List of QI episodes (A series)

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This is a list of episodes of QI, the BBC comedy panel game television show hosted by Stephen Fry.

The first series started on 11 September 2003. Although most viewers did not notice at the time, all of the questions (with the exception of the final "general ignorance" round) were on subjects beginning with "a" (such as "arthropods", "Alans" and "astronomy"). A second series of 12 programmes started on 8 October 2004, with subjects beginning with the letter 'B' (except in two special episodes, one about music and one about colour). The C series started on 30 September 2005 and the D series started on 29 September 2006.

The dates in the lists are those of the BBC Two broadcasts. The episodes were also broadcast on BBC Four, generally a week earlier (as soon as one episode finished on BBC Two, the next was shown on BBC Four).

Disclaimer: Some facts stated during the series have since been found to be incorrect, in some cases due to a mistake and others by becoming outdated. Where possible these entries have been highlighted.

Contents 1 Pilot 2 A series (2003) 2.1 Episode 1 2.2 Episode 2 2.3 Episode 3 2.4 Episode 4 2.5 Episode 5 2.6 Episode 6 2.7 Episode 7 2.8 Episode 8 2.9 Episode 9 2.10 Episode 10 2.11 Episode 11 2.12 Episode 12 – Christmas special 3 References 4 See also 5 External link

[edit] Pilot

Broadcast date

• Unbroadcast on television but released as an extra on the Series 1 DVD

Panellists

• Alan Davies (118 points)
• Bill Bailey (Winner with 132 points)
• Eddie Izzard (131 points) 1st and only appearance
• Kit Hesketh-Harvey (125 points) 1st and only appearance

Topics

Names

• Bobo Fing is a language spoken by 10,000 people in Mali. Not to be confused with Bobo (a language of Burkina Faso) or Gogo (spoken by 10 million in Tanzania).
• King Arthur's lance was called Ron. His helmet was named Goosewhite and his warcry was "Clarence!"

Tangent: Paul Daniels performing a magic trick based on the legend of King Arthur.

• 'Butter hamlets' are small tropical fish which can be found in 10 different colours.
• Tim is the 6th most popular boy's name in Germany. (Forfeit: Adolph)
• Richard Gere's middle name is Tiffany. (Forfeit: Gerbil)

History

• William Huskisson, the first person killed in a rail accident, had previously escaped death after a horse fell on his head during his honeymoon.
• The bones from penises of badgers were used by Victorian gentlemen as tie clips.
• Rectal inflation was an old method of blowing tobacco smoke through the rectum as a means to resuscitate the drowned.
• Victorians who could not afford chimney sweeps would drop a goose down to clean it instead.

Lingo

• Guessing the meanings of Dutch words.
  • Pronk - Flaunt
  • Sloot - Ditch
  • Kloof - Gap
  • Lonk - To Ogle
  • Oog - Eyes
  • Wanklank - A discordant noise
• "Tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog moesten vele Nederlanders tulpenbollen eten," is Dutch for, "During the Second World War, many Dutch people had to eat tulip bulbs," which is a true fact.

Tangent: If dogs eat toothpaste, they hallucinate. Alan admits he heard this fact from someone from the pub. Another kind of dog hunts deer by biting off the testicles.

• The word "Thespian" means "Awful" in Greek, as in "Awe inspiring." It also means, "Divine".

General Ignorance

• The largest mountain in the world is Mauna Loa (Forfeit: Mount Everest).

Tangent: Mount Kilimanjaro is higher than Mount Everest because it raises straight out of the African plain, whereas Everest is just one mountain on to of lots in the Himalayas. Also, as Kilimanjaro is on the Equator, it is further away from the center of the Earth as it is an oblate spheroid.

• Black boxes are orange.
• Dolphins are eaten in Genoa.
• Scuba diving is illegal off of the coast of Greece.

