History Radio / ImSorryIHaventAClue

* InformedAttribute: Parodied with the "[[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome LASER DISPLAY BOARD]]" (sometimes extra words suggesting technical brilliance are added into the description) which allegedly informs the studio audience of whatever the secret is, as the Mystery Voice does for the listeners at home. Of course, like Samantha it's entirely fictional, and there's an audience laugh when the secret turns out to be written on an ordinary cue card which the show producer runs across the stage with.

PanelGame (according to the introduction, "the antidote to panel games") broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the "classic radio" station BBC 7. Born in 1972, it was something of a continuation of the SketchShow ''[[Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again]]'' (which was also the origin of ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' and ''Series/TheGoodies''). The main difference was that, as a panel game, they didn't need to write any scripts.

Other people on the show include Colin Sell, the long-suffering pianist, and Samantha, the entirely fictional scorer, about whom many [[DoubleEntendre Double Entendres]] are made. Colin Sell's stand-in as duty pianist was veteran jokester musician {{Neil Innes}}, best known for the ''{{Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band}}'' and ''{{The Rutles}}''. Humph introduced him as 'a man whose royalty payments on "I'm The Urban Spaceman" have just run out', to which Innes responded with several bars of the Death March from ''Aida''.

Most of the games are simply excuses for a HurricaneOfPuns, but some have a surreality bordering on nonsensical. These include "Celebrity ''Series/WhatsMyLine''" (in which the panel has to guess what a celebrity does for a living), versions of board games and other quizzes (where the joke is that we need to see what's going on to understand it), and, of course the Great Game, Mornington Crescent (a game of complex and subtle rules which, [[{{Calvinball}} to the uninitiated]], sounds like people shouting out tube stations at random) and its boardgame cousin Boardo! (complete with rattling dice and clicking counters).

The teams construct a sentence, taking one word each, with the goal being not to complete the sentence. If the chairman judges that a full stop has been reached, he'll honk his horn (ever since Jack took over, this has been replaced by a gong). Occasionally, each panellist gets a word that they'll have to "seamlessly intergrate" into the story. Common ploys involve forming the sentence "and yet strangely" to force a player to describe something multiple times, or someone -- frequently Tim -- saying "comma" to buy time. On at least one occasion, Humph made it even harder by adding an extra rule, that all the words had to start with the same letter.

The panellists combine the names of films to make puns. Really, that's it. Puns can be literal (such as ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_a_Sixpence_(film) Half A Sixpence]]'', ''TheDirtyDozen'' and ''Film/TheExorcist'' being combined to make ''Half A Dozen Eggs''). The meaning of the title can be used rather than the words. (Such as ''Series/AlloAllo'', ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom!_(1968_film) Boom]]'' and ''Film/FarewellMyLovely'' combining to make ''A Short, Meaningless Relationship''. Or ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' and ''Film/FlashGordon'' combining to make ''Would You Mind Accompanying Me To The Station''?) Then there are the truly ''magnificient'' puns, such as Barry combining ''Film/{{Superman}}'', ''Film/KellysHeroes'', ''TheFrenchConnection'', ''Al Capone'', ''Film/FantasticVoyage'', ''Man With the X-Ray Eyes'', ''ThePrincessAndThePea'', ''Film/NightmareAlley'' and ''The Duchess and the Dustman'' to make ''[[Film/MaryPoppins Superkellyfrenchaltasticexpeaalleyduchess]]''. Used to be very popular, but the last time it popped up was in 1995.

The chairman gives a profession for a film club, book club, or song book, and the panellists make puns based on the profession, changing around the titles of films/books/songs in order to fit this particular profession. (Such as the bakers' film club -- [[BenHur Bun Hur]], [[CitizenKane Citizen Cake]] and [[TheLastTemptationOfChrist The Last Temptation Of Crust]].) Graeme [[RunningGag invariably]] makes a pun on ''BringMeTheHeadOfAlfredoGarcia''. Still played often.

The entire audience get a song displayed on the laser display board, and have to hum it. The panellists attempt to guess what it is. In the live tours, each member of the audience gets their own kazoo for this round. Rarely played, but still pops up occasionally.

