz party, a friend of mine always has a go at me. Because he’s like, ‘Why are you talking to the comedians? You could go over there.”
‘And you’re like, because I’m not going to just wander up to Nigella Lawson or Harry Styles or Stephen Hawking – when he was alive – and just go, “Hey!”
‘So, I’m going to stand next to Stephen Merchant and Rob Brydon. That’s what I’m going to do. Because it’s safe.’
Chris said: ‘I was at one of those parties once when Stephen Hawking was there, and I didn’t meet him, but I just wanted to be near him because I wanted to hear him laugh.
‘Because somebody would have said something funny, and apparently he had an amazing sense of humour. Did you ever meet him?’
Russell Forward replied: ‘I did, yeah. And I was very conscious of trying to make him laugh.
‘The problem is, because he’s got his, you know, keyboard, you’re trying to look over the side in case he’s tapping something that says, ‘Can we get rid of this guy?”
‘But you realise it’s got to be a big laugh, because obviously it took a lot of effort for him to laugh. So, he’s not going go, “Ha.” He’s not got that. Do you know what I mean? So, he’s either going laugh or not.’
Chris asked: ‘But what does that laugh sound like?”
Russell Forward added: ‘Well, it’s drowned out by the fact that you can hear another laugh, Jimmy Carr, in this room going, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” So nobody can get a laugh in edgeways!’
Stephen passed away at the age of 76 in March 2018, 50 years after he was given just two years to live.
Professor Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 when he was 21 and he defied medical experts.
He became the world’s most famous scientist since Albert Einstein for his work exploring the mysteries of space, time and black holes despite being wheelchair-bound.
He was only able to communicate using a computer and came to have one of the most instantly recognisable voices in the world with his speech synthesiser with a distinctive electronic voice.