QI: Difference between revisions

'''Jack Dee:''' Oh no, I know what's going to happen now, it's gonna be... I'm gonna get the klaxon for this, is it boxing? Is it a boxing reference?<br />

'''Stephen:''' ...Yes. }}

{{quote| (''on using horses to catch electric eels'')<br />

'''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.<br />

{{quote| '''Alan''' (''imitating Stephen''): Have him scrubbed and brought to my room.<br />

'''Stephen''': Actually, [[Homoerotic Subtext|don't bother to have him scrubbed.]] }}

{{quote| '''David Mitchell''': Why do these films always forget to put their most famous lines in?}}

* [[Berserk Button]]: Stephen can't stand willful or apathetic ignorance. Naturally, Alan Davies pushes this button whenever he thinks it [[Rule of Funny|might be funny.]] [[Lee Mack]] not only found it in Series H but practically danced on it, leading to the exchange under "Beware The Nice Ones" below.

** Phill Jupitus refuses to believe that the sun sets before we actually see it set.

{{quote| '''Phill''': I ''hate'' this show!.}}

{{quote| [''Stephen has been asking for words that break the 'i before e' rule and Lee has been suggesting "ceiling" for some time, twisting Stephen's words every time he tries to explain it doesn't fit:'']<br />

'''Stephen:''' Are you completely incapable of rational thought?! You ''cannot be'' that stupid. You ''cannot be'' that stupid! }}

* [[Brick Joke]]: "Cashier number four, please."

** And the [[Call Back]] in a later episode, with "Cashier number one, please." "Cashier number two, please." "Cashier number three, please." "{{spoiler|I am very sorry for the severe delay to the 8:17 service (rest inaudible due to laughter)}}"

'''Jo Brand:''' ''[buzzes]'' Have you been talking to my husband?<br />

''[klaxon] [Screen: "HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO MY HUSBAND?"]'' }}

{{quote| '''Stephen''': [''trying to get his attention''] Sean... Sean. Sean, you're not alone; there are people here.<br />

'''Alan''': You're saying it out loud, you're not thinking it. }}

* [[Dirty Old Man]]: In "H-Anatomy", Gyles Brandreth kept coming up with excuses to take Sue Perkins' hand, by "demonstrating" various ways to shake hands etc. She quickly grew both irritated and creeped out by it.

** Irritated and creeped out being the default emotion usually associated with spending time in Brandreth's vicinity...

** And many panelists have produced real pipes from under the table, using them much the same way.

* [[The Ditz]]: 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.

'''Alan Davies''': Heightaphobia.<br />

'''Fry''': Yes - usually we use Greek, don't we, though? }}

* [[Golden Snitch]]: A few episodes have had certain questions or challenges that would give 100 or even 200 points if done correctly. Two series had recurring bonuses -- Series E had the "Elephant In The Room" bonus where at least one question per show would involve an elephant in some way that the panelists had to point out, while in Series F Stephen had a bonus "fanfare" which he would award to particularly interesting answers.

** Inverted by giving certain "obvious but wrong" answers which are deemed incredibly stupid; answering "carbon dioxide" to the question "What is the main ingredient of air?" would have given a deduction of 3,000 points.

'''Stephen:''' Aw, ''stop it''! }}

* [[Kneel Before Zod]]: [[Stephen Fry]] actually says this in a D series [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGwfTOzXUWA episode.]

* [[Large Ham]]: Well, BRIAN BLESSED was involved. Whereas everyone else's buzzers were little Christmas bells (with the obvious exception of Alan Davies), his was big massive church bells. And everyone cheered!

* [[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others]]: [[Butt Monkey|Alan]] is ''[[Running Gag|always]]'' introduced this way.

** When Ross Noble said that the idea of a 'rounded triangle' gave him hope for a "Toblerone-Rolo combo", Phill Jupitus commented that those three words in a Geordie accent were his new favorite sound.

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Stephen accidentally called Sue Perkins "[[Comedy Duo|Mel]]" in the Gothic episode, leading to much embarrassment and [[Running Gag|the panelists giving him grief about it the rest of the episode]].

{{quote| '''Stephen:''' I'm a [[Chariots of Fire|Charioteer]] ''[[Chariots of Fire|of FIRE!]]''}}

* [[The Napoleon]]: Set up and then debunked in one General Ignorance round: political leaders tend to be [[Large and In Charge|above average height]] at the very least, and some are much taller.

* [[Off On a Technicality]]: Subverted when Lee Mack triggered the klaxon by saying "First of December" and the words "DECEMBER THE 1ST" appeared on the screens; he tried to argue he shouldn't lose points as that wasn't what he said, but was informed "you don't get off that easily".

** Even more brutally subverted--or perhaps even inverted--when David Mitchell gave "After 1939" as an answer to "When was the first World War named as such?" After the forfeit "1939" came up, David tried to argue his case, since he'd said "''after'' 1939"...eventually resulting in him getting ''two more forfeits'' in addition to the first. See [[Rage Against the Author]] below.

** Another one started with the origin of the word "vegetarian" and moved on to a debate about motorised monster truck-esque turtles -- unsurprisingly, [[Top Gear|Jeremy Clarkson]] was involved. See [[Completely Missing the Point]] above.

*** Or the Christmas XL special, in which they started talking about Mormon polygamy and went through the Osmonds to figure out that the [[Doctor Who (TV)|Tenth Doctor]] would be killed off by the secret brother Big Graham Osmond ("played by Bill Bailey!"), who lived in the attic and wrote all their songs. Bill Bailey ends up chewing the holly sprig in David Tennant's lapel.