[edit] A series (2003)

[edit] Episode 1

Broadcast date

• 11 September 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (-5 points)
• Danny Baker (Winner with 18 points) 1st appearance
• Hugh Laurie (11 points) 1st and only appearance
• John Sessions (10 points) 1st appearance

Topics

• Adam's navel and the Archbishop of Canterbury's left ear are both purely decorative. The Creation of Adam was painted by Michelangelo. God allowed Noah to eat animals, a right he had previously denied to Adam and Eve.
• Andrew Graham-Dixon discovered that Caravaggio accidentally killed Ranuccio Tomassoni on a tennis court... he was merely attempting to cut off his testicles. (Forfeit: "New balls please")

Tangent: Sheep are castrated without breaking the skin.

Tangent: Discussion of Prince Albert's libido and the Prince Albert piercing.

• Finocchio (fennel) is Italian street slang for a homosexual.
• Andrew Marshall's writings on Burma in The Trouser People describe Burmese idioms and quote from the diary of Victorian adventurer Sir George Scott.
• Edward Woodward has four 'd's in his name to prevent it becoming 'Ewar Woowar'.

Tangent: Kiwi fruit use up more than their own weight in aviation fuel getting from New Zealand to Europe.

• Actor John Barrymore regretted not being able to see himself perform on stage.

Tangent: A drunken Peter O'Toole once went to see a play, having forgotten that he was supposed to be in it.

• Young Giant anteaters indulge in 'bluff charging'. Their claws are sharp enough to eviscerate a human. Anteaters have sixteen-inch tongues, but mouths as narrow as a pencil. Dwarf anteaters are the size of squirrels and are a delicacy in parts of South America.

Tangent: The average graphite pencil can write for thirty-five miles.

General ignorance

• The country with the highest suicide rate is Lithuania. (Forfeit: Sweden)

Tangent: A ship's captain cannot marry people, and lemmings do not jump over cliffs: both are urban myths concocted by the film industry.

• Caravaggio's real name was Michelangelo.
• The steam engine was invented by Hero of Alexandria, and was named the aeolipile. The railway was invented seven hundred years earlier by Periander of Corinth. The modern steam engine was invented by Richard Trevithick. When Stephenson's Rocket was introduced, people were concerned that travelling at such high speeds could cause irreparable brain damage.

Tangent: The Romans believed that buggery caused earthquakes.

• The twenty-third tallest tree in the world is a Giant sequoia called 'Adam'.

[edit] Episode 2

Broadcast date

• 18 September 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (-30 points)
• Bill Bailey (5 points) 1st appearance
• Rich Hall (Joint winner with 20 points) 1st appearance
• Jeremy Hardy (Joint winner with 20 points) 1st appearance

Topics

• The number of people killed by sharks since records began is equal to just five per cent of the number of toilet-related injuries in the USA in 1996. Both tigers and weasels (the national animal of Croatia) make a 'fuff' sound.
• The best way to escape from a polar bear is to remove one's clothing, leaving items of clothing on the ground while backing away.
• An alligator can be rendered helpless by placing a rubber band over its jaws.
• 3753 Cruithne is an asteroid sometimes described as Earth's second moon. (Forfeit: The Earth has one moon)
• Ninety per cent of the Universe is unaccounted for; it is believed to be made of dark matter.

Tangent: Claims that Ikea stores have no windows to decrease customers' awareness of the passage of time.

• The colour of the Universe is beige. See Cosmic latte.
• Pluto does not meet the usual criteria for classification as a planet. (Forfeit: There are nine planets in the Solar System)

Tangent: William James' exchange with a woman who believed the Earth was balanced on top of a giant turtle.

General ignorance

• Krung Thep is the proper name for the capital of Thailand. (Forfeit: The capital of Thailand is Bangkok)
• Brides do not walk down the aisle of a church; they walk down the central passageway.
• The earliest known soup is made from hippopotamus.
• The Great Wall of China cannot be seen from the Moon, nor can any man-made object. Even the Earth's continents are difficult to make out from the Moon. (Forfeit: It can be seen from the moon)

Fry ends the show with an anecdote about the Stephens Island Wren, about the lighthouse keepers' cat killing the entire species. However, in 2004, the year after this episode was first aired, this was found to be untrue.

