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.
- Continues on Tuesday on BBC2 at 9pm with Series U, Episode 14
- Catch-up on Series U, Episode 13
- Streaming rank this week: 469
Episode menu
Series B - Birth
Themes
- Each member of the panel is given a cracker with a question in it.
- In General Ignorance, Stephen and Alan swap places, with Alan asking the questions.
Topics
- Helium, which makes balloons goes up, changes the timbre of the voice, making sound travel faster. The frequency changes, not the pitch. (Forfeit: Makes it go up) Correction: Frequency and pitch are the same thing. It is the wavelength that increases.
- Tangent: It was hoped that this could be proved by getting the panel to sing on helium, but Health and Safety prevented it.
- The link between Santa Claus and emperor penguins is that they only come once a year. Santa Claus delivers presents to good children one a year and emperor penguins have a terrible sex live, with the male ejaculating sperm only once a year.
- Tangent: Aristotle believed that you should always face north when making love, because it helped conception.
- If you want to live for eight years longer whilst still smoking, become a eunuch. Smoking takes five years off your health expectancy on average. However, removing your testicles adds thirteen years onto it.
- Italian barbers used to perform castrations, so that young boys could become singers. The Castrati were people who sang with very high voices because they were castrated.
- There were no animals present at the birth of Jesus. The only reference to animals in the Nativity is Jesus being born in a manger in Luke's Gospel. St. Francis of Assisi created the idea of having model nativity sets with animals in 1223. (Forfeit: Ass; Camel; Cow; Sheep)
- The Bible does not state there were three wise men or kings. They were priests who just brought three gifts along. It does not say that there were three, or even if they were men.
- Tangent: Stephen talks about doing an interview with the President of Uganda and meeting David Frost.
- Herod's wife was called Doris. (Forfeit: Mrs Herod) Correction: Doris was Herod's first wive. He had ten wives.
- Jesus grandmother, St. Anne had seven heads. This is known because at one point, the Church recognised seven different heads, all claiming to be that of St. Anne, as her head.
- If you want to die and come back to live after three days, you want to be a water bear (also known as a "Tardigrade"). They are creatures that can survive almost anything, including poisoning, radiation, dehydration, pressure etc., by putting themselves in suspended animation.
- Tangent: Stephen claims if he could have a super power, it would be invisibility. Alan says he would like to have no bodily smell.
- The coldest place in the universe is in Louisiana, where scientists have created an iron bar a fraction above absolute zero. The only way a colder temperature can exist is if it has been created by an alien race in some other part of the universe. Correction: Since this show has been recorded, the coldest place in the universe is a lab in Helsinki, which cooled rhodium to a tenth of a billionth of a degree above absolute zero.
General Ignorance
- Thomas Sørensen plays in goal for Aston Villa.
- Mozart's middle name was Wolfgang. (Forfeit: Amadeus)
- There are six different states of matter (Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate and Fermionic condensate). (Forfeit: Four)
- In the Northern Hemisphere, water drains in whichever direction you want. (Coriolis effect)
- When penguins in the Falkland Islands see jets they move away from the noise. (Forfeit: Fall Over)
