Just a Minute/Funny: Difference between revisions

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* Given the subject of "Body language", Stephen Fry opened thus:

:: This was as far as he was able to get before riotous laughter from the audience, the other panellists, and host Nicholas Parsons cut him off. Eventually Paul Merton pressed his buzzer and balanced a smaller crown atop Stephen's.

* Sir Clement Freud was given the opening subject of "Answering back" in one episode. When Nicholas finished his opening spiel about having sixty seconds to speak without hesitation, repetition, or deviation, "starting now", Clement simply replied:

* Sue Perkins, upon gaining the subject "Chick Lit", gave a hilarious parody/deconstruction of the "chick lit" genre.

* In Dara O Briain's first episode, he gets the subject "Stiff upper lip" with fifty seconds left and immediately gets challenged for hesitation. Nicholas agrees with the challenge but decides to let him keep the subject because he's new. He starts again: "Being Irish..." Clement challenges him [[Rule of Funny|for deviation, for starting too quickly this time]]. Dara starts again: "Being Irish..." Paul challenges for repetition, but Dara says it's not his fault he didn't get to finish the sentence, prompting an argument ("So with the two words "being Irish," you've got me for hesitation, repetition and deviation"). Nicholas lets him keep the subject. Dara: "As a Paddy..." Paul then challenges for deviation for ''not'' saying "being Irish." Dara finally gets the thing off the ground with, ''"Not hailing from these shores..."'' [[Shaggy Dog Story|and ends up losing the subject after a sentence and a half anyway]].

* In a 1974 episode, Kenneth Williams was given the subject "Immanuel Kant", and initially spoke for 39 seconds about Kant's life and ''The Critique of Pure Reason'' until Barry Cryer buzzed him for perceived deviation. Nicholas overruled the challenge, but Kenneth was apparently more than usually thrown by the interruption, leading to the following:

'''Derek:''' D'you mind if I go home? There doesn't seem to be a point, does there really! }}

:: This then opened the floodgates for first Clement, then Derek, and finally Barry to buzz in with non-challenges simply because they wanted Kenneth to have extra points... then, when Kenneth was finally able to get going again, Derek ''finally'' successfully challenged him for repetition. The massive number of points he accumulated during the round was enough to hand Kenneth a rare win for the game.

** Ross Noble stumbles on a great pun with the subject "chipmunks": they're holy men that worship fried food, in chippies... or friaries.

** Nicholas says he's going to clear his throat and asks them to cut it out.

'''Paul:''' Let's have a show of hands! All those who want Nicholas to cut his throat, put your hands up!... That's a forest, I call that a forest! }}

** And:

'''Paul:''' Well, not ''just'' a G. There's an N, there's an O... I could go on! }}

** At one point, [[Fate Worse Than Death|the watch started running backwards]].

* [[Ross Noble]]'s claim for the benefit of foreign listeners that [[British Accents|his Geordie accent is "the poshest in all the land."]]

* Ross Noble and Tony Hawks' argument as to whether or not moles can have jobs.

* Clement gets the subject "Records" at the very end of a round that's beginning to drag on a little: "The great thing about Virgin Records is that they have no" -- ''[whistle]'' -- [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|"holes in them."]]

* [[David Mitchell]], on his first appearance, started with the first subject and was buzzed on the grounds of hesitation by Clement Freud before he'd said a word. Nicholas then ruled it was not a valid challenge and gave David a point, prompting this:

** Clement's challenge merits a mention as well:

:: Note that the challenge happened after ''less than half a second''. (Needless to say, it was not meant seriously and was simply Clement's way of "welcoming" David to the show.)

* In 2003, when the subject was "one minute"...

'''Ross Noble''': No, it's a minute. }}

* The episode from August 2010 where, in the final round, the other panellists ''constantly'' buzz in on John Sergeant knowing their challenge is wrong.

* From a 2012 episode, Charles Collingwood gets the subject "The Contents of Nicholas' Wallet". He claims that Nicholas has the body of a small labrador in his wallet, squashed up tight. Julian Clary challenges with the statement "Let's just...stop this now". Nicholas says, incredulously, "Exactly! I've got the body of a labrador in my wallet...?" Cue Paul Merton: "''[[Sarcasm Blind|So you admit it!]]''"

* In one 1993 episode, Peter Jones challenged Clement Freud for hesitation while he was speaking on the subject of "ginger", and Paul Merton pointed out "There was a repetition of 'restaurant'."

'''Nicholas:''' And obtruse! [[Rant-Inducing Slight|I tactfully suggested that you could challenge later, you did challenge later,]] [[Motor Mouth|you got in there with another repetition of]] ''[[Motor Mouth|(devolves into gibberish)]]'' and Clement Freud is right, so actually I'm entitled now to say to you, yes, that is right, 'cause Clement Freud did repeat 'restaurant' before and so you get a point for a correct challenge to take away from Clement Freud and--''(devolves into gibberish again)''<br />

'''Derek Nimmo:''' ...He's finally flipped!<br />

'''Paul:''' Could I have that last ruling in writing? }}

* In a 1974 episode, Derek Nimmo was given the subject of "old Nick", and inevitably took the bait to launch into an energetic diatribe against Nicholas:

'''Nicholas:''' The round of applause was for the glass of water that I threw over Derek Nimmo! }}

** As if portending the chaos ahead, when Nicholas announced the subject of "old Nick", a passing emergency siren could be heard in the background.