QI
| QI | |
|---|---|
| File:QI title.jpg The QI title screen. | |
| Created by | John Lloyd |
| Presented by | Stephen Fry |
| Starring | Alan Davies Other panellists |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 49 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 29 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC |
| Release | 11 September, 2003 – present |
QI, standing for Quite Interesting and a play on IQ, is a comedy panel game television show hosted by Stephen Fry and shown on BBC Two and BBC Four, while older, syndicated episodes are shown on UKTV G2. QI is one of the most successful shows shown on its channel, having the highest ratings of any show on BBC Four.[1]
It is distinguished by the awarding of points not necessarily for the correct answer, but rather, for an interesting one. Many of the questions and answers are extremely obscure. Points are deducted from a panellist who gives an obvious but wrong (that is to say, boring or conventional) answer, typically one that is generally accepted as true but is, in fact, false. It is therefore possible (and quite likely) that a panellist will have a negative point score at the end of the game. In the words of the QI website, regular panellist "Alan Davies has turned this aspect of the game into somewhat of an art form."
Format and conception
The panel consists of four panellists, one of whom, Alan Davies, appears in all episodes, except for one episode in series four (although he does appear at the beginning and through voiceover for the rest of it). He is the frequent target of jokes — mainly initiated by Stephen Fry — and is the panellist who normally offers up most of the "obvious but wrong" answers. Therefore, he usually finishes last. He also holds the record for the lowest score in a single episode (series 4, episode 7), of -144. This was due to him guessing that Gandhi's first name was "Randy" (the correct answer is Mohandas Karamchand) thus resulting in a 150 point penalty. Davies was leading by 3 points at the time, and would have won if he had not got the penalty.
To date, Davies has won only three times: in episode 10 of the first series and in episodes 6 and 9 of the fourth series, which is nearly a three-year gap between the first and second victories. However, his third victory was helped due to Fry accidentally giving away the answer to a special bonus question, scoring 50 points. However, it was discovered he would have won anyway with out the bonus. This third win puts him towards, if indeed not at, the top of the QI leaderboard in wins — though since he's been on every episode of the 40-plus so far, his win percentage is small at 6.122%[2].
What kind of a hellish quiz is this?
— Panellist Phill Jupitus[3]
Most other panellists come from a stand-up comedy background, although there have also been musicians, actors, television personalities and poets including Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Clarkson, Gyles Brandreth and Roger McGough.
Questions are sometimes misleading or fiendishly difficult. Unusually, the audience are sometimes allowed to answer questions when the panel cannot answer them. This once resulted in the audience winning one show by answering just one question, scoring two points.
Providing an "obvious but wrong" answer results in a sequence of klaxons. In the first and second series, Stephen Fry produced the answer on a card to show the panellists, while it also flashed on the large screens behind them (excepting the very first episode, when only the cards were used). In the third series and onward, Fry's answer cards were dispensed with altogether, leaving only the screens as proof that the answers given had been predicted.
Tangential discussions and even complete non-sequiturs abound on the show, for panellists are apt to branch off into frivolous conversations, give voice to train of thought, and share humorous anecdotes from their own lives.
Writer and former BBC producer John Lloyd devised the format of the show, and it is produced by Quite Interesting Ltd., an organisation set up by Lloyd.
The show was originally conceived as a radio show, with Lloyd as chairman. When it was decided that the show would air on television, Michael Palin was offered the job of chairman with Fry and Davies as captains of 'clever' and 'stupid' teams respectively.[4]
The theme tune was composed by Howard Goodall, who has twice appeared as a panellist on the show.
Buzzers
Each of the panel has a buzzer, the sound of which is often based along some sort of theme. The sounds are demonstrated at the beginning of the programme, but are sometimes changed in some way the very next time they are used. Davies' buzzer usually contradicts the others' in some amusing way. Davies' buzzer has been the last to be demonstrated in every episode except for the pilot, in which he went first and Eddie Izzard, with a sillier buzzer, went last.
General Ignorance
In a parody of ubiquitous general knowledge quizzes, the final round is off-topic and called "General Ignorance", focusing upon seemingly-easy questions which have "obvious but wrong" answers. Whereas in the main rounds of the show, the panellists' use of buzzers is not usually enforced, the "General Ignorance" questions are introduced by Fry's reminder to keep "fingers on buzzers".
