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A game show shown on [[
The object of the game is to score as few points as possible by giving correct answers that the public have not given, or scoring lower than other contestants. The contestants try to look for answers which score no points, which are known as "Pointless" answers. It works like a reverse version of [[Family
{{tropelist}}
* [[All or
* [[Aside
* [[Bonus Round]]: 3 (later 5) categories, pick one, come up with three answers to the question in a minute. Any of them are Pointless, win the jackpot.
* [[Born
* [[Borrowed
{{quote|'''Richard:''' You know, "let's see if it's right, and if so, how many people said it", yeah?}}
* [[Brian Blessed]]: Guest on one of the celebrity specials (with his daughter Rosalind). [[Chewing the Scenery|And
* [[Captain
* [[Catch
** Richard also has a few: "Hiya!" to both the home audience and [[Studio
** "Our old friend the Central African Republic" (regularly Pointless in geography rounds) is another one.
* [[Celebrity
* [[Consolation
* [[Deadpan
* [[Damned By Faint
{{quote|'''Richard:''' More famous [[Doctor Who|as
'''Alexander:''' She's a very good actor, actually.
'''Richard:''' Are you implying she wasn't a very good singer?
'''Alexander:''' ...She's a very good actor. }}
* [[Dramatic
* [[Early Installment
* [[Epic Fail]]: Every now and again, a team will get two wrong answers in one round, thus "joining the 200 Club". If they manage this on both their appearances they "join the 400 Club" (especially if on both appearances they do so in the first round). The "600 Club" (which would be achieved by a 3rd 100 on the "two pairs get the same score" tiebreaker, on both appearances on the show) would be the theoretical apex of this trope, though no one has yet reached such heights of failure.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y_7089AkCQ Best opening round ever.] And two of those teams managed to get 100 on the next pass ''as well''.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGDz42yzezA This was then surpassed in March 2012]. The category was Robert Redford films, and only three of the 8 contestants had even heard of him. [[Seven
* [[Everything Sounds Sexier in French]]: Whenever a French word or place name comes up in the round, Alexander always enjoys pronouncing it in a fluent [[Large Ham|but overly enthusiastic]] manner, sometimes slightly intimidating the contestants who have just said that word in their normal English accent.
* [[Game Show
* [[Genre
* [[Getting Crap Past the
* [[Hidden
** He does have a degree in English literature, and so can normally cover any related round with ease. In general he's normally better at the rounds than most of the contestants.
* [[Incredibly Lame
* [[Informed
* [[Line-of-Sight
* [[Little-Known
* [[Little
* [[Losing
* [[Lovely
* [[Milestone
** For the 300th episode, Richard actually got up from his desk to exchange gifts with Alexander.
* [[Mission Control]]: Richard sits at a desk with a computer, giving detail on what answers they'll accept, explaining why wrong answers were wrong, etc.
** When Richard appeared on ''[[Would I Lie to You?]]'', his {{spoiler|true}} story involved him going on holiday with the Banker from ''[[Deal or No Deal]]'', implying that he's in a [[Weird Trade
* [[Overly Long
{{quote|'''Richard''': Poor old Sebastian Faulks. Sitting at home, nice cup of tea, thinking, "Oh, I like Pointless..."
'''Alexander''': "Oh, I tell you what, I'll have a little bit of a break from my new - what is it, my seventh novel?"
Line 56:
'''Alexander''': "Quickly! Ring everyone we know!"
'''Richard''': "There's a reflection on the screen! I can't see Tony! I can't see Tony's face when he's gonna say my novel!" And then... ''[["The Reason You Suck" Speech|Look what you did]]''! }}
* [[Pants-
** This has turned into a bit of a [[Running
* [[Progressive
* [[Pungeon
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Richard and Alexander delivered one to both couples in the head-to-head after they failed to remember any Sebastian Faulks novels, asking them to imagine what he'd think if he was watching - see [[Overly Long
** Richard will sometimes give shorter ones to the anonymous 100 people in the surveys, in particular when more of them know something obscure about a frivolous subject like celebrities or reality TV than know something obvious about an important subject such as who's in [[David
* [[Retool]]: The show was revamped for HD broadcast in 2012, with a new set, a slightly changed colour scheme and some modifications to the question scheme: the first head-to-head question is now always a picture round, the second is usually a "Clues to Facts about X" round, and the winning pair have a choice of five rather than three categories for the final.
* [[Rickroll]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SzsM7BCbkQ "Things That Rick Astley Is 'Never Gonna' Do"], with Richard playing the refrain of the song instead of reading off the answers.
* [[Running
** Richard ''Osman'' supposedly being related to [[The
** The Central African Republic as an obscure answer for any question involving "Name a country that is X", invariably being Pointless. In a recent episode it actually scored 2 points and Richard joked that it was because they had been raising awareness for the country on ''[[
** Richard offering the opinion that Armstrong's comedy partner Ben Miller is the more talented of the pair, and that Mitchell and Webb are more talented than either of them, to which Armstrong, being the affable chap he is, will invariably meekly agree.
** After the contestants have been introduced and talked about their interests to Alexander, Richard [[Blatant Lies|
* [[Rules Spiel]]: Shortened after the first series, which included a demonstration of the answer bar decreasing to varying lengths after different answers, using examples from questions from the previous episode.
* [[The Scottish
* [[Shrouded in Myth]] / [[Memetic
{{quote|'''Alexander:''' He is our lantern in the twilit world of the half-known and the barely-remembered - he's my Pointless friend, he's Richard.
'''Richard:''' [[I Read That As|Did you
* [[Springtime for
* [[Studio
* [[Throw It
* [[Title Drop]]: They have [[A Worldwide Punomenon|a lot of fun with
* [[Unexpectedly Obscure
** It's always a possibility in a game that revolves around trying to get the unexpected answer.
** [[Inverted]] on several occasions, where all 100 people asked knew the answer:
*** That parmesan was a type of cheese,
*** That the police are one of the emergency services,
*** That one of the characters in [[The
*** That "Italia" was the Italian translation of Italy,
*** That the queen is a piece in chess
*** and recognising the Eiffel Tower in a "Sights of Paris" picture round
* [[Verbal Tic]]: "Lovely low score" (Alexander Armstrong).
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: Alexander announcing a tie in a 2011 episode in a [[Large Ham|hammy
** The dramatic chord that plays when contestants step up to the podium, as well as the manner in which the [[Insistent Terminology|coveted]] Pointless trophy is introduced.
** Similarily, the lights dimming and the set turning red in the Head-to-Head round.
** Any time Richard makes a point of how many people have been requesting an upcoming round, how much fun it's going to be, how much he's looking forward to it... expect something utterly mundane like "types of trouser" or "varieties of lettuce".
** Alexander's stock line preceding the head-to-head round: "And this is where things get even more exciting!!"
** In one of the celebrity specials, Alexander announces the head-to-head as "the athletes versus [[Chucklevision|the Chuckle
* [[X Makes Anything Cool]]: Richard calling Alexander "Xander".
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[[Category:British
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the
[[Category:Game Show]]
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