Lord Sugar ‘leaves Apprentice co-stars wetting themselves with gags’

26 February 2024

Lord Alan Sugar is said to leave his colleagues on ‘The Apprentice’ “wetting” themselves with laughter at his jokes.

Lord Alan Sugar is said to leave his colleagues on ‘The Apprentice’ ‘wetting’ themselves with laughter at his jokes

The business mogul, 76, is famed for his grouchy persona on the reality show, but his boardroom aide Tim Campbell, 46, insists he keeps everyone laughing with his gags.

He told the Daily Star: “Sometimes me and Karren are wetting ourselves about the jokes he tells in there. And we aren’t ones to be canned in laughter or laughing just to keep him happy.

“The reality is Lord Sugar's humour is one of his traits. You have got to remember, he’s been one of the greatest UK salespeople for generations.

“And you don't get that way if you don’t know how to crack a bit of a joke and have a bit of a laugh.”

Tim’s co-star Karren Brady, 54, added about her TV boss’ soft side: “Lord Sugar is great fun. You might not get it from the TV show, but he’s very witty.”

Some fans are convinced Lord Sugar hires writers to pen gags for him to say on the show – but Karren has insisted all his jokes are off the cuff.

She added: “Lots of people don't realise that the show is not scripted. There’s no autocue, there’s no rehearsal, there’s no retake.

“I think that comes down to it being authentic. You are watching it as it happened.

“Nothing is set up about it, there’s no script, you really are a fly on the wall as to what happens.”

Despite Lord Sugar’s colleagues insisting they find him hilarious, critics have said his gags on the latest series of BBC One’s ‘Apprentice’ are morbidly unfunny.

One of the latest episodes saw contestants challenged to spend as little as possible on a shopping list of puzzles that included Jersey wonders – a kind of knotted doughnut, as well as shucked oysters.

Lord Sugar joked about one team walking straight past a jersey on a market stall three times: “Never mind Jersey wonders. Stevie Wonder would have noticed that.”

When he heard one of the contestants had let one of his castmates do the negotiating for the oysters during the task, Lord Sugar quipped: “That was very unshellfish of you.”