Would I Lie to You?/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Myleen Klass: Every woman, as you know, goes up and down in their underwear, and so--
Leslie Ash: Sorry?!

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Following the disappointing bookings for series 3 (see WTH Booking Agency below), the much improved guest roster for series 4 was much welcomed.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: During Dara O'Briain's story about needing to wear a cycle helmet in bed because of the violent nature of his dreams, Rob interrupts with a story about how he once dreamt he was spooning a lion. It has no relevance to anything being said beyond the fact that it is a dream, which David promptly points out before Lee drags the story back on-topic.
  • Dude, Not Funny: The host's autocue jokes are expected to push the bounds a bit, but sometimes they fall flat. The succession of Jimmy Savile jokes Angus Deayton read out following Claudia's story about Jim'll Fix It drew disgust from both the panel and audience and have been banned from being re-aired by the BBC.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Stand-up comedians are generally the guests with repeat appearances, but other guests have been good enough to get a return appearance, among them Gabby Logan and Stephen Mangan.
    • It seems to be generally agreed that Nick Hewer stole the show on his series 5 appearance.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In one episode of Series 1, Angus Deayton read out a joke referring to Carol Vorderman as "mutton dressed as lamb". When the panel and audience reacted, he said "She's not here, she'll never be invited on, so it doesn't matter". She did eventually appear as a guest...in the first episode shown after Deayton had left.
    • Angus Deayton closed out one episode with the remark "I leave you with news that according to scientists, you should never trust somebody who speaks in a dull, flat monotone, which begs the question - just what is Ken Livingstone trying to hide?" Made much funnier when Livingstone was actually a guest on the show the following series.
    • This.
    • In response to Kelvin MacKenzie's claim that the "This Is My" guest had built him a nuclear bunker:

David Mitchell: If there's a nuclear war, I don't want to live...I have no skills. Okay, society is destroyed by a nuclear war, we're basically - we're back to the bronze age...how long is it gonna be before people start pitching panel shows again? It's gonna be at least 2000 years!
Frankie Boyle: I'd love to see you in like a Mad Max type of society, as everyone's holding off a biker gang, and you're going "I can think of an amusing reason why one of these four might be the odd one out".

    • After this, the third series of That Mitchell and Webb Look had "The Quiz Broadcast", a series of sketches in which David's character hosted a post-apocalyptic Game Show in a world that had been destroyed by the Event.
    • Similarly, Rob Brydon imagining David and Keeley Hawes going on a date after series 4 episode 1 of That Mitchell and Webb Look.
    • Rob Brydon introduced Rhod Gilbert as the man who provided voiceovers for Wales tourism adverts, then suggested that they should have got someone "a little more famous, perhaps with his own hit panel show" to do it instead. A few weeks after the episode went out, the BBC announced they'd commissioned a BBC 1 panel show with Gilbert as host.
  • Ho Yay: Quite a bit, especially since Brydon took over as host.

Rob Brydon: I met a girl in cyberspace, glitterbabe22, and we started chatting, and eventually ended up having cybersex. ... Turns out we had a lot in common in real life. I was the host of Would I Lie to You? -- "she" was a team captain on Would I Lie to You? (looks directly at David Mitchell)

    • Heck, in his first appearance as a guest he spent half the time flirting with Robert Webb and David Mitchell.
    • Upon being confronted with a story about Blue Peter presenters Simon Groom and Peter Duncan having a fight in the Blue Peter garden over a parking space because they "didn't get on", David Mitchell suggests that perhaps there was another force at work:

David Mitchell: Maybe they actually really did get on. Deep down, there was a lot of love there, but a lot of love and complicated feelings and tears and hate, and they start fighting just to touch! To touch another human! And then the fighting starts getting a bit amorous, and then they're kissing and fighting and scratching their clothes off each other, and then they fall in the pond and it's fine and there's no sex.

    • The episode featuring John Barrowman naturally had its fair share of this.
    • Received an inevitable lampshading when David's "Possession" claim in series 4 episode 8 was a travel-size dressing gown:

David: To be honest, Lee, I don't know why you go into so many situations with me expecting arousal.

    • And again in series 5:

Lee [to David]: You're just like my wife! In many ways!

    • As of series 6, it's not even subtext any more.

[Lee is claiming that the initials of his ex-girlfriends spell BERMUDA]
Lee: D... Dave. Experimental year. [Points at David] And if you've forgotten it, I'll never forgive you!

  • Memetic Mutation: The Hoot Owl of Death seems to be heading this way.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Rob Brydon as host is far more involved in the action than Angus Deayton was and there have been moments where the focus has gone entirely off either team (and the ostensible fact they are discussing) and landed squarely on him; one of the worst cases was the first episode in series 4, where Martin Clunes' turn was more or less abandoned for the sake of Brydon's impressions.
  • They Just Didn't Care: The series 6 promotional material reused all the promotional images from series 5, and used clips from previous series in the trailer. This lack of effort was made obvious because David Mitchell had grown a beard between series.
  • What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: The set design for series 3 onwards.
  • WTH Booking Agency: There were some... questionable choices of guests (Kelvin MacKenzie and Janet Street-Porter amongst them) in the third series.
    • The appointment of Paul Henry as host of the New Zealand version of the show.
  • WTH Costuming Department: Lee is generally dressed more casually than David or Rob (who are invariably wearing suits), which occasionally leads to some bizarre clothing (in series 5 he appears to be wearing pyjamas and a biker jacket in different episodes).
  • The Woobie: Miranda Hart in Series 5, episode 1.