* [[Parallel Porn Titles]]: Discussed in "France". The porn version of [[Mary Poppins]] would be "Mary Popshot" or "Mary Pops-In".

* [[Paranoia Fuel]]: Invoked several times as the panellists become more and more [[Genre Savvy]] about "obvious but wrong" answers; David Mitchell noted how worried the panel were to give an answer they were certain of for fear of the klaxon sounding, and after Jack Dee had finished a very long, rambling answer Ross Noble brought up the idea that the klaxon would go off and the screens would display ''everything'' Jack had just said, word for word.

* [[Pizza Boy Special Delivery]]: Invoked when the panel where discussing the problems of [[Zero G Spot|sex in space]]. Bill Bailey and Alan Davies started musing about what a porno set in space would be like:

{{quote| '''Bill Bailey:''' I'm here to fix the turbo-thrusters.<br />

* [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]]: "You ''can't'' even ''mutilate a tortoise'' anymore!"

* [[Porn Names]]: "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Wood Grant Wood]?"

{{quote| "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NI-ltHISNk I want feet, meters, anyfing! Throw me a fuckin' bone, Fry!]"}}

** Also Fry himself, as part of his [[Sophisticated As Hell]] humor.

'''David:''' ... Why don't you just type, "Mitchell is a cock"?<br />

'''Stephen:''' ''[warningly]'' I wouldn't put it past them. }}

* [[A Rare Sentence]]

{{quote| '''Stephen''': Why might I put my finger up your bottom if you couldn't name seven bald men apart from Yul Brynner? [''[[Beat]]''] That is possibly one of the oddest questions I've ever asked on this show...}}

* [[Re Cut]]: ''QI XL'', a 40-minute version of the show, broadcast the following day.

** Something of an inversion of [[Edited for Syndication]] -- a lot of the apparent points meaning nothing (see below) is ironed out in some episodes by massive forfeits and/or correct answers which were dropped in the edit down to a half-hour; the long edit still drops points, however, and at least once dropped a forfeit (in "Health & Safety," when Alan says "you big gorilla, you," the klaxon can be heard coming in, but is not shown). One presumes that even more than this is normally cut. The repeats on Dave for Series F are exclusively showing ''QI XL'' and not the normal version (and in a few cases even got to air the XL version first because the BBC never bothered).

* [[Released to Elsewhere]]: Phill Jupitus gets off an extended riff on this theme in the context of a discussion of Russian dogs carrying bombs which were trained to destroy tanks.

{{quote| '''Phill''': Don't worry, that one didn't blow up. He lives on a farm now... they really love him; they stroke him a lot.<br />

(''Alan mimes [[Troll|fishing]]'') }}

** There is the occasional double bluff though, such as "How many brains did ''[[The Man With Two Brains]]'' have?" {{spoiler|Two, duh.}}

{{quote| '''David''': This is the technique of the bully! You hit us, and then you go "Oh! You think I was going to hit you? No, this is my hand to ''stroke'' you!" And you hear me go "AHHHH! HE'S STROKING ME!".}}

** And in the XL version of Series F episode "Fingers and Fumbs"...

'''Ross''': Is that with the squeaking noise, is it?<br />

'''Stephen''': No, when I say, that takes me back a bit ''(franticly trying to speak over the audience laughter)'' I don't mean there was a time...! ''(resigned look)'' It's all gone wrong. }}

* [[Throw the Dog A Bone]]: The rare occasions when Alan wins or comes second (although in series G it happened quite frequently).

* [[Too Dumb to Fool]]: As the panelists get more [[Genre Savvy]] and double bluffs become more common, Alan Davies has been earning points by plunging in with the obvious answer while the others sit back and try to decide what the writers are ''really'' asking.

* [[Totally Radical]]: The Series G episode "Groovy" is naturally ''full'' of this. But being QI, it includes a lot of discussion on what era various slang words actually hail from, a lot of them being [[Older Than They Think]].

* [[Treasure Chest Cavity]]: A certain pre-industrial travel guide recommended that travelers prepare for potential theft by making an incision in one arm and hiding a jewel inside the wound, then sewing it up and allowing it to heal. Thus one would have some emergency wealth that robbers wouldn't be able to find.

* [[Unexpectedly Obscure Answer]]: Too frequently to really qualify as "unexpected".

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: At every opportunity, including in the F series with naval semaphore flags. Alan describing a stale chocolate bar as tasting like "old ladies' cupboards" was not a euphemism, although everyone tried to make it one.

* [[Verbal Backspace]]:

{{quote| '''Rob Brydon''': The only thing I have knowledge of is [[But You Screw One Goatthe|the sheep tied to a lamp]]- no, sorry, I have knowledge of '''Cardiff'''.}}

* [[Westminster Chimes]]:

** Used for the buzzer sounds in a first-series episode -- Dave Gorman's buzzer chimed ''mi'', Jeremy Hardy's chimed ''do'', Jo Brand's chimed ''re'', and Alan's [[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others|made a noise like a pneumatic drill]].

** Again in a second-series episode -- each of the first three contestants had a four-note chime, and Alan had a cuckoo clock.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: At one point the intention was to have Michael Palin as the host, with Stephen and Alan as team captains.

{{quote| '''Stephen''': Flobbadob actually means 'flowerpot' in Oddlepoddle. (''beat'') I ''cannot believe'' I just said that.}}

** The great debate in "Garden" on how to kill a honeybee.

* [[Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him]]:

{{quote| '''Stephen''': Do you know the best way to escape a charging polar bear?<br />