[edit] Episode 3

Broadcast date

• 25 September 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (-20 points)
• Clive Anderson (Winner with 26 points) 1st appearance
• Bill Bailey (10 points) 2nd appearance
• Meera Syal (19 points) 1st and only appearance

Topics

• The longest animal is a Lion's mane jellyfish, as described in the Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Lion's Mane. (Forfeit: A Blue Whale)

Tangent: Baron Mackay of Clashfern and his apparent meanness with honey.

• Blue Whales have small throats and can swallow nothing larger than a grapefruit. Their diet consists of krill.
• An octopus can be taught to unscrew the lids of jars and bottles.
• The continent of Antarctica has six seas and no bees.
• AmIAnnoying.com ranks Clive Anderson as seventeen percent less annoying than Antarctica. Unlike Hans Christian Andersen, Gillian Anderson and Pamela Anderson, he is not a vegetarian.
• John Henry Anderson, the Great Wizard of the North, was the first magician to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
• Both Hans Christian Andersen and Joseph Stalin were the sons of a cobbler and a washerwoman.

General ignorance

• In Greek mythology, Atlas carried the sky. (Forfeit: He carried the Earth)
• Over fifty percent of the world's oxygen is provided by algae. (Forfeit: Trees)
• The driest place on Earth is the Dry Valleys Region of Antarctica. (Forfeit: The Sahara desert)
• The length of a day is not exactly 24 hours. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is responsible for adding on occasional leap seconds.

[edit] Episode 4

Broadcast date

• 2 October 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (-24 points)
• Jo Brand (Winner with 36 points) 1st appearance
• Howard Goodall (13 points) 1st appearance
• Jeremy Hardy (7 points) 2nd appearance

Topics

• The main component of air is nitrogen. (Forfeit: Oxygen)
• The most boring place in Great Britain is a field outside Ousefleet, near Scunthorpe, according to the Ordnance Survey map. It is the blankest square kilometre in the country.

Tangent: Charles Dickens despised Chelmsford, describing it as "the dullest and most stupid spot on the face of the Earth." He also invented the word 'boredom'.

• Barbara Cartland holds the record for the most novels written in one year. She was buried in a cardboard coffin beneath an oak tree planted by Queen Elizabeth I.
• The ozone layer is fifteen miles above the Earth's surface. Ozone smells faintly of geraniums.
• Film critic John Simon described Walter Matthau as resembling "a half-melted rubber bulldog".
• Atoms contain mostly empty space. Ernest Rutherford described the centre of an atom as "like a few flies in a cathedral".
• A hydrogen atom has more frequencies than a grand piano has notes.

General ignorance

• King Henry VIII technically had either three or four wives, depending on the source. His marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled, the Pope declared his marriage with Anne Boleyn to be void as he was still married to Catherine of Aragon, and the marriage to Catherine of Aragon was declared void by Henry himself as it was illegal to marry the widow of one's brother (Catherine had previously been married to Henry's older brother Arthur). After his death, the king's body swelled in the heat and exploded. (Forfeit: Henry VIII had six wives)

Hans Holbein the Younger painted various royal portraits. His painting 'The Ambassadors' contains the image of a human skull, which can only be seen properly when viewed from an angle.

• The word silver rhymes with 'chilver'. (Forfeit: Nothing rhymes with silver)
• All diamonds are created beneath the Earth's surface, and brought to the surface in volcanoes. Diamonds and graphite are both made of pure carbon, but appear at opposite ends of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. (Forfeit: All diamonds are from South Africa)
• When travelling through sodium at -270 degrees, light slows to 38 miles per hour. The speed of light is only constant in a vacuum.
• A chameleon changes colour depending on its mood. Their eyes can swivel independently, and it was once believed that they lived on air. (Forfeit: A chameleon changes colour to match its environment)

[edit] Episode 5

Broadcast date

• 9 October 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (15 points)
• Gyles Brandreth (Winner with 54 points) 1st and only appearance
• Rob Brydon (17 points) 1st appearance
• Rich Hall (35 points) 2nd appearance

Topics

• Gerber baby food was poorly marketed in Africa, leading customers to believe that it contained babies. The tins bore a picture of the baby Ann Turner Cook, later a famous mystery author.

