alt title(s): Quite Interesting
Stephen Fry: They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is...
Stephen Fry: And to General Ignorance, where we ask Alan Davies...is this a rhetorical question?
*awkward pause*
Alan Davies: (hesitantly) No.
*another pause*
BBC2 comedy
Panel Show, soon to start its seventh season. Each series
begins with a letter of the alphabet and the topics
begin with that letter ("G" next season).
Standing for "Quite Interesting", the show is hosted by
Stephen Fry (a straight-up genius and one time Cambridge student, as well as being a brilliant comedian - see
Blackadder) and always includes Alan Davies on the panel (except for one episode where he instead chose to attend a football match, and got "teleported out" with an
oddly familiar sound effect, only contributing by answering a few questions later in the show by loudspeaker). Davies is the
butt of a lot of the jokes on the show (last on the introductions and getting a funny comment, last on the buzzer sounds and getting a corny buzzer sound, being more likely than the others to
get the klaxon and usually coming last, although he has won on a few occasions). Apart from Davies the panel varies from week to week, but there are a number of very common guests on there (including, but not limited to, Jo Brand, Rich Hall, Bill Bailey, Jimmy Carr, Jeremy Clarkson, Phil Jupitus, Sean Lock, David Mitchell and Clive Anderson).
Fry asks questions on the topic of the week. The guiding principle, as indicated by the show's name, is that knowledge should be interesting, and a sufficiently interesting answer will be awarded points even if it's completely wrong. Conversely, an answer that is both incorrect and uninteresting (ie. if it's the answer anybody would have given) will cause a klaxon to sound, and the contestant will
lose points. There are, consequently, two types of question in
QI: obscure questions that give the contestants an opportunity to make interesting guesses before Fry reveals the real answer, ... and questions that seem
obvious - but they're not. One such question was "
How many moons does the Earth have?". The obvious answer, "one", got the klaxon - the correct answer was, at the time, two, but a repeat of the question in a later series resulted in a klaxon for "two" as well, as several others had been found. Such corrections from one series to the next are not uncommon. (As it turns out, "one" was the correct answer as the subsequently discovered quasi-satellites are not considered moons since they do not orbit the Earth but follow a somewhat skewed solar orbit.)
As with all good
Panel Shows the points are almost entirely
irrelevant and merely provide the
Framing Device for the comedy. The researchers ("QI Elves") nonetheless check that everything is as correct as it can be, often sending messages to Fry about things they've discovered while the programme is recording (especially if the guests have sent things onto a
very distant tangent to what the question was actually about, which happens quite often).
This show is funnier than it sounds and can lead onto some amusing tangents. It's also
very educational. One of the interesting things is how much comedians turn out to know about obscure subjects, for instance Rory McGrath spouting the Latin names of birds, or Vic Reeves turning out to be an expert on pirates (this being before he displayed his knowledge as the presenter of
Vic Reeves' Pirates and
Pirate Ship... Live, rumour has it that the existence of the latter may have something to do with the former).
This is a post-
Watershed show and things have a tendency to get very scatological, very quickly. An interesting case involved a question on the original purpose of corn flakes. Johnny Vegas made a joke about masturbation. Turned out, he was on the right track (the original makers thought they'd suppress male libido).
A new feature for series "E" was the "Elephant in the Room" bonus, in which the panel have to identify where the elephant is in this week's questions.
The show has spawned four books (
The Book of General Ignorance,
The Book of Animal Ignorance,
The QI Annual and
The QI F Annual), two DVD games (
A Quite Interesting Game and
Strictly Come Duncing) and an
Oxford club
. There's also an official QI
Twitter account, maintained by the elves (note the location), which provides trivia and links to Quite Interesting things.
It returned for the "F" Series in January on
BBC One (having previously been on BBC 2) after it managed to be the highest rated show on BBC 4 and Dave.
The G series has now been filmed, and is due for an autumn release. New guests this year include
David Tennant and
John Hodgman. First episode airs in the UK on 28 November.
