You would expect to see them face down in a bag of rubbish or even screeching at each other at some ungodly hour on a Brighton street corner.

But seagulls sporting glasses and a thick moustache just like famous funnyman Groucho Marx are a far more unusual sight.

Yet this is the very spectacle which has been springing up all over Brighton, with scores of seagulls perched on telephone kiosks and advertising billboards dressed in ridiculous facial garb.

However, these birds are not on a disturbing mission to mimic their human neighbours.

They are in fact the latest Paramount prank to mark the return of the Brighton Comedy Festival on Friday.

Rebecca Austin, festival producer, said: "Seagulls are synonymous with Brighton and everyone loves them until they start waking you up at 7am in the morning.

"The glasses, nose and moustache are an instant comedy reference and this is a way of us mocking the seagulls the way they mock us."

The plastic models have been left at strategic points across the city and it's not the first time organisers have tried to crack a smile in Brighton with the arrival of the comedy festival.

Residents living near the West Pier were horrified to discovered it had turned blue overnight in October 2002.

But worried callers to the council were soon reassured the garish makeover was the work of Paramount staff who wanted to make a temporary impression on the Grade I-listed building.

It wasn't as much of a surprise when organisers did the same thing to the Palace Pier last year.

In 2003, visitors to The Dome theatre for the festival's opening night were told to bring a whoopee cushion with them as part of the performance.

Organisers then set about breaking a Guinness World Record by getting more than 1,600 people to simultaneously make whoopee.

With tickets sales for this year's event outstripping all of last year's shows, organisers are already putting together plans for next year's festival, which might include a film element.

Miss Austin said: "Most people who work on the shows are from Brighton and know the city has a good sense of humour which is why they embrace the festival."