University Challenge: Difference between revisions

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British quiz show centering on teams of university students competing against one another. It's been [[Long Runner|running for so long]] and is so popular that it's become pretty much a part of the cultural landscape. In other words, it's a British institution about British institutions. It ran from 1962-87 on [[ITV]] under the stewardship of Bamber Gascoigne, and was [[Revival|revived]] on [[The BBC]] in 1994, hosted by famously acerbic news broadcaster Jeremy Paxman.

* [[Parody Names]]: There have been many, many parodies of the show, and about 90% of them use the same parody name - "Universally Challenged".

* [[Repeat What You Just Said]]: An amusing exchange from the 2007 Manchester vs. Wadham College Oxford match.

'''Paxman''': NO! }}

* [[Small Reference Pools]]: Inverted. The questions cover a ludicrous range and while most are pretty highbrow, there was one starter question about episodes of ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'' and a picture round about identifying [[Harry Potter|Defence Against The Dark Arts teachers]] from their screen portrayals.

** It's worth considering that he also answered [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|every single question correctly.]] The first one to do so.

* [[Take That]]: Paxman occasionally delivers these towards the subjects of the questions.

(''to a team that had been messing up a bonus round on the theories of Marshall MacLuhan'') You've confirmed what I thought: nobody reads this nonsense anymore. }}

* [[Unexpectedly Obscure Answer]]: Not really unexpected, as the difficulty of these questions is basically the point. Occasionally, though, Paxman will comment that he doesn't know how the contestants are expected to know a certain answer.