- There are no sacred animals in India. The term "Scared" is a Christian one and therefore does not really apply to India. (Forfeit: Cow)
Scores
Rich Hall: 7 points
Mark Steel: 2 points
Phill Jupitus: -3 points
Alan Davies: -52 points
Stephen Fry: -56 points
Broadcast details
- Date
- Friday 17th December 2004
- Time
- 10:30pm
- Channel
- BBC Four
- Length
- 30 minutes
Repeats
Show past repeats
Date | Time | Channel |
---|---|---|
Monday 14th September 2009 | 9:00pm | Dave |
Tuesday 8th December 2009 | 8:20pm | Dave |
Saturday 31st July 2010 | 8:20pm | Dave |
Wednesday 13th October 2010 | 10:15pm | Dave |
Saturday 25th June 2011 | 8:20pm | Dave |
Wednesday 2nd November 2011 | 7:20pm | Dave |
Wednesday 2nd November 2011 | 11:35pm | Dave |
Sunday 25th December 2011 | 2:00pm | Dave |
Monday 26th December 2011 | 11:40am | Dave |
Saturday 28th January 2012 | 1:20pm | Dave |
Saturday 28th January 2012 | 7:20pm | Dave |
Wednesday 18th April 2012 | 7:20pm | Dave |
Sunday 10th June 2012 | 12:20pm | Dave |
Wednesday 5th September 2012 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Thursday 6th September 2012 | 12:20am 60 minute version |
Dave |
Monday 15th October 2012 | 4:40pm | Dave |
Monday 15th October 2012 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Tuesday 25th December 2012 | 2:20pm | Dave |
Sunday 12th May 2013 | 1:40pm | Dave |
Sunday 12th May 2013 | 5:40pm | Dave |
Tuesday 29th October 2013 | 11:00pm | Dave |
Wednesday 30th October 2013 | 2:15am | Dave |
Wednesday 25th December 2013 | 3:10pm | Dave |
Wednesday 25th December 2013 | 11:25pm | Dave |
Sunday 16th March 2014 | 11:00am | Dave |
Sunday 16th March 2014 | 6:00pm | Dave |
Wednesday 21st May 2014 | 12:40pm | Dave |
Wednesday 21st May 2014 | 5:40pm | Dave |
Sunday 21st December 2014 | 2:00pm | Dave |
Friday 20th February 2015 | 11:05pm | Dave |
Thursday 23rd April 2015 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Wednesday 30th December 2015 | 12:00am | Dave |
Wednesday 30th December 2015 | 8:40pm | Dave |
Monday 4th April 2016 | 11:30pm | Dave |
Tuesday 5th April 2016 | 8:00pm | Dave |
Wednesday 20th July 2016 | 2:00am | Dave |
Wednesday 20th July 2016 | 10:00pm | Dave |
Thursday 22nd December 2016 | 12:00am | Dave |
Thursday 2nd February 2017 | 6:40pm | Dave |
Friday 3rd February 2017 | 2:40pm | Dave |
Saturday 25th March 2017 | 1:00am | Dave |
Tuesday 28th March 2017 | 12:20am | Dave |
Monday 23rd October 2017 | 11:20pm | Dave |
Saturday 23rd December 2017 | 1:20am | Dave |
Thursday 25th January 2018 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Friday 26th January 2018 | 1:40am | Dave |
Tuesday 10th April 2018 | 12:00am | Dave |
Tuesday 10th April 2018 | 2:00am | Dave |
Friday 6th July 2018 | 11:20pm | Dave |
Saturday 7th July 2018 | 2:20am | Dave |
Thursday 20th December 2018 | 7:20pm | Dave |
Friday 21st December 2018 | 12:20am | Dave |
Thursday 30th May 2019 | 11:00pm | Dave |
Friday 31st May 2019 | 8:20pm | Dave |
Friday 20th December 2019 | 8:20pm | Dave |
Wednesday 12th February 2020 | 12:35am | Dave |
Wednesday 12th February 2020 | 11:00pm | Dave |
Tuesday 9th June 2020 | 12:00am | Dave |
Tuesday 9th June 2020 | 10:00pm | Dave |
Saturday 18th July 2020 | 1:00am | Dave |
Cast & crew
Stephen Fry | Host / Presenter |
Alan Davies | Regular Panellist |
Rich Hall | Guest |
Phill Jupitus | Guest |
Mark Steel | Guest |
Sophie Johnstone | Researcher |
Molly Oldfield | Researcher |
John Mitchinson | Question Writer |
Piers Fletcher | Question Writer |
Kate Staples | Researcher |
Garrick Alder | Researcher |
Dan Schreiber | Researcher |
Ian Lorimer | Director |
John Lloyd | Producer |
Mark Freeland | Executive Producer |
Simon London | Executive Producer |
Nick King | Editor |
Jonathan Paul Green | Production Designer |
Howard Goodall | Composer |