QI
- TV panel show
- BBC Two / BBC One / BBC Four
- 2003 - 2025
- 324 episodes (22 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 V, Episode 11
- Catch-up on Series V, Episode 10
- Streaming rank this week: 289
Episode menu
Series V, Episode 1 - Voyaging
Topics
- The sign that reads: "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" is in Paradise. The area known as The Strip is mostly outside the city boundaries, in the townships of Winchester and Paradise. The early casinos were backed with mob money and thus were built just outside the city to avoid tax. In 1950, Las Vegas tried to annexe The Strip, but this was blocked by persuading county officials to create the new townships of Winchester and Paradise, and a city cannot annexe an official township. (Forfeit: Las Vegas)
- XL Tangent: Alan went to Las Vegas to make a documentary about Harry Houdini. During it, he went to a Japanese restaurant in the hotel he was staying in, where some of the cooking was done in view of the customers. While Alan was eating, he witnessed one chef take out a live lobster, chopped it into two, and both halves remained alive.
- Tangent: Archie Karas was a Greek who arrived in Las Vegas with $50 in 1992, to work in a restaurant. He learned to play pool, made money from that, then learned to play cards, and made even more money. Over the next two-and-a-half years, he made $40million. It is known in gambling circles as "The Run", and it is listed by Guinness World Records as the largest winning streak ever. However, he lost $30million in three weeks in 1995, and the rest shortly afterwards. Karas still lives in Las Vegas, but as of 2015 is now banned from playing in casinos because he was caught marking cards.
- XL Tangent: Londoner Ashley Revell went to Las Vegas in 2004, having sold his house and all his belongings, and bet all £76,840 he got on red in a game of roulette. He won, doubling his money.
- Tangent: Elmer Sherwin is famous for winning on slot machines. The odds of winning the megabucks jackpot are around one in 50 million, and Sherwin won it twice. He first won in 1989 at the age of 76, having borrowed $20 from his ex-wife and winning $4.6million. He won again 16 years later, winning $21.1million at the age of 92.
- Victoria's creamy white buttocks make you lose your shorts because it is a rapid below Victoria Falls. There are white-water rapids below the falls called Morning Glory, Stairway to Heaven, the Devil's Toilet Bowl, Commercial Suicide, and the Overland Truck Eater, also known as Creamy White Buttocks.
- Tangent: People bungee jump at these points in Victoria Falls. When one person hurt themselves jumping at the Devil's Toilet Bowl, the Zambian minister of tourism decided to prove that it was safe by bungee jumping there himself. Nabil says it is amazing a political did this, because he can't imaging Boris Johnson getting a night bus in Peckham or Croydon.
- Tangent: The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela. There is a golf course near Victoria Falls called Elephant Hills, which contains wildlife like warthogs, impalas, crocodiles and elephants. The course has special rules, such as if you hit a warthog with your ball, you are allowed to continue, but there is a one-stroke penalty. The course has eight water hazards, and players are advised not to take your balls out of any of them because of crocodiles.
- Tangent: Nabil was chased by a crocodile as a child. Growing up in Kaduna, Northern Nigeria, he was at a restaurant called the Jacaranda, where you could see crocodiles by a riverbed, surrounded by a wire fence. Nabil jumped over the fence, made his way to one, and it started chasing him. While crocodiles are fast, they cannot take corners, so Nabil was able to escape by not running in a straight line.
- XL Tangent: There is a spot at Victoria Falls where erosion has caused a rock pool to form called the Devil's Pool. It is possible to sit in the pool, which is right by the edge of the waterfall. There is also a nearby rainforest which is the only place in the world where you always need an umbrella, because the spray from the waterfall is so intense it comes down as constant rain.
- XL@ A really petty way to vex the French is by dumping a load of stuff you offered to them at a really low price into the sea when they still turn the offer down. During the Second World War, the Americans had a base on Vanuatu, which at the time was jointly colonised by both France and Britain. After the war, the US did not have enough transport ships to bring back all of their equipment, and loads of Coca-Cola. The US offered all this to the French for 6 cents on the dollar, which is very cheap. The French refused, because they thought that the Americans would just leave it behind. The US reacted by dumping everything into the sea. Anything that could not be carried away was pushed by bulldozer into the sea, and then the bulldozers themselves were driven into the sea with rocks on the accelerators. The area is now called Million Dollar Point and is a popular spot for scuba diving.
