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 11
- Catch-up on Series U, Episode 10
- Streaming rank this week: 440
Episode menu
Series E, Episode 8 - Eyes And Ears
Topics
- The panel have to identify an ear spoon, used to remove earwax. Earwax tastes very bitter.
- Tangent: If you put earwax on top of a foaming pint of beer or stout, the head would disappear due to the oil in the earwax. If you squirt washing-up liquid into a pond which water boatmen are standing on, they will sink.
- Q-Tips or cotton buds were invented by Leo Gerstenzang after he noticed his wife using cotton wool on the end of toothpick to clean out their baby's ears. He called them "Baby Gays". Unilever produces 22.5 billion cotton buds a year.
- You can tell your child is yours by looking at the earlobes. Hanging and attached earlobes are inherited from the parents, like eye colour. Hanging lobes dominate attached lobes.
- The best way to date a cod is to kill it and examine the bones in its ear. You can tell the age by a day.
- Tangent: Alexandre Dumas claimed that cod were so plentiful that you could walk from France to America on cod.
- Elephant in the Room: Elephants have the biggest years of any animal in the world. They however do not improve hearing, but are designed for cooling. They are also used in aggressive displays.
- A bit of rough music would stop you beating your wife because it was a form of community justice practiced in the English countryside. Villagers would bang metal objects at the middle of the night, to drive the criminal out.
- Tangent: The question, "Have you stopped beating your wife?" always leads to an answer that condemns you.
- Nothing happens when an earwig gets into your ear. (Forfeit: It bores into your brain)
General Ignorance
- It is hard for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle for the simple reason that it is too big. Jesus was being literal when he said it. It was a common phrase at the time, although another expression similar to it at the time was "passing an elephant through the eye of a needle." Similar expressions appear in the Torah and the Koran. Rich people tried to invent get-out clauses when they read this. One example was the idea of a gate. Another was that it was a mistranslation from the Greek for "Rope". (Forfeit: It was a gateway into Jerusalem)
- Tangent: At the coronation of George IV, all the diamonds in the crown jewels were hired, because at the time they were too expensive to buy.
- Tangent: If you cut the whiskers off a cat, they can get their heads stuck in milk bottles.
- A four-eyed fish has two eyes divided in two parts. They look upwards all the time. (Forfeit: One)
- Statistically, you are very unlikely to die in a plane crash. The main problem in plane crashes is that, when people are under pressure, they revert to trying to open their seatbelts like they open in a car.
- Tangent: There is an urban legend that the brace position is used so that if you die, your dental records can be used to identify you.
- Most of the actors who played Captain Flint in film adaptations of Treasure Island were parrots, because he is the parrot belonging to Long John Silver.
- Tangent: The expression "Pieces of eight" comes from Spanish dollar being split into eight pieces. "Two bits" is American slang for a quarter.
- Tangent: Alan mentions his fondness for After Eights in the hope someone will send him some. He said it originates from an interview in which he said that he liked Quorn, and then got sent a box of it.
- Tangent: Robert Newton invented the stereotypical pirate voice in the first sound adaptation of Treasure Island. He is considered the "Patron Saint" of International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Tony Hancock first became famous as a Robert Newton impersonator.
Vodcast/Quickie
(Presenter: The Audience)
- Tangent: A conversation about Susie Dent deteriorating into whether or not she is a centaur.
- Tangent: David claimed that he ended up hearing 'too much' after having his ear syringed.
- Tangent: Biodegradable cricket boxes have been created to help the environment.
- Tangent: When Alan watched the 1999 Cornwall solar eclipse on Sky News in Oxford, the presenters had nothing prepared for it.
- 20% of humans have genes for the photic sneeze reflex, causing them to sneeze whenever they stare at the sun.
Scores
- Alan Davies: 13 points (Fifth victory)
- Phill Jupitus: 3 points
- Jimmy Carr: -10 points
- David Mitchell: -11 points
Broadcast details
- Date
- Friday 2nd November 2007
- Time
- 10:30pm
- Channel
- BBC Four
- Length
- 30 minutes
Repeats
Show past repeats
Date | Time | Channel |
---|---|---|
Tuesday 15th June 2010 | 10:10pm | Dave |
Tuesday 27th July 2010 | 9:00pm | Dave |
Wednesday 28th July 2010 | 10:00pm | BBC2 |
Saturday 18th September 2010 | 10:20pm | Dave |
Monday 4th October 2010 | 9:40pm | Dave |
Friday 6th January 2012 | 7:20pm | Dave |
Thursday 21st June 2012 | 10:00pm | Dave |
Thursday 20th September 2012 | 9:40pm | Dave |
Friday 21st September 2012 | 12:20am | Dave |
Tuesday 12th February 2013 | 11:20pm | Dave |
Wednesday 13th February 2013 | 2:20am | Dave |
Tuesday 23rd April 2013 | 11:20pm | Dave |
Sunday 30th June 2013 | 2:40pm | Dave |
Sunday 30th June 2013 | 6:00pm | Dave |
Saturday 17th May 2014 | 6:20pm | Dave |
Sunday 18th May 2014 | 12:20am | Dave |
Sunday 27th July 2014 | 2:00pm | Dave |
Tuesday 27th January 2015 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Tuesday 30th June 2015 | 11:00pm | Dave |
Monday 15th February 2016 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Tuesday 16th February 2016 | 8:40pm | Dave |
Wednesday 1st June 2016 | 2:20am | Dave |
Wednesday 1st June 2016 | 11:20pm | Dave |
Thursday 11th August 2016 | 1:40am | Dave |
Thursday 11th August 2016 | 11:00pm | Dave |
Friday 17th March 2017 | 2:40pm | Dave |
Monday 17th April 2017 | 11:50pm | Dave |
Thursday 15th June 2017 | 2:25am | Dave |
Friday 30th June 2017 | 12:20am | Dave |
Monday 28th August 2017 | 11:20pm | Dave |
Tuesday 29th August 2017 | 1:20am | Dave |
Friday 17th November 2017 | 1:00am | Dave |
Saturday 2nd December 2017 | 1:20am | Dave |
Thursday 15th February 2018 | 1:00am | Dave |
Thursday 15th February 2018 | 3:00am | Dave |
Saturday 21st April 2018 | 12:00am | Dave |
Saturday 21st April 2018 | 2:00am | Dave |
Wednesday 21st November 2018 | 1:40am | Dave |
Friday 1st February 2019 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Saturday 2nd February 2019 | 1:40am | Dave |
Thursday 13th June 2019 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Thursday 31st October 2019 | 1:40am | Dave |
Wednesday 29th January 2020 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Thursday 30th January 2020 | 1:35am | Dave |
Wednesday 8th July 2020 | 11:40pm | Dave |
Thursday 9th July 2020 | 8:20pm | Dave |
Friday 24th February 2023 | 12:40am | Dave |
Saturday 24th June 2023 | 11:20pm | Dave |
Monday 27th November 2023 | 10:00pm | Dave |
Cast & crew
Stephen Fry | Host / Presenter |
Alan Davies | Regular Panellist |
Jimmy Carr | Guest |
Phill Jupitus | Guest |
David Mitchell | Guest |
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 |
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 |
Video
Vodcast - Series E, Episode 8 - Eyes and Ears
Vodcast for the "Eyes and Ears" episode.
Featuring: Alan Davies, Stephen Fry, Jimmy Carr, Phill Jupitus & David Mitchell.