This show contains examples of:
- Acceptable Targets: like all good English TV, France and America (and occasionally Ireland, Scotland and Wales) are constantly the butt of jokes.
- Although in the episode about France it was pointed out that the French have a very solid military record, refuting the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys stereotype.
- Anticlimax
Stephen Fry: They say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is... that
there are no straight lines!
Alan Davies:
What-ever!
- Arson Murder And Jaywalking
[on using horses to catch electric eels]
Stephen Fry: And the poor horses, of course, often had heart attacks and died of fright and drowned and got very upset, so it was rather mean.
Jo Brand: "Got very upset"?
Stephen Fry: Yes. "Distressed" is the word we use with animals.
Alan Davies: "I don't like it in the water w' the eels! Oowwwwwwwwwwwwww!"
- Butt Monkey: Alan Davies. Notable are when he got a forfeit for his answer to "How are you?" and the time Stephen hooked his buzzer to the klaxon.
- Also Stephen at those times when everyone gangs up on him. "Stephen doesn't have beer goggles, he has Madeira pince-nez!..." "...You're all rotters and I hate you."
Sean Lock: Steven has his pants made by exquisite boys.
Jimmy Carr: I'm not wearing that one, he's got a mole on his face.
Stephen Fry: Oh God, help.
Stephen Fry: (Detailing the Royal family's Christmas) At 5pm the whole family has a cup of Earle Grey, except for the Queen, who has her own Indian blend...
Stephen Fry: *headesks*
- Camp Gay: Wo ist mein Handy?
- Catch Phrase (as yet, averted. This was noted on the "F" series, which looked at some other famous catchphrases, including "Has your mother sold her mangle?")
- A case can be made for Stephen's "good evening good evening good evening..." spiel, his "and I use the word <x> quite wrongly", or Alan guessing the blue whale.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Jo Brand. Nearly all the smart-ass answers to the question get buzzed, except hers, which no one could have thought of.
- Crowd Song: "They say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is..."
- Also, Stephen told the audience to sing the German national anthem. They sang the opening phrase of Deutcheland Uber Alles, the first verse of which is no longer used, and this got them the first-ever audience forfeit.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: The below-mentioned role reversal, as well as David Mitchell's rant against his school, Stephen's rant about why Lew Wallace was utterly justified in writing a book about Roman chariot racing, and others.
- Also, the "They say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is..." incident: making Stephen Fry break down like that is very impressive.
- In one episode, the contestants were all given magnetic boards with a random assortment of fridge-magnet letters and encouraged to use them to create interesting words throughout the night. Jimmy Carr managed to use all of his letters to produce "PUT SMARTIES TUBES ON CATS LEGS MAKE THEM WALK LIKE A ROBOT".
- Helen Atkinson-Wood correctly identifying the chemical formula for an explosion in a custard factory, prompting Stephen Fry to ask, "How the hell did you know that?"
- Dave Gorman turning up, and then breaking the game in his first question.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: During a Christmas episode, Alan was allowed to take over from Stephen as the chair (with Stephen mentioning that, traditionally, at Christmas the servants were waited on by the masters for a change) for the General Ignorance round. Naturally, he spent the entire round targeting Stephen with questions and delighting in hitting the klaxon, resulting in Stephen finishing last out of all five contestants.
- Bonus points for Fry actually getting the first question right.
- He got one of the following ones right too - which way does water go down the plughole in the northern hemisphere? Any way you want it to.
- Fry asks what you might do with donkey milk;
Phil Jupitus: Donkey milk! It probably makes an amazing cheese.
Stephen Fry: Well oddly enough that's the one thing it doesn't.
Johnny Vaughan?: Phil, come on, you're so naive. Sometimes, honestly...
Phil Jupitus: I want donkey cheese!
- Deadpan Snarker: Rich Hall, most notably.
- Example, following the aforementioned "moons" discussion
Stephen: What is the only man-made artifact visible from the moon?
Rich: *
Buzz* Which moon are we talking about, here?
Stephen: What do you call a group of baboons?
Rich: *
Buzz* A
Pentagon.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Johnny Vegas. Considered The Scrappy by some fans.