- XL Tangent: Vanuatu became independent in 1980, but before that they had a hybrid of British and French rules. Any new resident had a month to decide whether they wanted to come under British or French law. The territory had one British judge, one French judge, and the whole thing was overseen by a Belgian. Because of the mixture of laws, until the 1920s those obeying British law drove on the left and those obeying French law drove on the right. When they eventually decided that everyone had to drive on one particular side, the ruled that the very next vehicle that would arrive could dictate which side it was. That vehicle was a buggy ordered by a priest from the French territory, so everyone then drove on the right.
- XL Tangent: Vanuatu is the home of bungee jumping. In Vanuatu's Pentecost Island, a practice known in English as "land diving" originated from a legend in which a woman was trying to escape from her husband. The woman ran into a forest and climbed a tree, but the husband kept following. The woman then tied some vines around her ankles and leapt to the ground safely. The husband followed her, but he didn't tie any vines, so fell to his death. Women on Pentecost Island took up land diving out of respect for this legend, where it became a sport. However, the men then stopped women from doing it, and the men did the diving instead. Today, it is a rite of passage for boys and it is associated with a good yam harvest. It later attracted attention in Britain after David Attenborough did a documentary in 1960 which showed it, and bungee jumping was taken up by the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club.
- The number of clowns that can fit into two vans is one. This is because the Vans shoe brand made clown shoes for 14 years. The company is named after the Van Doren brothers, who founded a shoe company in California in 1966. One of the things they did was make shoes out of any fabric people brought in. They had a mascot called Squeaky the Clown, and made their first pair of clown shoes for him, and the word spread among the clown community, so Vans made clown shoes. Inside each pair of clown shoes was a pair of normal Vans shoes.
- Tangent: Alan wore Vans shoes while making Jonathan Creek. Writer David Renwick put in a shot where you can see Jonathan's washing machine, which has about ten Vans going around inside it.
- Tangent: Sandi produces a pair of clown shoes to demonstrate, which Nabil thinks he could wear as he has large feet himself. Lou talks about the website WikiFeet, which has photos of celebrities feet which people judge, and her feet score 4.6/5. The Elves reveal that Joe's feet have a 4.98/5 rating.
- XL Tangent: Clowns date back to the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, around 2400 BC. Most clowns are men, but the first clown school in Europe was opened by a woman named Annie Fratellini, in 1975. When a photo of her is shown, Joe suggests she looks like Liz Truss. In 1890, a female clown called Lady Evetta (real name Josephine Williams), who was dubbed "the only lady clown". She performed in New York, was one of 21 siblings, and once said: "All my people laughed at me when I told them that I was going into the ring as a clown, but they do not laugh now." This line changed over years and is often seen as a Bob Monkhouse quote.
- The word "vermiform" means worm-shaped, and it is a bad idea to visit the world's heaviest worm because it is at the bottom of the ocean. Tube worms can be 9ft in length, look like large lipsticks, can survive temperatures of 350ºC near hydrothermal vents, and do not eat anything. Instead they have bacteria living in their body, and the bacteria takes sulphur from the vents which converts it into energy. Earthquakes and strong volcanic eruption can destroy whole colonies, but when new vents open up the tube worms will return to them, and no-one knows how they do it.
- Tangent: Hydrothermal vents were only discovered in 1977 and are home to many unusual forms of life. These include the volcano snail, which has a shell made up of iron sulphides. Sandi has one borrowed from the Natural History Museum which is the holotype - the very first specimen - which has to be preserved in 100% alcohol because if exposed the iron sulphides would rust.
- XLAnother creature is the Pompeii worm, which is about five inches long, live at the edge of the vents, and their bottoms can be 80ºC while their heads are at 14ºC. It has what looks like a fur coat, but the fur is actually entirely made out of bacteria.
