A Tayside schoolgirl could have Government officials at Westminster rolling in the aisles after one of her jokes became a tall tale.
Quick-witted Ellis McEwan from Arbroath impressed teachers at her school when they were asked to submit entries to a UK-wide joke competition.
The eight-year-old found more than one funny bone in the panel of Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, who have invited her and dad Gavin down to London for the national finals of Voice Box 2015.
Colliston Primary School head teacher Lorna Higgins said the primary four girl’s suggestion was entered because it hit the right spot on the French language curriculum.
“I’m absolutely delighted for Ellis I think humour’s part of everything we do at this school,” she said.
“Before Christmas, the pupils were invited to put forward jokes to a competition run by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, and the Communication Trust.
“We were doing a nativity called It’s a Cracker, which was based around jokes from crackers.
“Since November the children have been learning French, from nursery right through to primary seven.
“One of the jokes that Ellis entered was about two cats preparing to swim across a river.”
Involving a numerical play on words, the feline adventure ends in tragedy as a French cat sank.
Mrs Higgins added: “It fit on so many levels with the theme of the school at that point and we could only put one joke through.”
Ellis’s parents, Gavin, a farm worker, and nursery assistant Johanna said she is known for trading jokes at home.
Gavin and Ellis will fly down on March 1 before lunch at the House of Commons and the finals in the Speaker’s House the next day.
Gavin said: “I think she gets a lot of it from her uncle Johnny, they pass jokes back and forward all the time.
“Ellis is quick-witted. She’s a lot of fun and always coming out with knock-knock jokes and a lot of pranks.”