QI. Image shows from L to R: Alan Davies, Sandi Toksvig. Copyright: TalkbackThames
QI

QI

  • TV panel show
  • BBC Two / BBC One / BBC Four
  • 2003 - 2024
  • 312 episodes (21 series)

Panel game that contains lots of difficult questions and a large amount of quite interesting facts. Stars Sandi Toksvig, Stephen Fry and Alan Davies.

Episode menu

Series C, Episode 2 - Cummingtonite

Deep Fried Mars Bar

Extra Tasks

- Each member of the panel is given a wine glass. They will score 50 points if they can break it using only their voice. Alan's glass did break, but it was a trick glass with a small explosive. It is actually almost impossible to break a glass using your voice.

Topics

- You would want to smother Doon in goose-fat because she was covered in it when she swam the Channel. The first person to swim the English Channel was Captain Webb in 1875, who later died in 1883 trying to swim across the river at the bottom of Niagara Falls.

- Cummingtonite is a mineral discovered in Cummington, Massachusetts. Other comedy compounds include Penguinone, Arsole and Moronic acid.

- The deep-fried Mars bar is not an urban myth - it does exist. Other deep fried foods include the pork sausage kebab, with contains 1,000 calories and 46g of fat. Doon has eaten a deep-fried Curly Wurly, battered in her local chip shop in Fife.

- Tangent: Stephen attempts a wide range of Scottish accents, and tells the story of Maggie Smith, who was playing Scottish Miss Jean Brodie in The Pride of Miss Jean Brodie. She could not do a Scottish accent, but a friend of hers had an aunt in Morningside. Smith phoned her up asking her out to tea with a tape recorder to which the aunt said, "My dear, I have been told I have no accent whatever," and put the phone down insulted.

- The ordeal by bean is an outlawed Nigerian tribal custom where the accused is fed a poisonous bean. (Forfeit: Mr Bean)

- Tangent: 95% of the baked beans in the world are eaten in Britain.

- Big Beard Wang would regularly shave his pussy, because he was the barber to Chairman Mao. "Mao" is the Chinese for "Cat". "Mao" also means "Hat". Correction: Mandarin Chinese words have different meaning depending on how the word is pronounced. Therefore, the "Mao" in "Chairman Mao" means "Fur" or "Wool".

- According to one survey, most people would like to be 17-years-old. From a man's point of view, his ideal woman is half his own age plus seven.

General Ignorance

- Technically speaking, a platypus is very small, becuase the playtpus is a type of beetle. The Duck-Billed Platypus and the Platypus are completely different from each other. (Forfeit: About this big)

- Tangent: Platypuses and echidnas are the only mammals to lay eggs. Platypuses also sweat milk because they have no nipples.

- A dialogue can have any number of people taking part in it. (Forfeit: Two - this is a "Duologue".)

- The Queen's handbag contains some money, a comb, a handkerchief, a small gold compact and a tube of lipstick.

Deleted scenes

- Tangent: The panel talk about what it is like to kiss men who have beards. Stephen then accidentally says he has kissed 15-year-olds.

- Tangent: The panel talk about Stephen's love of the Royal Family. Stephen says that he is not keen on all of them, to which Alan claims that Stephen thinks that Prince Edward "is a tosser".

Scores

- Andy Hamilton: 5 points
- Doon Mackichan: -2 points
- Alan Davies: -4 points
- Arthur Smith: -6 points

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 30th September 2005
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC Four
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Thursday 1st July 2010 10:00pm Dave
Tuesday 3rd August 2010 9:00pm Dave
Saturday 28th August 2010 11:20pm Dave
Thursday 7th October 2010 9:40pm Dave
Saturday 6th November 2010 8:20pm Dave
Saturday 1st January 2011 11:00pm Dave
Monday 6th June 2011 9:00pm Dave
Monday 6th June 2011 11:40pm Dave
Tuesday 9th April 2013 11:20pm Dave
Tuesday 11th June 2013 10:40pm Dave
Wednesday 12th June 2013 1:40am Dave
Tuesday 3rd December 2013 11:00pm Dave
Wednesday 4th December 2013 3:05am Dave
Wednesday 7th May 2014 10:40pm Dave
Thursday 8th May 2014 2:40am Dave
Friday 5th September 2014 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 6th September 2014 2:00am Dave
Tuesday 13th January 2015 11:00pm Dave
Thursday 2nd April 2015 11:00pm Dave
Wednesday 9th September 2015 8:00pm Dave
Monday 30th November 2015 12:20am Dave
Monday 30th November 2015 11:00pm Dave
Thursday 12th May 2016 2:20am Dave
Thursday 12th May 2016 11:20pm Dave
Monday 15th August 2016 11:00pm Dave
Saturday 10th September 2016 10:20pm Dave
Wednesday 7th December 2016 11:20pm Dave
Wednesday 1st March 2017 12:20am Dave
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 12:00am Dave
Wednesday 2nd August 2017 2:00am Dave
Wednesday 6th September 2017 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 11th November 2017 2:10am Dave
Saturday 25th November 2017 1:20am Dave
Friday 26th January 2018 11:10pm Dave
Saturday 27th January 2018 1:10am Dave
Wednesday 11th April 2018 12:00am Dave
Wednesday 11th April 2018 2:00am Dave
Thursday 24th May 2018 12:00am Dave
Thursday 24th May 2018 2:00am Dave
Tuesday 17th July 2018 11:20pm Dave
Wednesday 18th July 2018 2:20am Dave
Monday 14th January 2019 11:40pm Dave
Tuesday 15th January 2019 1:40am Dave
Wednesday 26th June 2019 1:00am Dave
Wednesday 26th June 2019 11:00pm Dave
Sunday 8th December 2019 11:40pm Dave
Monday 9th December 2019 8:20pm Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
Arthur Smith Guest
Andy Hamilton Guest
Doon Mackichan Guest
Writing team
Justin Pollard Researcher
John Mitchinson Question Writer
Piers Fletcher Question Writer
Garrick Alder Researcher
Dan Schreiber Researcher
Mat Coward Researcher
Christopher Gray Researcher
James Harkin Researcher
Production team
Ian Lorimer Director
John Lloyd Producer
Mark Freeland Executive Producer
Sally Debonnaire Executive Producer
Nick King Editor
Jonathan Paul Green Production Designer
Howard Goodall Composer

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