‘Unhinged cards’ is an entertainment industry term for stand up comics who are on the brink of insanity. Usually used by management, recent years have seen the term’s use popularised and now means almost any comedian with loose cannon tendencies.
In 2004, Mike Rolands was dubbed an unhinged card after he stayed up all night boozing with the management of a respected London comedy venue. During the session, he referred to the management as ‘greedy hypocritical sinners’ after discovering their takings for the night. He then went on what can only be descibed as a rampage, gutting the entire venue, stating that it “stank a bit funny and needed a clean!”
Later that same year, Casey Fletcher gained the title after he pulled out and displayed a penis from a window of his tour bus, resulting in the death of three older women in the coach sat adjacent in the traffic. It wasn’t even his penis.
In 2007, Laura Lyons proved that women are just as deserving of the ‘unhinged card’ badge, when she viciously attacked a male heckler from the crowd of one of her Edinburgh festival dates. After several visits to the man in hospital, the pair are now happily married and are said to enjoy a good laugh about how they met.