Tangent: Strand cigarettes' "You're never alone with a Strand" advertising campaign was a spectacular failure. Queen Victoria smoked when in Scotland, in order to keep the midges away.

Tangent: The chief architect of the London Eye shares a birthday with Gustave Eiffel.

• The Toyota MR2 provoked much amusement in France, as "MR2" sounds like merde. The Ford Pinto is equally amusing to Brazilians, as "pinto" is Brazilian slang for a small penis.
• Playwright Brendan Behan was asked to devise an advertising slogan for Guinness. He came up with "Guinness makes you drunk." (Forfeit: "Guinness is good for you"—actually written by Dorothy L. Sayers)

Tangent: Alec Guinness allegedy predicted James Dean's death.

• The Ancient Greeks believed that otters killed crocodiles by running into their open mouths and eating their entrails. Raphanizein was an Ancient Greek punishment for adultery that involved inserting a radish into the anus.
• Plato's real name was Aristocles. He taught Aristotle.
• Aristotle believed that buzzards had three testicles.

Tangent: Subbuteo was named after the Latin word for 'hobby'.

Tangent: Discussion of the (legendary) Pope Joan.

• The Ancient Greeks used blackberries as a cure for piles.
• Ancient Greeks voted for their leaders until they were invaded by Macedonia.

Tangent: Michael Portillo's exploits as a young Conservative candidate.

General ignorance

• A centipede has between 30 and 382 legs. None has ever been found with 100 legs.
• In 1994, 35,000 Americans insured themselves against alien abduction.
• Purple rhymes with 'hirple' and 'curple'. (Forfeit: Nothing rhymes with purple)

[edit] Episode 6

Broadcast date

• 16 October 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (8 points)
• Danny Baker (Winner with 19 points) 2nd appearance
• Jo Brand (13 points) 2nd appearance
• Howard Goodall (17 points) 2nd appearance

Topics

• Physicist Niels Bohr hung a horseshoe on his wall as "I understand it brings you luck whether you believe in it or not".

Tangent: Edith Evans purchased a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and hung it low down behind a curtain simply because "there was a hook" there.

Tangent: Discussion of the Schrödinger's cat problem.

• Barbara Cartland, when asked whether British class barriers had broken down, replied "Of course they have, or I wouldn't be sitting here talking to someone like you". She also invented the aeroplane-towed glider.
• When asked if he forgave his enemies, the dying Spanish Captain-General Ramon Blanco y Erenas said "I have no enemies, I've had them all shot".
• Pliny the Elder:
  • believed that epilepsy could be cured by eating the heart of a black jackass, outside on the second day of the moon. Alternatively, lightly poached bear testes, a dried camel brain with honey, or gladiator blood.
  • suggested incontinence could be cured by touching the tips of the genitals with linen or papyrus. Alternatively, drinking a glass of wine mixed with the ash of a pig's penis, then urinating in your (or your neighbour's) dog's bed.
  • also suggested haemorrhoids could be cured with a cream made with pig lard and the rust from chariot wheels. Alternatively, swan's fat or the urine of a female goat.
  • thought that headaches were supposedly cured by a fox's genitals tied to the forehead.

  Tangent: British bees died out after World War I – new bees were introduced from Mexico.

  • claimed that choking on a piece of bread could be cured by placing pieces of the same loaf in the ears.
  • died investigating the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
• Twenty four people every year are murdered by the Swiss Army, due to the relatively free availability of handguns.
• During the Vietnam War, the US Military prevented wounded soldiers from swallowing their tongues by pinning the tongue to the cheek. More soldiers committed suicide after Vietnam than died in combat.
• Costa Rica has no army: it was disbanded in 1949. The constitution now specifically forbids the country from having an army.
• Alsatians are forbidden from serving in the Spanish Army, as they have an IQ of 60: an IQ of 70 is the minimum required.