- Freud Was Right: in one episode, the audience laughs uncontrollably as the formula for paper folding comes up.
Stephen: What matters is thickness and length (of the paper).
- This may qualify as CMOF, as quite a few innuendos had been delivered by that point and Rob Brydon simply gives Stephen an "oh really?" look...
- Genre Savvy: Witness any moment when Stephen Fry asks a seemingly straightforward question... only for an awkward pause to ensue as no one wants to give the obvious answer, because they think it's a trap.
- A related phenomenon is people spotting the trap, but giving the wrong answer anyway, just to get it out of the way. Also, it's not unknown for people to give a "wrong" answer, expecting the klaxon, only to find out their answer is the correct one.
- Golden Snitch: A few episodes have had certain questions or challenges that would give 100 or even 200 points if done correctly.
- Humans Are Bastards: Alan Davies invokes this trope here.
- Ho Yay: Quite a bit, and all played for laughs of course. Aside from the unsubtle flirting between Alan and Stephen, there's a lot among other contestants as well. Most notably, Rob Brydon and Ben Miller kissing in the 'Future' episode of "F" series. And there's the endless innuendo...
- Incredibly Lame Pun: so, so many, often delivered to a groaning audience.
Alan: See, they've got standards.
- Insufferable Genius: Your Mileage May Vary, but Rory McGrath came off to many as awfully show-offy to many people during his first appearance, to the point where Sean Lock got extremely annoyed with him and started to mock him relentlessly: "you're doing atomic number wheelies, aren't you?"
- Another case of variable mileage, but John Sessions may qualify, to the extent that he was given a buzzer that consisted of an over-eager child saying 'Sir, Sir! I know Sir!'
- Loads And Loads Of Characters : Averted- of all the BBC Panel Games, this is the worst offender for repeat guests, possibly bar Mock The Week. This is probably due to not having any fixed 'theme' to the show, so they're unable to pluck participants from the worlds of politics and media, music or sport, and must make do with a limited number of comedians.
- No Export For You: The cost of clearing the rear-projected images for international showing has put paid to no fewer than four attempts to bring the programme stateside. However, in 2009 Series F was broadcast in Australia. Also, the show has been remade for the Dutch market.
- Only Sane Man: Stephen, obviously.
- Overly Long Gag: During series '"E"', there was an episode centered around "endings". The buzzers for the first three included the sound of a church gong, signifying death, the sound of a guillotine sliding down, and the final strums of a banjo tune. Alan's is what seems to be the last frantic chords of a piano... which then keep continuing on for another 30 seconds before stopping. During this, Stephen keeps trying to continue with the show, before the piano starts up again. He does this about 3 times.
- Precision F Strike: Phil Jupitus loves using these.
"Feet? Meters? Anything?! Throw me a fuckin' bone!"
- Ralph Wiggum: Alan Davies, dear god, Alan Davies! This is likely at least partly an act, as he has noted on his twitter that the producers like it when he plays the idiot, though he also notes this isn't difficult to do.
- Recut: QI XL, a 40-minute version of the show, broadcast the following day.
- Possibly an aversion of Edited For Syndication, as the repeats on Dave for the F series is exclusively showing QI XL and not the normal version.
- Running Gag: Everything involving Alan Davies, from his comical buzzer noise to finishing last almost every time.
- Although since he's the only panellist who is on every show, even though he usually loses he's still won more games than any other panellist...
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: The horse from the "electricity" episode.
- The Points Mean Nothing: Even the show's creators don't know how the scoring works - they apparently hire a man to sit in a room and work it out, and no-one knows how he decides it. The placings can actually be quite important, especially if you're a fan of Alan Davies.
- That's true of the points related to the questions, but Stephen gives the points for things that are "quite interesting". There is, supposedly, an actual formula or line-of-thought he uses to do so when awarding points, but no one has managed to figure out how exactly it works.
- The klaxon, at least, is a uniform -10 unless it's an incredibly stupid answer (like saying carbon dioxide makes up the bulk of the atmosphere).