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Whenever Jeremy Hardy's turn comes up in [[HollywoodToneDeaf a music round]], or a game of Mornington Crescent is announced.

* ArtifactTitle: The title was originally meant to echo ''ImSorryIllReadThatAgain'', but since ''Clue'' has outlived its parent show by decades, a lot more people know about ''Clue'' than ''ISIRTA''. Also, the subtitle "the antidote to panel games" doesn't make as much sense now as it used to -- back when it was created, there were way more 'serious' panel games on the BBC, rather than the generally comic tone [[{{QI}} of]] [[NeverMindTheBuzzcocks those]] [[MockTheWeek played]] [[WouldILieToYou nowadays]]. Graeme once jokingly suggested to change it to "the template for panel games".
* AudienceParticipation: Sometimes prompted, sometimes spontaneous.
** In ''Sound Charades'', the audience will react with either applause or booing depending on how accurate the guesses of the guessing team are.
** In ''Pick-Up Song'', they occasionally clap (something pointed out by Humph is that the audience seldom know the exact rhythm, thus misleading the singer into going faster or slower than they should) or sing along.

** The audience spontaneously claps and cheers at the announcement of Mornington Crescent, and in recent years has also started doing this for "One Song to the Tune of Another".

--->'''Tim:''' Mr. and Mrs. [[MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Pythonsflyingcircus]]... ''(loud crowd cheer)'' ...and their son...Arthur!

-->'''Graeme:''' Snap your garters with riddled mirth!

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: In one episode, Barry buzzed in to ask if an action wasn't in complete violation of the rules. Humph removed some of his marks for not knowing the rules, and Barry buzzed in again, stating that he knew the rules ''now'' and could he have his marks back please. Humph gave them back, but removed them again for interrupting.

** In the earlier years of the show, it didn't tour, so the intro lacks Humph's routine about where the show is being recorded this week.

* TheIllegible: Humph would rag on the producer Jon Naismith for his terrible handwriting, at one point claiming he needed to pin it up on a board and run past it to have any chance to understand it.

* InformedAttribute: Parodied with the "[[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome LASER DISPLAY BOARD]]" (sometimes extra words suggesting technical brilliance are added into the description) which allegedly informs the studio audience of whatever the secret is, as the Mystery Voice does for the listeners at home. Of course, like Samantha it's entirely fictional, and there's an audience laugh when the secret turns out to be written on an ordinary cue card which the show producer runs across the stage with.

* MediumAwareness: Routinely subverted. Since the show is non-fictional, everyone has medium awareness, but the trope is relevant because of the show's tendency to use ''visual imagery'' on the radio. For example, in the (now rarely played) round ''Call My Bluff'', all of the panellists give their own definition of a word, then reveal which one was true. We hear the rustles of paper as the answers are shown (and possibly some interested mumbling), and that's it.

* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: Humph will often introduce a letter from Mrs. Trellis by saying they've received "slightly less than two letters" or "slightly more than one letter".

--->"[Guy Fawkes's] co-conspirators included one Humphrey Lyttelton, who was dragged in chains to Guildford and publicly executed. Imagine the shame brought upon my family. Apparently they were okay about 'publicly executed', but Guildford!"

--->"On one occasion he had tears in his eyes as the rules prevented him from using his mouth to finish off ''Theatre/{{Two Gentlemen of Verona}}''."

* RussianRoulette: Played in one episode.
* SarcasmBlind: The chairman will occasionally vary the "points mean prizes" catchphrase (such as "and points mean failures at Crewe"), while still expecting the audience to yell out "Prizes!" when prompted. Occasionally, however, one or two SarcasmBlind members of the audience will yell out the variation.

** The credits describe the show as "(contestants) were being given silly things to do by (chairman), with Colin Sell setting some of them to music".
* SeriousBusiness: The pretense is that the rounds aren't just sensible games, but ''important'', especially Mornington Crescent.