General ignorance

• The Goliath frog of Cameroon is mute. (Forfeit: "Ribbit") The only frog to go "ribbit" is the Pacific Tree Frog, the species native to Hollywood and thus sampled for use on hundreds of movie soundtracks.
• An acre is 40 poles long and 4 poles wide. (Forfeit: The Polish Army)
• The Chicago World's Fair in 1933 was opened by light from Arcturus.

[edit] Episode 7

Broadcast date

• 23 October 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (0 points)
• Jo Brand (-38 points) 3rd appearance
• Jimmy Carr (-1 point) 1st appearance
• Jackie Clune (winner with 5 points) 1st and only appearance

Topics

• Australia was discovered by the Chinese (Forfeit: James Cook)
• Aborigines - the term comes from the Latin meaning "from the origin" and was first used to describe a pre-Roman people

Tangents: the scrotum and sperm

• The word Kangaroo means horse in the Begangi language of New South Wales. (Forfeit: "I don't know" is the Guugu Yimithirr language for kangaroo).
• Homo sapiens and apes both evolved from a common ancestor taht hasn't yet been discoverd. (forfeit: apes)
• Tanzania's Hehe tribe got their name, because it was their war cry.

Tangents: stupid answers given in trivia games

• Quite interesting facts about Swaziland and its king
• How King Henry VIII wiped his bottom - using someone else's hand
• The word that takes up the most words to define in the Oxford English Dictionary is set.
• Arthropods - the male European earwig has a spare penis
• The name given to insects with piercing and sucking mouth parts is a bug.
• The highest amount of legs seen on a millipede is 710 on the South African millipede (Forfeit: 1000)

General Ignorance

• The colour of water is blue (Forfeit: clear)
• More people have been killed by ducks than by atomic bombs, as they were responsible for the 1918 outbreak of the Spanish flu
• The ostrich does not bury its head in the sand (Forfeit: It does)
• Who invented rubber boots - Amazonian Indians, and Charles Goodyear with his invention of vulcanised rubber (Forfeit: the Duke of Wellington).

[edit] Episode 8

Broadcast date

• 30 October 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (-30 points)
• Clive Anderson (Winner with 37 points) 2nd appearance
• Sean Lock (25 points) 1st appearance
• Linda Smith (30 points) 1st appearance

Topics

• Elephants can become drunk by eating fruit which ferments in their stomachs.
• James Bond's Bradford is a cocktail that is shaken, not stirred. The vesper was invented in Casino Royale.

Tangent: A "blowjob" is a type of cocktail, made with either Drambuie or Bailey's, whipped cream on the top and is served in a shooter glass. You are not allowed to use your hands to drink it.

• C. B. Fry held the world long jump record in 1913, could jump backwards on to a mantlepiece from a standing position without losing his balance, and after the first world war, was offered the throne of Albania, but turned it down.

Tangent: Jumping backwards

• In Albanian, "Vetullushe" means "A goat with brown eyebrows.

Tangent: The philtrum

• The pink fairy is a type of armadillo, whereas the green fairy is Absinthe.
• Benjamin Franklin thought it would be a great idea to find a way to stop flatulence from smelling so bad.

Tangent: Frankin was not allowed to draft the American constitution, because people thought he might have put jokes in it.

• The first processed food produced by H. J. Heinz in 1869 was horseradish. (Forfeit: Tomato Ketchup, Baked Beans)

General Ignorance

• Fingernails and hair do not grow after you die.
• Bananas come from a herb. (Forfeit: Trees)

Tangent: Banana plants walk up to 40 centimeters in a lifetime.

• A lili is the offspring of a liger and lion, and a titi is the offspring of a tigon and a tiger.
• The phrase "Survival of the fittest" was coined by Herbert Spencer, inventor of the paper clip. (Forfeit: Charles Darwin)

[edit] Episode 9

Broadcast date

• 6 November 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (10 points)
• Jo Brand (15 points) 4th appearance
• Dave Gorman (20 points) 1st and only appearance
• Jeremy Hardy (15 points) 3rd appearance

Topics

• A bongo is a rare type of antelope

Tangent: Syllogisms, Queen Elizabeth and Kylie Minogue and J.Lo.

