A JOKE by a wise-cracking East Renfrewshire schoolboy has been voted the funniest in a national competition, writes David Carnduff.

Sam Harrison won the top prize – an iPad mini – in the final of the Voice Box contest.

The 10-year-old Giffnock Primary pupil displayed nerves of steel as he delivered the joke at a packed Speaker’s House in Westminster, with politicians and parents among the audience.

Colm Donnelly, from Newton Mearns, also made it through to the final – making East Renfrewshire the only area to have two entrants in the last stage of the competition.

He was given a Voice Box finalist certificate for his valiant efforts.

Sam, who told a joke – complete with comical animations – about wide-mouthed frogs eating small boys, was pitch perfect and had the audience laughing out loud.

Before the final, he said: “I am very excited about telling my joke in Parliament. I didn’t think I would make it this far.”

When asked what he would like to be when he grows up, Sam replied: “I would like to be an architect, if I don’t become a professional footballer.”

Colm, also 10, attends St Cadoc’s Primary School and wants to be an inventor.

He impressed the audience with his joke about stormtroopers lost in a desert.

Colm said he had been nervous and excited about telling his joke at Parliament and had hoped beforehand that he wouldn’t faint.

Voice Box is an annual competition, organised by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) and partnered by The Communication Trust.

It aims to remind people that there are children in every classroom who need support to help them speak and understand what is being said to them.

Nearly 20 per cent of the population may experience communication difficulties at some point in their lives.

East Renfrewshire MP Kirsten Oswald, who was at the final, said: “It was wonderful for our area to have had two such talented representatives in the finals of this year’s Voice Box competition.

“Both boys performed exceptionally well, telling their jokes with confidence and bringing roars of laughter from the audience. Their jokes were excellent but I think the visual storytelling that Sam used in his performance was what appealed to the judges so much.”