AN AUSTRALIAN television host thought he would impress the Dalai Lama during their interview with a joke about… the Dalai Lama.

TV anchor Karl Sefanovic opened his joke, “The Dalai Lama walks into a pizza shop”, when the Dalai Lama interrupted for a moment to check ‘pizza shop’ with his translator.

Stefanovic proceeded with the punchline, but the Dalai Lama seemed to find the joke’s failure funnier than the actual joke. The talk show host later admitted the joke wasn’t his “most successful ever”:

Currently on a 10-day visit to Australia, the Dalai Lama has warned about the ecological dangers of the country’s mining boom. He denied that he was encouraging mining executives to find customers to replace China, which is a growing market for Australian raw materials, saying instead that China shouldn’t be isolated.

Australia’s prime minister Julia Gillard refused to meet with the Dalai Lama during his trip, saying that she and the government make their own decisions about whom they meet. She said her decision was not related to pressure from China on world leaders to snub the Tibetian spiritual leader.

The Dalai Lama didn’t appear put out by Gillard’s refusal, saying that a meeting would be useful if the prime minister had “some kind of spiritual interest”. The Tibetan spiritual leader said that otherwise, there was no reason “to seek advice from him” (meaning Gillard).

- Additional reporting by the AP