* SmurfettePrinciple: When Sandi Toksvig first appeared in the 1990s, she remarked how proud she was to be 'in the long line of women who have appeared on the show' (she was the third, and the show had been running for about twenty years at that point.) This provoked considerable laughter from the audience, and a sort of 'oooh' noise from Tim Brooke-Taylor.
** Barry Cryer proceeded to make the apologetic comment "Well, they were all in the factories when we started!"

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''[[Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again]]'', and in some ways to ''Series/TheGoodies''.

** Tim and Graeme both sometimes name-check and mock the BBC executives who hate ''TheGoodies'' and try and stop it being released on DVD.

'''Humph:''' [[PowderKegCrowd Now go and]] [[AdolfHitler invade Czechoslovakia.]]

* ThingOMeter: One episode features one.

-->* bleep* * bleep* and * bleep* * bleep*

-->* bleep* * bleep* and * bleep* * bleep*

** This concept originated with ''[[Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again]]''.
** In one round of ''Closed Quotes'', the quotes came from an interview with {{Ozzy Osbourne}}. Humph censored the more explicit words by honking his horn.

** The sound once dropped significantly in the middle of a joke. Jack asked "Did the sound just drop then, on that?", and got answers of "Yes" from the panel and some of the audience.

* TWordEuphemism: An inversion by Jeremy Hardy during his first appearance in 1996. Hardy fumbles a line, swears and then apologises 'for using the fuck-w'. (This has been left in the CD of the live recording, but obviously was edited out of the broadcast.)

* YesMan: Panellists would occasionally play this for laughs, sucking up to Humph in the most obvious fashion. Once subverted, when Barry mentioned what a marvellous chairman he was and what a great job he was doing. Humph awarded him and Graeme ten points for prefacing with that, and awarded Tim and Willie fifteen points for ''not'' starting with that.

** There's also a round called NoBudget, where the panellists have to think up "cut-price" version of well-known media, such as ''[[WutheringHeights Wuthering Hillocks]]'' or ''[[SherlockHolmes The Chihuahua of the Baskervilles]]''.

The panellists hear the sound of a motorway, and guess which one it is. Other variations include Name That Novellist (where the panellists hear a few seconds of somebody typing on a typewriter), and the most extreme of all -- Name That Silence.

[[spoiler:...Well, alright, it's an absolute load of wahooney consisting of the teams naming random street names and arguing vividly about made-up rules. That doesn't stop the fans from playing it themselves, though.]]

The teams are given characters and sound effects, and then improvise a play from a given genre. Sometimes, the players are given free reign -- other times, the chairman indicates scene changes or mentions which sound effects will have to be included beforehand. Very likely to go off the rails, and sound effects given to the panellists are pretty much guaranteed to pop up after the game's finished. One of the newer rounds, and played about once a series.

-->'''Barry''': "Queen's potato goes out"?
-->'''Graeme''': The Queen lit a potato?
-->'''Barry''': Yeah.

-->'''Barry''': Yeah.

-->'''Barry''': Yes! Not ''here'', obviously, but...

* LongRunner: It's been going for forty years, making it one of Radio 4's longest running programmes.

The teams construct a sentence, taking one word each, with the goal being not to complete the sentence. If the chairman judges that a full stop has been reached, he'll honk his horn (ever since Jack took over, this has been replaced by a gong). Occasionally, each panellist gets a word that they'll have to "seamlessly intergrate" into the story. Common ploys involve forming the sentence "and yet strangely" to force a player to describe something multiple times, or someone -- frequently Tim -- saying "comma" to buy time.

** In the Film Club round, Graeme will [[strike: often]] always do some variation of ''BringMeTheHeadOfAlfredoGarcia''.

* DontExplainTheJoke: A couple of shows have featured someone doing this to cover a joke that didn't get a laugh, ending by adding "and I wish I was dead".
** In one recent episode, Tim did this, and Jack said "Tim, the audience are right."

