Irish comedian David O'Doherty was presented with the top British comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe festival on Saturday night. O'Doherty, 32, from Dublin received the 2008 Intelligent Finance Comedy Award and a cheque for 8,000 pounds, nine years after he won the best-newcomer comedy award at the Fringe.
His first stage appearance was at Dublin's Comedy Cellar in 1998, and he has made five appearances on the Fringe, which in parallel with the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Book Festival make up the largest annual arts gathering in the world.
Asked about trends in political satire, O'Doherty saw a new generation with different targets arising.
"I think there is a new kind of satire that's coming out. It isn't necessarily targeted at individuals, but rather at the system which people seem rather tired of," he told Reuters.
Now things were "more confused with the arrival of New Labour and things in this country have become trickier with spin doctory and all the rest.
"It's almost like the politicians are second guessing the jokes that the comedians are going to do. Political comedy changes all the time, from Swift onwards, but there is a new generation now who are really tired of the system that is in place, the cynical advertising and marketing that is so much politics these days. "I think we're going to see a lot of that (satire on the Fringe) next year," he said.