Amid a global pandemic, humanitarian crises, natural disasters and other bleak news, lighthearted stories are as necessary as ever. Here is a pick of the week's best funny, silly and quirky news from around the world.

One scoop or two?

Inmates at two Roman prisons got a tasty and cooling treat during this summer's historic heatwave: gelato sent over by the Pope himself.

The Vatican's charity office revealed on Tuesday that the Pontiff sent over some 15,000 ice creams to the Italian capital's Regina Coeli and Rebibbia prisons. These were delivered by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, known as "the Pope's almoner" or one who distributes alms to the poor.

This summer was one of the hottest on record in Italy with one Sicilian city reporting temperatures as high as 49 Celsius in August, according to Reuters.

The story did not say what flavor of gelato Pope Francis sent over.

Bloody fool!

Ducks can apparently talk... and insult people. A new study found that Australian musk ducks can mimic the sounds they hear, including human speech.

This was based on a decades-old recording of "Ripper," an Australian musk duck at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, near Canberra, that could not only imitate the sound of a door slamming: it also had a tendency to repeatedly quack the words "you bloody fool" when enraged.

The insult was apparently part of its mating display – one can only assume the duck did not realize what it was saying – while the inspiration for the slamming door sound seems to have come from a screen door "Ripper" often heard as a duckling.

The study, published this week in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, also cites a female Australian musk duck that could imitate the quacks of other ducks, to demonstrate the birds' vocal learning ability. Previously such skills were only believed to exist in parrots, songbirds or hummingbirds, according to the researchers. 

It seems Daffy Duck was closer to reality than previously thought.

Two-star review

Jokesters have taken to reviewing their overnight stays at French police stations on Google as if they were proper hotels.

The police stations are listed in French as "Hotel de Police" and the similarity in names has inspired suspects, and probably others, to review the amenities as holidaymakers would do on travel websites like Tripadvisor or Booking.com.

One reviewer gave the police station in the eastern city of Lyon last week five stars, commenting: "Very quiet, warm welcome, but staff's attitude should be reviewed, very unpleasant."

Another gave the police station in southwestern Bordeaux only two stars for cleanliness and the staff's unfriendliness but noted: "Adequate room with toilet, quite comfortable foam mattress and you can even ask for a blanket. Variety of meals on offer, but breakfast is the best with biscuits and a choice of fruit juices."

An earlier visitor to the Bordeaux police station on the other hand complained that "room service left much to be desired."

Earlier Google reviews included mostly complaints from the public about the police's work, but these now mingle with creative feedback on the state of the station's toilets and the quality of the bed linen.

"Mattress was a bit hard but you get used to it... Various sexy objects (handcuffs, batons). An unforgettable night," said one recent reviewer in northern Lille, concluding: "Great value for money."

R-rated for language

A voicemail recording for a New Zealand cinema has become an online hit for repeatedly including the F word, with netizens sharing in the frustration.

An employee of Movie Max Cinemas in the southern port city of Timaru recorded an outgoing message to warn patrons about the cinema's closure amid a new lockdown but accidentally uploaded his repeated failed attempts – and frustrated swearing in between them – alongside the final message, according to The Guardian.  

The recording was quickly taken down but not before it made the rounds on social media to the delight of netizens. Several have already vowed to visit the Timaru cinema as soon as the lockdown is lifted, while others said the employee's frustration reflected how many felt after a year and a half of pandemic.

One user even wrote to the cinema to make sure the employee was not in trouble, adding "every single person screws up at work sometimes and actually listening to this brought a lovely bit of very human humor to my day... I just wanted to say 'stay awesome' to that guy. We've all been there."

Read more: 

ICYMI: The week's quirky news from around the world - September 2, 2021

ICYMI: The week's quirky news from around the world - August 26, 2021