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 D, Episode 7 - Differences

London Science Museum's replica difference engine, built from Babbage's design

Topics

- The main difference between men and women is the chromosomes. Women are XX, whereas men are XY.

- Tangent: Women have twice as many pain receptors as men.

- Alcohol has a greater effect on men, although in the long-run, women are more prone to alcohol related brain and liver damage. (Forfeit: Women)

- Tangent: During his 30th birthday party, Alan got so drunk that he forgot that there were sparklers, even though he was holding them and handing them out.

- Women get colder quicker in order to keep the vital organs warm.

- The guests had to correctly identify a picture of a Yupik. (Forfeit: Inuit)

- Tangent: The average height of an Eskimo is 5'4" and the average life expectancy is 39. If you put five Eskimos in car, every Eskimo in the world could fit into the Los Angeles International Airport car park. There is a form of singing called "Inuit throat singing".

- You cannot describe the difference between left and right.

- Tangent: "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" by Manet has an incorrect mirror image in it.

- Tangent: There is a condition called "Situs inversus", in which the organs are the wrong way around. 1 in 10,000 suffer from it.

- Deaf people applaud by waving the hands in the air.

- Tangent: Alan performs the sign language for "Bullshit" and "Drunkenness".

- A question about something different from differences - similarity. The similarity between herring and teenage boys is that they communicate by farting.

- Tangent: Julian farted and soiled himself when he met the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance.

- The difference between white eggs and brown eggs is the colour. There is no other difference (i.e. no difference in taste).

- You can make a Difference Engine out of cogs or Meccano. The Difference Engine, invented by Charles Babbage, was only completed in 1991, and worked perfectly. Babbage also invented the cowcatcher.

- Tangent: Babbage complained about a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poem went, "Every moment dies a man; every moment one is born." Babbage wrote to him saying, "If this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill. In true, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of death. I suggest that the next version of your poem should read "Every moment dies a man; every moment one-and-one-sixteenth is born." Strictly speaking the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure one-and-one-sixteenth will be sufficiently accurate for poetry."

- The difference between ping pong and table tennis is that "Ping pong" is a brand name.

- Tangent: Table tennis was banned in Russia because it was thought it would affect people's eyesight.

- Tangent: In the 1936 World Championships in Prague, one point lasted over an hour.

General Ignorance

- Eskimos have 32 different words for demonstrative pronouns. English has four, "This", "That", "These" and "Those". Examples used by the eskimos mean, "That one high up there", "That one in there" (as in a house) and "This one that we can't see". (Forfeit: Ice; Snow)

- The Moon smells of gunpowder.

- Twelve people have walked on the Moon.

- Gandhi's first names were Mohandas Karamchand. (Forfeit: Randy - 150 point penalty to Alan)

- Tangent: W. C. Fields wrote a film under the pseudonym "Mahatma Kane Jeeves" - as in "Can I have my cane, Jeeves."

- Tangent: Mahatma Gandhi's title means "Great soul" in Sanskrit.

Scores

- Dara O'Briain: 3 points
- Julian Clary: -8 points
- Jo Brand: -16 points
- Alan Davies: -144 points (Current lowest score)

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 3rd November 2006
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC Four
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Wednesday 10th November 2010 9:00pm Dave
Saturday 11th December 2010 11:00pm Dave
Friday 23rd September 2011 11:30pm Dave
Friday 13th January 2012 7:20pm Dave
Saturday 14th January 2012 1:20pm Dave
Tuesday 3rd April 2012 8:20pm Dave
Tuesday 3rd April 2012 11:40pm Dave
Sunday 20th May 2012 6:40pm Dave
Sunday 2nd September 2012 2:40pm Dave
Sunday 2nd September 2012 6:40pm Dave
Wednesday 24th October 2012 7:40pm Dave
Wednesday 24th October 2012 11:20pm Dave
Thursday 27th December 2012 1:30pm Dave
Friday 28th December 2012 12:40am Dave
Tuesday 19th March 2013 11:20pm Dave
Wednesday 20th March 2013 2:20am Dave
Thursday 9th October 2014 10:20pm Dave
Friday 10th October 2014 1:00am Dave
Tuesday 10th February 2015 11:00pm Dave
Wednesday 24th June 2015 11:00pm Dave
Monday 14th December 2015 2:20am Dave
Monday 14th December 2015 11:30pm Dave
Tuesday 3rd May 2016 1:40am Dave
Tuesday 3rd May 2016 11:20pm Dave
Wednesday 24th August 2016 12:40am Dave
Wednesday 24th August 2016 11:00pm Dave
Monday 31st October 2016 2:10am Dave
Thursday 2nd March 2017 2:40pm Dave
Wednesday 12th April 2017 12:40am Dave
Tuesday 8th August 2017 11:20pm Dave
Wednesday 9th August 2017 1:20am Dave
Thursday 7th September 2017 1:20am Dave
Friday 5th January 2018 11:00pm Dave
Saturday 6th January 2018 1:00am Dave
Thursday 15th March 2018 1:00am Dave
Friday 16th March 2018 12:00am Dave
Saturday 28th April 2018 12:40am Dave
Saturday 28th April 2018 2:40am Dave
Friday 1st June 2018 12:00am Dave
Friday 1st June 2018 2:00am Dave
Sunday 24th June 2018 11:20pm Dave
Monday 25th June 2018 2:20am Dave
Saturday 16th February 2019 1:00am Dave
Monday 9th September 2019 2:30am Dave
Monday 9th September 2019 8:20pm Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
Jo Brand Guest
Dara O Briain Guest
Julian Clary Guest
Writing team
Justin Pollard Researcher
Molly Oldfield Researcher
John Mitchinson Question Writer
Piers Fletcher Question Writer
Garrick Alder Researcher
Mat Coward Researcher
Christopher Gray Researcher
James Harkin Researcher
Justin Gayner Researcher
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

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