• The bongo-player of T. Rex was Steve Peregrin Took;

Tangent: Marc Bolan was dyslexic but obsessed with The Lord of the Rings novels

• In South Africa, there is a pastime called Bokdrol spoeg, which is Kudu dung spitting
• Alexander the Great:
  • was a "short, left-handed, epileptic, bisexual Albanian".
  • introduced to Europe the banana, crucifixion, cotton and the Rose-ringed Parakeet.
  • washed his hair in saffron.
  • was embalmed in honey.
• Aristotle taught that flies have four legs, that mucus was brain-matter.

Tangent: the common cold.

• Auricle is another name for the outer part of the ear.
• Vincent van Gogh, after cutting off half of his own ear, presented it to the prostitute that had spurned his affection.
• Snakes do not have ears.
• The okapi can clean its own ears with its tongue.
• Galileo Galilei discovered "ear-like growths" – the rings of Saturn.

General ignorance

• The first King of England was Athelstan from 924 to 939. (forfeit: Alfred the Great)
• Aristotle claimed that hedgehogs had sexual intercourse face-to-face. (forfeit: very carefully)
• The most dangerous creature in history is the mosquito, having killed half of the people on Earth.
• The lords of shouting are angels that sing to God every morning, according to the Jewish faith.
• Samson's hair was cut off by a servant of Delilah. (forfeit: Delilah)

[edit] Episode 10

Broadcast date

• 13 November 2003 (BBC Two)

Panelists

• Alan Davies (Winner with 23 points)
• Rich Hall (3 points) 3rd appearance
• Julia Morris (9 points) 1st and only appearance
• Peter Serafinowicz (-5 points) 1st and only appearance

Topics

Aviation

• The aeroplane was invented by John Stringfellow. (Forfeit: The Wright brothers)
• A person would have, "Mad, bad, fat, sad old git," on their luggage, because they are airport luggage codes.
  • MAD is Madrid Barajas International Airport.
  • BAD is Barksdale Air Force Base, Bossier City, Louisiana.
  • FAT is Fresno Yosemite International Airport, California.
  • SAD is Safford Regional Airport, Arizona.
  • OLD is Old Town Municipal Airport, Old Town, Maine.
  • GIT is Geita Airport, Geita, Tanzania.
• Madonna plans to for the prettiest airport in the world, is to buy Compton Abbas Airfield, Dorset and shut it down.
• The smallest aircraft carrier in the world is a Mitsubishi Shogun (Everywhere else in the world it's known as the Pajero, except in Spain, where 'pajero' means 'one who fiddles with himself for sexual pleasure').

Tangent: Julia's time working in Hokkaidō, Japan's northern island. The island is known for having good milk due to the grass.

• It was a bad idea to ban smoking on aeroplanes, due to companies saving money by using both fresh and recycled air, which increases the threat from viruses.

Alans

• The Alans are a tribe of people who live on the Russian border, since the Huns drove them there in the fourth century.

Tangent: "Alan" means "Rock" or "Pebble", as does "Peter". Alan and Stephen argue as to whether his "Alan" is either a rock or a pebble. Stephen's father is called Alan.

• Edgar Allan Poe predicted the Big Bang, the theory of relativity, parallel universes and the structure of the atom in a prose poem called Eureka.
• Alan Smithee is the Alan with the worst reputation in Hollywood. It is the name used when directors dissociate themselves from a film.
• In Boy on a Dolphin, Sophia Loren had to stand and walk in a trench due to shortness of Alan Ladd.
• Alan Whicker's is Cockney rhyming slang for knickers.

Tangent: The Australian version is Reg Grundy's, undies. Listerine was an example of rhyming slang that has moved on one. If you are "Listerine", then you are an antiseptic, and septic is rhyming slang for American (Septic tank, yank).

General Ignorance

• The first man to circumnavigate the globe was Juan Sebastián Elcano. (Forfeit: Magellan)
• The helicopter was invented by the Chinese. (Forfeit: Italian)

Tangent: The first modern helicopter was invented by the French.

