Riotous Scarborough-based comedy duo the Chuckle Brothers have reportedly failed in a suicide pact that went badly wrong.

“It was a slapstick disaster” said their agent, Jan Bearsuit-Jones. “They couldn’t have planned it better.”

The writing had been on the wall for many months, according to friends close to the comedy duo. One source told the Daily Shame that despite numerous efforts to revive their flagging careers, they were at their wits end, and had nowhere else to turn.

The older Chuckle brother had tried his hand with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before being rejected after a hilarious, yet unintended episode where he started playing “to me to you to me to you” with a skull.

“He thought that would really lighten up the play”, said Bearsuit-Jones. “But it went down badly with the audience, who, as it turned out, were rather serious and not at all the fun types we had been hoping for.”

The younger Chuckle brother had just returned from an unsuccessful attempt to “crack America”.

The suicide attempt, which took place last week, was very much in the vein of some of their most successful BBC comedies. The two comedians had set up an elaborate system with a toaster linked to a piece of rope, which was placed over a bath. However, the toaster was not switched on, and as it fell, it hit one of the brothers on the head, causing him to jump up, bang his head on a shelf, which brought a range of shampoos crashing down on the other brother who nearly drowned and got his toe caught in the plug hole.

“I wish they could have filmed it”, said Bearsuit-Jones. “It would have really been a boost for the boys.”