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 8 - Eyes And Ears

Preview clips

An eye

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

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