The panellists combine the names of films to make puns. Really, that's it. Puns can be literal (such as ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_a_Sixpence_(film) Half A Sixpence]]'', ''TheDirtyDozen'' and ''Film/TheExorcist'' being combined to make ''Half A Dozen Eggs''). The meaning of the title can be used rather than the words. (Such as ''Series/AlloAllo'', ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom!_(1968_film) Boom]]'' and ''Film/FarewellMyLovely'' combining to make ''A Short, Meaningless Relationship''. Or ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' and ''Film/FlashGordon'' combining to make ''Would You Mind Accompanying Me To The Station''?) Then there are the truly ''magnificient'' puns, such as Barry combining ''Film/{{Superman}}'', ''Film/KellysHeroes'', ''TheFrenchConnection'', ''Al Capone'', ''Film/FantasticVoyage'', ''Man With the X-Ray Eyes'', ''ThePrincessAndThePea'', ''Film/NightmareAlley'' and ''The Duchess and the Dustman'' to make ''[[MaryPoppins Superkellyfrenchaltasticexpeaalleyduchess]]''. Used to be very popular, but the last time it popped up was in 1995.

*** In the "songbook" version, Barry often does one based on [[MaryPoppins "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"]].

* SmallNameBigEgo: Humph wasn't exactly a small name, but his opinion that the role of chairman made him the most important person in the world was part of his persona. Woe betide the one who discussed the rules of ''Mornington Crescent'' and came to a conclusion -- he'd always burst in with a statement of "''You'' haven't decided anything, it's not up to you to decide anything, I'm the chairman".

* SignatureSong: Some tunes show up a lot in "One Song to the Tune of Another", sometimes as the words and sometimes as the music, including ''A Whiter Shade of Pale'', ''A, You're Adorable'', ''[[GeorgeFormby When I'm Cleaning Windows]]'' and the theme from ''SwanLake''.

One team gives a subject for a blues to the other team. The other team then improvise a blues, with each panellist taking alternate lines. They inevitably start with "I woke up this mornin'". (Occassionally, Humph would specifically mention penalizing a team for starting a blues with that sentence, which inevitably resulted in "I rose from my bed as dawn began" or some other synonym.) Variations included 'Calypso' (always starting with "I [thing related to the topic] the other day") and 'Madrigal'. Used to be one of the most reccurring rounds, but is now rarely played.

The teams take a clean song and make it absolutely filthy by strategic censoring. Still pops up occassionally, but definitely not as common as it used to be.

The teams construct a sentence, taking one word each, with the goal being not to complete the sentence. If the chairman judges that a full stop has been reached, he'll honk his horn (ever since Jack took over, this has been replaced by a gong). Occassionally, each panellist gets a word that they'll have to "seamlessly intergrate" into the story. Common ploys involve forming the sentence "and yet strangely" to force a player to describe something multiple times, or someone -- frequently Tim -- saying "comma" to buy time.

The chairman gives one of the panellists a song which they must sing [[Radio/JustAMinute without hesitation, repetition or deviation]]. (The songs are always picked to make this as ridiculously difficult as possible, such as ''Old Macdonald Had A Farm'' or ''It's Not Unusual''.) Other panellists may challenge at any time if they detect hesitation, repetition or deviation, and if the chairman judges that their challenge is correct, they take over from the point where the previous singer left off. Takes its inspiration, rather obviously, from ''Radio/JustAMinute'' -- Jack has taken to chairing the game using a caricature of Nicholas Parsons' energetic, enthusiastic speaking style. Still played occassionally, often as a substitute to Swanee-Kazoo.

The entire audience get a song displayed on the laser display board, and have to hum it. The panellists attempt to guess what it is. In the live tours, each member of the audience gets their own kazoo for this round. Rarely played, but still pops up occassionally.

One of the most long-running games. The chairman announces a ball for a certain profession, and the panellists come up with names that are puns on this profession. (Frequently taking the format of "Will you welcome, please, Mr. and Mrs. X, and their son/daughter, Y...") The Mad Scientists' Ball, for example, would have "Mr. and Mrs. Tube, and their daughter, Tess Tube" and "Mr. and Mrs. Tomicbomb, and their daughter, Anna". Graeme, if stuck for ideas, will make a "Gordon Bennett" [[hottip:*:"Gordon Bennet" is an exclamation of surprise]] -based joke, such as "Mr. and Mrs. Bennettnotanotherflamingpartypoliticalbroadcast, and their son, Gordon". Was played in the first ever episode, and is still played occassionally as a substitute for ''Film Club''.

