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 E, Episode 2 - Electricity

Preview clips

Lightning

Topics

- Question: "The atmosphere is..." (Alan gets a forfeit for saying 'Electric')

- If you are caught naked in the rain, you would have a good excuse to crouch in a ball with your bottom in the air because it is a good stance to adopt in order to avoid being struck by lightning. Cars are however the best places because they act like Faraday cages. You should not stand under a tree because when they are struck they explode, so splinters fly all over the place.

- Tangent: Men are six times more like to be struck by lightning than women. Wire in bras heats up when struck by lightning, so if a woman is wearing a bra with wire, her breasts will explode.

- Tangent: Lightning strikes the Earth around 17 million times a day.

- Three to six people in the UK are killed by lightning strikes each year. 400 are killed by it in the USA. Park ranger Roy Sullivan was struck 7 times in his life, although he later died by shooting himself.

- Horses used to catch electric eels by driving them into the water. The eels would then discharge their electricity until they were safe to catch. Electric eels are not actually eels, but a type of knifefish.

- Tangent: There are 69 species of electric fish. The largest electric fish is the torpedo fish. The under water missile is named after it. The word "Torpedo" comes from Latin "Torpere" meaning "To numb".

- Elephant in the Room: In 1903, Thomas Edison made a film called Electrocuting an Elephant, in which he used an alternating current to kill an elephant called Topsy. He used the film as a propaganda film to destroy the reputation of alternating current, owned by Westinghouse, believing his direct current was safer. He tried to encourage people to call being electrocuted, "Westinghoused".

- Tangent: Topsy killed three people in her lifetime. Her first victim tried to give her a lit cigarette to eat.

- Tangent: Due to poaching, elephants are now evolving with shorter tusks and some with no tusks at all.

- Electrons move along electric wires at a speed of 0.03mph. They travel in wave movements. The correct term for electrons is 'probability density functions'. (Forfeit: They don't; Very fast)

- A gherkin can act as a light bulb if you wire it up to a lasagne. Lasagne acts as an electrolyte which can provide the power, although you need a lasagne the size of (rather appropriately) the floor plan of the Gherkin Building in London in order to provide enough power to charge a gherkin.

General Ignorance

- In navel terms, the difference between a ship and a boat is that a ship stays above the surface of the water and a boat goes below the surface. Therefore, the only boats in the navy are submarines (except very small boats such as lifeboats). (Forfeit: Ships are bigger)

- Tangent: In German, "Jumphaus" is a "Brothel" and a "Mobile phone" is a "Handy."

- The animal that generates the most methane is the termite. (Forfeit: Cows)

- Tangent: Cows do not fart methane, they burp it.

- Tangent: Soldier termites act as suicide bombers, releasing a sticky secretion to protect the nest from ants.

- Thousands of Americans ring 911 on Christmas Day because it is the only telephone number you can ring on any mobile phone. If you get one as a present, chances are you are not connected to a network. All phones, whether they have a sim card or not, have to be able to call 911 by law. Therefore, the only way people can test their new present is to phone 911. (Forfeit: They've eaten too much)

- A Russian family would never call their son "Power station" or "Industrialisation" because they are girl's names. Examples of boy's names include "Combine harvester" and "23rd February".

Vodcast/Quickie

(Presenter: Stephen Fry)

- If you were to give 200 monks an electric shock, they would all get shocked at the same time. This was proven to work when they all swore at the same time.

- Tangent: Alan once touched the end of a plug that had snapped off an appliance while still plugged in. He fell over from the electric shock.

Scores

- Jo Brand: 10 points
- Rich Hall: 1 point
- Sean Lock: -12 points
- Alan Davies: -21 points

Notes

This is the first time the same panel from a previous episode have appeared - see Series C, Episode 5.

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 21st September 2007
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC Four
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Saturday 29th May 2010 9:40pm Dave
Friday 18th June 2010 9:30pm BBC2
Tuesday 13th July 2010 9:00pm Dave
Friday 27th August 2010 9:40pm Dave
Friday 5th November 2010 9:40pm Dave
Saturday 20th August 2011 9:40pm Dave
Wednesday 12th October 2011 10:20pm Dave
Thursday 13th October 2011 1:30am Dave
Saturday 28th January 2012 12:40pm Dave
Saturday 28th January 2012 6:40pm Dave
Friday 25th May 2012 11:00pm Dave
Thursday 6th September 2012 9:40pm Dave
Friday 7th September 2012 12:20am Dave
Sunday 13th January 2013 1:00pm Dave
Sunday 13th January 2013 5:00pm Dave
Sunday 13th April 2014 1:00pm Dave
Sunday 13th April 2014 6:00pm Dave
Monday 19th May 2014 11:00pm Dave
Wednesday 4th June 2014 12:40pm Dave
Wednesday 4th June 2014 5:40pm Dave
Wednesday 19th November 2014 11:40pm Dave
Tuesday 28th April 2015 2:35am Dave
Tuesday 28th April 2015 11:00pm Dave
Saturday 21st November 2015 10:20pm Dave
Monday 1st February 2016 11:40pm Dave
Tuesday 2nd February 2016 8:40pm Dave
Monday 23rd May 2016 1:20am Dave
Monday 23rd May 2016 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 9th July 2016 7:40pm Dave
Monday 8th August 2016 11:00pm Dave
Thursday 1st December 2016 12:00am Dave
Thursday 1st December 2016 3:30am Dave
Thursday 9th March 2017 2:40pm Dave
Friday 18th August 2017 11:40pm Dave
Saturday 19th August 2017 1:40am Dave
Wednesday 8th November 2017 1:20am Dave
Wednesday 6th December 2017 1:20am Dave
Thursday 1st February 2018 12:00am Dave
Thursday 1st February 2018 2:00am Dave
Thursday 19th April 2018 12:00am Dave
Thursday 19th April 2018 2:00am Dave
Wednesday 7th November 2018 2:45am Dave
Wednesday 7th November 2018 10:40pm Dave
Tuesday 29th January 2019 11:40pm Dave
Wednesday 30th January 2019 1:40am Dave
Wednesday 5th June 2019 8:20pm Dave
Tuesday 1st October 2019 8:20pm Dave
Wednesday 2nd October 2019 2:45am Dave
Friday 24th January 2020 11:40pm Dave
Saturday 25th January 2020 1:40am Dave
Monday 6th July 2020 8:20pm Dave
Friday 17th February 2023 12:40am Dave
Wednesday 14th June 2023 11:20pm Dave
Monday 6th November 2023 11:20pm Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
Rich Hall Guest
Jo Brand Guest
Sean Lock Guest
Writing team
Molly Oldfield Researcher
Piers Fletcher Question Writer
Garrick Alder Researcher
Mat Coward Researcher
Christopher Gray Researcher
James Harkin Researcher
Justin Gayner Researcher
Vitali Vitaliev Researcher
Justin Pollard Question Writer
Production team
Ian Lorimer Director
John Lloyd Producer
Lorraine Heggessey Executive Producer
Katie Taylor Executive Producer
Nick King Editor
Jonathan Paul Green Production Designer
Howard Goodall Composer

Videos

Mein Handy

Stephen and Jo Brand talk about the German word for "Mobile phone", resulting in Stephen sounding camp.

Featuring: Jo Brand, Alan Davies, Stephen Fry, Rich Hall & Sean Lock.

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