Noon Update: Sorry comedians, I'm afraid this is an April Fool.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is to reduce the length of its comedy shows from 2018.

This year's Fringe Festival, running from August 4 - 28, will be the final year when shows will run for the traditional 55 minutes/one hour. From 2018 they will be a maximum of 39 minutes. 

The decision has been taken following an increasing number of comments about comedy shows being too long. As well as audience members leaving to go to the toilet there have been a number of issues over audience members checking their phones during shows. It is hoped that by shortening the show audience members will be less distracted.

The reason for choosing 39 minutes as the longest length is to avoid to traditional loss of audience interest at the start of the final third of the show, known as the "40 minute dip".