QI: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Welcome to ''QI'', the showoff show that sits at the front of the class shouting 'Me sir, me, me, me, sir, me', while other quiz shows are snogging behind the bikesheds."''|'''[[Stephen Fry]]'''}}

 

 

 

Fry asks questions on the topic of the week -- the first few series had no specific theme per week, and their episode titles have been applied retroactively; it was not until Series D that the "topic of the week" really came to the fore. 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 (i.e., 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'': [[Unexpectedly Obscure Answer|obscure]] questions that give the contestants an opportunity to make interesting guesses before Fry reveals the real answer, and questions whose answers seem [[Schmuck Bait|obvious]] but are not, such as "[[Obvious Trap|How many moons does the Earth have?]]". Davies is the [[Butt Monkey|butt]] of a lot of the jokes on the show ([[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others|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 [[Genre Blindness|get the klaxon]] and usually coming last, although he has the record for most show wins), and acts as a sort of foil for the concept by getting the more obvious answers (i.e. the ones the audiences at home are likely hollering at the TV) out into the open to be trounced.

* Series "F": Fanfare - particularly clever answers are heralded with a fanfare sound effect and bonus points. This ended up only appearing in two episodes.

* Series "G": Guest appearance - Stephen would announce that if the panellists wished to argue some unlikely-sounding piece of information, they could do so with [an expert on the subject] who just happened to be sitting in the studio audience.

 

The show has spawned several books (including four QI Annuals), two DVD games (''A Quite Interesting Game'' and ''Strictly Come Duncing''), an [http://www.qi.com/building/club/ Oxford club] an iPhone app and most recently [[The Board Game]]. There's also an official [http://twitter.com/qikipedia Twitter account], maintained by the elves (note the location), which provides trivia and links to Quite Interesting things.

** Not to mention -144 in the Differences episode, after a -150 point penalty for suggesting "Randy" as Gandhi's first name.

** Assuming Alan's above score of -29,000,000 was actually just -29, for the entire series, Alan is currently on a score of -2180.

* [[Exact Words]]: Rich Hall tries to use this to score points in one of his first appearances.

{{quote|'''Rich''': So, wait, we get points for being interesting?

'''Rich''': [[Blatant Lies|In some parts of the world people use linoleum as currency.]]

'''Stephen''': That ''is'' interesting. Is it true?

* [[Exotic Entree]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k-l1HLj9Nk The giant tortoise], which is currently endangered largely ''because'' it's [[Impossibly Delicious Food|so delicious]].

* [[Expospeak Gag]]: But of course...