Ellie MacPherson: Happy Birthday, Mr. President! was included on British Comedy Guide’s annual list of Best Reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Fringe.

British Comedy Guide has now completed its customary analysis of all Edinburgh Festival Fringe comedy show coverage, and is able to disclose which productions critics preferred.

Here are all comedies that attained an average star rating of more than 4.0 across all ratings they received.

A round-up in The Times featuring the best jokes from Edinburgh Fringe 2022, including:

“Like Abe Lincoln, I love the theatre. But, also like Lincoln, being around actors kills me.”

Ellie MacPherson: Happy Birthday, Mr President! Underbelly Cowgate, 9.30pm

MacPherson, a comedian who made her Off-Broadway debut in The Play That Goes Wrong, can certainly relate. An amateur presidential scholar, she has crafted several cabaret acts filled to the brim with presidential anecdotes and pop music covers hand-picked to make audiences think just a bit more deeply about the men who have held the nation's highest office. Now, her flagship act, Happy Birthday, Mr. President!, has crossed the pond to play the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a part of a so called "American invasion," connecting the international festival to the State

“Some of my favourite performers and shows have started at the Fringe, it seems like the place where audiences go to see what is new and exciting. My show is kind of stand-up and kind of cabaret and kind of theatre piece. It doesn’t fit into any one particular box and I think the Fringe is exactly the place for pieces like that.”

“For the record, the song I play in my Airpods to get hyped right before I walk on is You! Me! Dancing! by Los Campesinos! If you come to see my show just imagine Marilyn Monroe throwing elbows in a pit right before she walks out onstage.”

“I tell stories about [the Presidents’] lives through jokes and pop music. Like telling the story of President Grover Cleveland, a man who married his ward Frances, and then singing Creep by Radiohead. Cause buying your ward her first stroller and then marrying her 21 years later is the act of a Creep.”

“I had a passion for musical theatre, in fact it was the only music I listened to until I turned 14 and then I moved from Texas to New Jersey where people listened to things other than country and Christian. My world exploded and I got obsessed with all genres of music. I became one of those annoying music teens who always had to know the coolest new artists. Cabaret is a form that lets me marry my musical theatre core with my appreciation for popular music. And it’s kind of like stand-up but less vulnerable because if I ever feel self conscious I can fall back on a song.”

I think the Fringe is the place to come with shows that don't fit a particular box. My show is part comedy, part cabaret, part history talk, part rock concert. It is almost impossible to categorise. To me, the Fringe is a space where folks can take their strange new show and get it up in front of intelligent audiences who are willing to be surprised.

“Teddy Roosevelt had a pet hyena. Calvin Coolidge liked to start his day by getting Vaseline rubbed on top of his head. Jimmy Carter went on record as seeing aliens. These are not normal men and we’re just like “yeah sure put them in charge of our large standing army.” This show charts just how weird they are and why I’m so attracted to them. I’m not well in the head.”