[[{{Calvinball}} The Great Game. Any attempt to explain the rules would be]] [[BlatantLies redundant and patronizing]], but it is worth mentioning that the teams frequently play with special rules or regional variations (such as scrundling being disallowed, or a penalty introduced for leapfrogging). This has led some expert players to dismiss them as amateurs for not playing by the original rules -- the teams have responded to this by saying that they find the intricacies of the variations to be of greater priority than a puritan attitude. Nevertheless, they have complied occassionally by playing the original game. As such a tradition could never die, it is still played nowadays.

Also known as ''The Singer And The Song''. Panellists sing songs in the style of a famous personality, drawing on accent imitation and impersonations for the humor. Still played occassionally.

The panellists say one word each, with the goal being not to provoke laughter from the audience. (The chairman often mentions how they've been training a lot for this.) If anyone elicits even the slightest titter from the audience, they're eliminated, and the game goes on until only one remains. InherentlyFunnyWords make this round harder than it sounds. (A variation had the panellists saying punchlines to jokes instead of just words.) Still occassionally played.

Formerly known as ''New Definitions'', and renamed after a book containing the best definitions. The panellists say a word, then give a definition of the word, usually by breaking it down into smaller words or making a pun on an already-existing word. (Such as "Impolite: [[hottip:*:Imp alight]] To set fire to a pixie.") Barry will occassionally say a word and define it as how SeanConnery would pronounce something. ("Pastiche: [[hottip:*:pasties]] What Shean Connery eatsh in Cornwall.") Basically, HurricaneOfPuns at its maximum. Still played.

** In ''Pick-Up Song'', they occassionally clap (something pointed out by Humph is that the audience seldom know the exact rhythm, thus misleading the singer into going faster or slower than they should) or sing along.

* DelayedReaction: In ''Word For Word'', Graeme will occassionally challenge for a connection on two words a long time after they've been spoken.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Yes, on radio. Occassionally on ''Pick-Up Song'', the panellists who aren't singing will banter, joke, make comments or otherwise fool around in the background, aiming to get the singer to crack up.

* LawOfDisproportionateResponse: Humph put up with most of the show, whatever silliness was going on. However, he'd occassionally pause in the middle of a round of ''Closed Quotes'' or ''Notes And Queries'' to point out how stupid or boring the answers were.

* MusicalGag: Colin will occassionally play a quick jingle or {{sting}} after a joke, and whenever the singing rounds get ''really'' off-track, he tends to change the melody around or segue into another song altogether, before continuing as normal.

** In games like ''Just A Minim'' and ''Word For Word'' where challenges are allowed, Humph would occassionally accept a challenge, then let the subject go to anyone except the person who had challenged.
** In ''Uxbridge English Dictionary'', Barry will occassionally say a word ending in '-ish' or '-y', and define it as 'rather like [word]'. (Such as "Vanish: Rather like a van.")

* SarcasmBlind: The chairman will occassionally vary the "points mean prizes" catchphrase (such as "and points mean failures at Crewe"), while still expecting the audience to yell out "Prizes!" when prompted. Occassionally, however, one or two SarcasmBlind members of the audience will yell out the variation.

* ThrowItIn: Humph would occassionally misread something, and the improvisation by the panellists in response to this would usually be thrown in.

* YesMan: Panellists would occassionally play this for laughs, sucking up to Humph in the most obvious fashion. Once subverted, when Barry mentioned what a marvellous chairman he was and what a great job he was doing. Humph awarded him and Graeme ten points for prefacing with that, and awarded Tim and Willie fifteen points for ''not'' starting with that.

-->'''Graeme:''' ...Mr and Mrs Bennett-generic-expression-of-disbelief, and the their son: Gordon. Although in these latter days, Gordon appears to have left home and his younger brothers Bait and Switch accompany their parents.