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 3 - Eating

Preview clips

Cornflakes

Topics

- In the Rhubarb Triangle, rhubarb grows so quickly that you can hear it grow. The triangle is made up of the cities Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield. The rhubarb is placed in 'forcing rooms', which are completely dark. As there is no sunlight, they do not make leaves and just grow.

- Tangent: Rhubarb leaves are poisonous. Rhubarb acts as a mild laxative. Britain used to get rhubarb exports from China. However, when the Opium War was declared between the two nations, the exports stopped. One man, Lin Zexu threatened that if the British did not stop Opium imports into China, they would cut of rhubarb supplies to Britain, killing everybody by mass constipation. Queen Victoria never had the message translated.

- Corn flakes were invented by accident. However, their original and quite interesting function was that they were designed to prevent masturbation, a practice that John Harvey Kellogg hated.

- If you eat nothing but rabbit, you die of malnutrition. Rabbit meat has very little oil, so if you ate only rabbit, you would run out of other nutrients.

- Tangent: Eating a rabbit affected with myxomatosis has no affect on a human. Louis XVIII of France claimed that he could tell from which part for France the rabbit came from by smelling rabbit stew. In theory, two rabbits could produce 33 million rabbits in 3 years; however 90% of baby rabbits are killed by predators. Although rabbits were introduced to Britain in the 12th century by the Normans, they only became wild in the 19th century.

- Elephant on the Menu: Mongongo nuts can be found in elephant droppings.

General Ignorance

- Snails were the first animals to be herded for food, in 10,700 B.C. (Forfeit: Chickens)

- Tangent: Snails are hermaphrodites. They have a 'love dart' which has a greater chance of pregnancy but can also hurt the partner.

- Stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterium called Helicobacter Pylori. It was discovered by two Australian doctors. One of them, Barry Marshall, proved that this was the case by deliberately giving himself the bacteria and suffering from an ulcer, which could then be cured by antibiotics. He won the Nobel Prize for his discovery.

- The green vegetable which contains 10 times more iron than any other is thyme. (Forfeit: Spinach; Broccoli)

Vodcast/Quickie

(Presenter: Stephen Fry impersonating Johnny Vegas)

- Tangent: There is a type of Vietnamese coffee that is made by monkeys eating green coffee, then excreting and grinding the faeces.

- Tangent: A discussion on the philtrum, which is the groove between the nose and upper lip.

- If you ate E941, E948, E938, E290 and E939 you would carry on living because they are the main ingredients of air. They are nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide and helium respectively. (Forfeit: Sends you mad)

- A tyrannosaurus rex would taste of chicken, because chickens are descended from them.

- Tangent: Stephen tells a story about Peter Cook. Apparently Cook read an article about Elizabeth Taylor putting on weight, in which a spokesman said was because of her glands. Cook joked that Taylor's glands must have been ordering eclairs and "stuffing them down her f**king throat!"

Scores

- Alan Davies: -2 points (Fourth victory)
- Johnny Vegas: -3 points
- Jimmy Carr: -6 points
- Phill Jupitus: -21 points

Broadcast details

Date
Friday 28th September 2007
Time
10:30pm
Channel
BBC Four
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Saturday 29th May 2010 10:20pm Dave
Tuesday 13th July 2010 9:40pm Dave
Wednesday 21st July 2010 10:00pm BBC2
Tuesday 31st August 2010 10:00pm Dave
Thursday 11th November 2010 9:40pm Dave
Tuesday 14th December 2010 9:00pm Dave
Saturday 20th August 2011 10:20pm Dave
Saturday 29th October 2011 7:40pm Dave
Monday 2nd January 2012 10:00pm Dave
Tuesday 3rd January 2012 12:20am Dave
Friday 1st June 2012 11:00pm Dave
Saturday 2nd June 2012 1:35am Dave
Thursday 13th September 2012 9:40pm Dave
Friday 14th September 2012 12:20am Dave
Sunday 20th January 2013 1:00pm Dave
Sunday 20th January 2013 5:00pm Dave
Wednesday 23rd April 2014 10:40pm Dave
Thursday 24th April 2014 1:40am Dave
Thursday 5th June 2014 12:40pm Dave
Thursday 5th June 2014 5:40pm Dave
Wednesday 26th November 2014 11:40pm Dave
Friday 23rd January 2015 11:00pm Dave
Monday 27th April 2015 11:00pm Dave
Tuesday 28th April 2015 3:10am Dave
Tuesday 2nd February 2016 12:20am Dave
Tuesday 2nd February 2016 9:20pm Dave
Tuesday 24th May 2016 2:20am Dave
Tuesday 24th May 2016 11:20pm Dave
Saturday 9th July 2016 8:20pm Dave
Tuesday 9th August 2016 1:00am Dave
Tuesday 9th August 2016 8:00pm Dave
Wednesday 14th December 2016 11:20pm Dave
Friday 10th March 2017 2:40pm Dave
Monday 12th June 2017 1:50am Dave
Monday 21st August 2017 11:20pm Dave
Tuesday 22nd August 2017 1:20am Dave
Monday 30th October 2017 11:20pm Dave
Tuesday 31st October 2017 1:20am Dave
Thursday 9th November 2017 1:20am Dave
Thursday 7th December 2017 1:20am Dave
Thursday 1st February 2018 12:40am Dave
Thursday 1st February 2018 2:40am Dave
Wednesday 30th January 2019 11:00pm Dave
Thursday 31st January 2019 1:00am Dave
Wednesday 5th June 2019 11:40pm Dave
Thursday 6th June 2019 8:20pm Dave
Thursday 3rd October 2019 1:40am Dave
Thursday 3rd October 2019 8:20pm Dave
Monday 27th January 2020 11:00pm Dave
Tuesday 28th January 2020 1:00am Dave
Thursday 7th May 2020 8:20pm Dave
Wednesday 8th July 2020 7:40pm Dave
Thursday 9th July 2020 1:35am Dave
Saturday 18th February 2023 12:40am Dave
Saturday 18th February 2023 9:20pm Dave
Thursday 15th June 2023 10:00pm Dave
Monday 13th November 2023 11:20pm Dave

Cast & crew

Cast
Stephen Fry Host / Presenter
Alan Davies Regular Panellist
Guest cast
Jimmy Carr Guest
Phill Jupitus Guest
Johnny Vegas 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

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