One Christmas episode saw Davies making a stand and announcing that he didn't want to do General Ignorance because he always got the questions wrong, saying that he "will not be humiliated at Christmas". In turn, Fry offered to switch places with him, to the delight of the audience. Despite the seeming spontaneity of the swap, it was undoubtedly pre-planned (at least on the part of Davies and the producers), as evidenced by the fact that Davies, in turn, produced his own set of questions on loose-leaf paper, most of which he directed at Fry. At the end of the show, Fry announced that the game's loser was, in fact, he himself, as a result of his conceding to many of Davies' traps.
Extra tasks
In some episodes, panellists are given an extra task to complete during the course of the game. Those who do the best are often awarded extra points. One of the most famous was a special 200 point bonus question, about the chemical formula for the explosion in a custard factory. The question was correctly answered by Helen Atkinson-Wood, who managed to score a grand total of 200 points, the highest ever score in QI.
Episodes
The first series started on 11 September 2003. All of the questions (with the exception of the final "General Ignorance" round) were on subjects beginning with "a" except in the Christmas Special (e.g., "arthropods", "Alans", "astronomy", etc.) A second series of 12 programmes started on 8 October 2004. In a continuation of the established theme, subjects began with the letter "b" (except in two episodes, one about music and one about colour). Series three started on 30 September 2005, and all subjects began with the letter "c" (e.g. "custard, cheating"). The fourth series, Series D, began filming on 19 April 2006 and began transmission on 29 September 2006. (Danger, Death, Dogs). The fifth series, Series E, is currently being recorded, with the first two episodes recorded were themed on electricity[5] and exploration.[6]
Most appearances
This list contains the people who have made the most appearances.
- Alan Davies (permanent panellist, to Fry's immediate right)
- Rich Hall
- Jo Brand
- Phill Jupitus
- Bill Bailey
- Sean Lock
- John Sessions
- Clive Anderson
- Jimmy Carr
Many of the frequent participants are managed by the Off the Kerb Productions comedy group.
Highlights
The questions are, as in many comedy panel games, mainly created to set up jokes or discussions, rather than for any serious competition. Certain questions are purposely contradictory to established doctrine for the sake of entertainment. For example, to the question "How many planets are there in the solar system?", Alan Davies gave the answer "Nine" and lost points for an "obvious but wrong" answer, the explanation being that at the time a debate was occurring over whether Pluto was indeed a planet (see 2006 definition of planet). However, as the International Astronomical Union still defined Pluto as a planet at the time of questioning, the answer "nine" would have been a "correct" answer, if one accepted the contemporaneous IAU definition.
A further example of this purposeful contradiction occurred during the second series, when the question "How many moons does the Earth have?" was asked. Alan Davies had, in the previous series, been given negative points for answering "One" to the same question, due to the presence of the asteroid Cruithne which has an orbital resonance with Earth (although it is not normally defined as a natural satellite). This time, he was again given negative points for answering with "two", which was counted as correct during the first series. The change in answer was attributed to the recent discovery of new satellites ((54509) 2000 PH5, (85770) 1998 UP1 and 2002 AA29) that share a similar resonance to Cruithne with respect to the Earth. In the Series 1 episode, Rich Hall returned the question when, following this, in response to the question "What man-made artifacts can be seen from the moon with the naked eye?" he said, "Which moon are we talking about?"
Another highlight came when Rory McGrath demonstrated his extensive knowledge of the elements of the Periodic Table and Latin names for birds, but by doing this he became too interesting and began to bore the other panellists, so much so that Sean Lock pretended to be dragged under the desk while Rory and Stephen were discussing bird names ("I am so sorry, there's a portal into the underworld down there! It's ridiculous!") He continued to mock Rory after that ("Do I get more points if I say the answer in another language?") but apparently in good spirit.
A "Luvvie Alarm" has on occasion sounded when a guest does a blatant name drop. It was originally used on John Sessions when he name dropped Robert Redford in series 2, and was used on Fry (when Sessions came back as a panelist in an episode of series 3), when he mentioned a party he had attended hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Westminster (as pointed out by guest Clive Anderson, the Duke was [at the time of recording] the second richest man in the UK after Roman Abramovich; as of 2006, he is currently third-richest after Abramovich and Lakshmi Mittal).