• Nothing happens if you suck your pencil, as it is made out of graphite. (Forfeit: Lead poisoning)

[edit] Episode 11

Broadcast date

• 20 November 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (-18 points)
• Bill Bailey (-2 points) 3rd appearance
• Richard E. Grant (Winner with 12 points) 1st and only appearance
• Linda Smith (5 points) 2nd appearance

Buzzers

• Richard: Trumpet fanfare
• Linda: Harp
• Bill: Bagpipes ending in dischord
• Alan: Donkey heehaw

Topics

• Pigeons do not like going to the movies, because they see the world ten times slower than humans. To them, a film is a slow slide show.
• It was once believed that a pigeon's arse could be used to suck out the poison from an adder's bite. Pigeons are the only birds that can suck.
• The ant has the largest brain in comparison to its body size. (Forfeit: Human)

Tangent: Alan's problem with an ant infestation.

• There are 8,000 species of ant.
• Soldier ants were used in Ancient India as stitches after operations.
• In Thailand, red ants are poured into open wounds, and they secrete an acid which acts as a pain killer and an antiseptic.
• A greasy butcher, a hog snot and Gene Pitney are all kinds of apple.
• Apples and a game played with headless goats both originated from Kazakhstan.
• Both Ulysses S. Grant and John Prescott were both arrested for speeding and both won unusual prizes. Grant won a prize for taming a pony in a circus. The Prescott family came second a competition searching for, "The most typical family in Britain," in 1951, but he should have won because the winning family was discovered to be distantly related to the organiser of the competition.

General Ignorance

• The largest living thing on the Earth is the honey mushroom. (Forfeit: Blue whale, Giant redwood)
• The first man to claim that the Earth revolves around the Sun was Aristarchus. (Forfeit: Copernicus)
• The African animal which kills more humans than any other is the hippopotamus, other than other humans.

Tangent: A hippopotamus breath is so bad, they use it as part of their weaponry. George Washington had hippopotamus false teeth.

• The telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci.

[edit] Episode 12 – Christmas special

Broadcast date

• 23 December 2003 (BBC Two)

Panellists

• Alan Davies (-6 points)
• Phill Jupitus (5 points) 1st appearance
• Sean Lock (7 points) 2nd appearance
• John Sessions (28 points) 2nd appearance

Theme

• The general theme of all the questions was Christmas, with the panellists asked to draw a Christmas tree. Alan Davies drew a traditional childlike portrayal of a Christmas tree – a triangular style tree showing (incorrectly) that the branches point downwards.

Topics

• A Gripple is a gripping device made in Sheffield. Thousands of gripples hold together the Dingo Fence, the worlds longest fence.
• The first domesticated animal after the dog, was the reindeer.
• Another common name for a reindeer (in North America) is caribou.
• Santa's reindeers must be either female or castrated – male reindeer lose their antlers during winter.
• In "days of yore" Yorkshiremen would gather around their beehives during Christmas because they believed that the bees would start humming at midnight (the time of Christ's birth), even when the calendars changed.
• Mince pies were banned by Oliver Cromwell because they symbolised Catholicism.
• From 1814 to the start of World War I, the German village of Lauscha in Thuringia provided the world with baubles, with 90% of US houses.
• The 1908 ban of candles on Christmas trees.

Tangent: Insurance companies and their avoidance of paying out

• During the 1870 siege of Paris by the Prussians the Parisians ran out of food and so one restaurant used rats in their cooking.

General ignorance

• Christmas Island includes Paris, London, Poland and Banana.
• The youngest age that a child can drink alcohol in a pub restaurant or beer garden is 5 years old, as long as an adult buys the drink. (Forfeit: 18)
• Santa Claus comes from Turkey (Forfeit: Lapland)
• The image of Santa Claus was originally noted in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of QI episodes (B series)
• List of QI episodes (C series)
• List of QI episodes (D series)

[edit] External link

• QI Buzzers (A series)

v • d • e

QI

Quite Interesting People

Stephen Fry | Alan Davies | John Lloyd | Repeat offenders

Quite Interesting Series

A | B | C | D

Other Quite Interesting Things

General Ignorance