At the end of the third series, Dara Ó Briain was deducted points for having stated, in the series before, that the triple point of water is zero degrees Celsius, an answer which earned him points at the time. Some viewers, however, wrote in to say that the triple point of water is in fact 0.01 degrees, and so the points awarded Dara in the previous series were revoked. Dara humorously retorted with, "How many people sat at home watching that and said, 'It's just a comedy show, but I'm not letting that fecker get away with that!'?"
Some people have suggested that answers to questions are rehearsed in advance, in order to provide a more entertaining programme, an accusation also headed towards shows such as Have I Got News for You. On the official website the makers of the show insist that this is not the case, and instead a series of "warm up" questions are asked before recording starts.
Although many of the facts presented on the show are correct, there have been the occasional slip-up, such as announcing the age of the oldest woman to be 125 when she died, when in fact she, Jeanne Calment, only lived to be 122. In Series 1 Episode 6 Fry said that the world's largest frog, the Goliath frog, was 3 ft long, when in fact it's only 13 inches long.
QI culture
In October 2004 a QI café/bar, eclectic bookshop and private members' club opened at Quite Interesting Ltd's headquarters, on Turl Street in Oxford. For the duration of the series, the bar shows the broadcast episode every Friday. The club intends to promote things that are 'quite interesting', and arranges speakers and events.
On 14 November 2005 an interactive QI game on DVD was released by Warner Home Video.
After much pressure from fans, the BBC's DVD division, 2 entertain released the first TV series on DVD on 6 November 2006. The DVD also contains the pilot, which has never been broadcast, and features to date the only appearance of Eddie Izzard as a panellist.
On 5 October 2006, The Book of General Ignorance was published in hardback by Faber and Faber, with a foreword by Stephen Fry and "Four words by Alan Davies" - "Will this do, Stephen?". It contains a list of 200 popular misconceptions, most of which have appeared in the "General Ignorance" round of QI. On 8 December 2006, the book reached the top of amazon.co.uk's best-seller list. The book is to be released in America (with a different cover) on 7 August 2007.
A second book, The Book of Animal Ignorance is to be released on 4 October 2007. An annual is also to be published on 1 November 2007.[7]
A QI feature has appeared in BBC MindGames magazine from its fifth issue and is based on facts and questions in the sphere of General Ignorance. From 10 February 2007 a weekly QI column began in The Telegraph; 52 columns are planned.
The QI Elves
The Elves devise the questions for QI. The Elves spend their time researching several topics, constantly trying to find things 'quite interesting'. Often, when a subject is brought up in the show, the Elves will contact the show mid-way to provide and even correct information given. The panellists are given the list of questions to be asked an hour or two before recording, but are forbidden to ask the Elves for preparatory materials or other help.[8] It is known that Alan never does any preparation at all.[8]
The current Elves are:[9]
"Whales do have bones in their penises." I get the weirdest text messages.
— Host, Stephen Fry
- Garrick Alder
- Matt Coward
- Piers Fletcher
- Christopher Gray
- James Harkin
- Molly Oldfield
- Justin Pollard
Former Elves are:[9]
References
- ^ QI.com Audience figures.
- ^ 3 is 6.12245% of 49. Figure correct as of December 2006.
- ^ Season 1, Christmas Episode, 22:07
- ^ Last among eQIals
- ^ QI E01 Recording Review QI Talk on blogspot. Created on 11 May 2007. Accessed 11 May 2007
- ^ QI E02 Recording Review QI Talk on blogspot. Created on 12 May 2007. Accessed 13 May 2007
- ^ QI Book Releases For 2007 QI Talk blog. Created 19 April 2007. Accessed 12 May 2007.
- ^ a b QI Series 1 DVD Factoids
- ^ a b www.qi.com The QI Elves, accessed 17 January 2007
External links
- Official site at bbc.co.uk
- Quite Interesting Ltd
- QI at IMDb
- QI portal at The Telegraph
- QI Transcripts
- QI at UKGameshows.com
- Score for QI Theme Tune on composer's website (Requires Scorch to view and play)
- QI Talk - a blog about QI
- John Lloyd and John Mitchinson of the QI team discussing 'The Book of General Ignorance'
- QI Daily Telegraph Christmas Quiz