- Tangent: A third creature is the yeti crab (which Joe also jokingly compares to Liz Truss), so called because it is very hairy. They cannot see, but survive by using their furry claws to search for nutrients. One species of yeti crab is the Hoff crab, named after David Hasselhoff's hairy chest.
- A question on vexillology: you can stop sailors being so vulgar by not having flags that represent vowels. Until 1856, the flags mostly stood for numbers rather than letters, with each number representing a different command. When it was changed by the British Commericla Code of Signals to make the flags represent letters, people became worried that sailor may start swearing with the flags, so to stop this they did not include vowels. Vowels were not added to the system until 1901.
- Tangent: Nabil's first reaction to the question is to sing 'Drunk Sailor' and suggesting that you should: "Put him in a cellar with a hosepipe on him". He then gets Joe to dance with him as he sings.
- XL Tangent: Lord Nelson's famous instruction at Trafalgar, "England expects that every man will do his duty", took four minutes to send. However, Nelson originally wanted a longer message: "England confided that every man will do his duty." Signaller John Pasco suggested the change to "expects" as that was word was in the signal book and thus they did not need to spell out every single letter.
- XL Tangent: The United States flag is considered alive, according to the US Flag Code. The Code forbids it from being used as clothing, for use in advertising, or as throwaway napkins. However, these rules are broken every 4th July.
- XL- Tangent: During the 1936 Berlin Olympics Opening Ceremony, Liechtenstein and Haiti discovered their flags were identical, with a dark blue horizontal stripe on top of a red stripe. Liechtenstein compromised by walking in with their flag upside-down. Later, Liechtenstein added a crown to their flag, and Haiti added a crest motif to their flag.
- XL Tangent: In the UK, you need planning permission to fly the EU flag. Some flags are exempt from planning permission such as international organisations, but only if the UK is a member. Thus, since Brexit, permission is needed. You don't need permission to fly flags of countries or regions of countries.
- You can use a rubber moose to crash test cars. If you are driving in the Swedish countryside, you will come within 1,000ft of a moose every 23 seconds. Volvo use a moose made out of vulcanised rubber, which consists of 114 rubber discs on a steel frame, in order to test the safety of their cars.
- Tangent: Volvo also developed the three-point V-shaped seat belt, and they gave the patent away so that all cars could have it for the good of humanity. During the first 40 years of their use, it is believed seat belts have saved over a million lives. However, they were unpopular when first introduced in certain parts of the world. In the USA, people would cut the belts off have then have them foisted upon them.
- Tangent: Volvo launched a special concept car designed entirely by women for women. They believed that if you met the expectations of women, then you will exceed the expectations of men. Things the women designed included a separate compartment specifically for a handbag; a way to refill the wiper fluid through a little hole on the side of the car rather than opening the bonnet; a space in the headrest for a ponytail; interchangeable seat cover and carpet fabrics; and an adjustable heel rest for the accelerator foot. While no car was made, 22 of the features suggest are now in current Volvo models.
General Ignorance
- XL: The first Disneyland was in Lincolnshire. Walt Disney's ancestors came from the village of Norton Disney, and records show that the name of the estate his ancestors occupied during the 14th century was Disneyland. The family originally came from Normandy from a place called Isigny. "Disney" is an Angelicisation of "d'Isigny", meaning "from Disney". The family came over to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. The family took part in a failed rebellion in the 1600s, fled to Ireland, and then later went to America. (Forfeit: Paris)
- XL Tangent: Walt Disney visited Norton Disney in 1949, when his company was filming Treasure Island. Norton Disney's village hall shows photos of him playing darts and drinking in the local pub. He donated three prints of Pinocchio, Snow White and one of the dwarves which hang in the village hall.
- The safest way to make a phone call while driving is by not taking the call. If you take a phone call while driving, it is the equivalent of having three pints of beer in how it impacts your driving.
- Tangent: In Lou's car, she has a button on the steering wheel where you can make a phone call. She demonstrated it to a friend, but the system misunderstood the name of the person she said, so it called a man she slept with ten years ago, who happened to be getting married on that same day.
- XL: Electric cars first became popular in the early 20th century. Currently, about 14% of cars are electric. However, in 1900 a third of all cars in the USA were electric. Electric carriages were first developed in the 1830s. The best-selling car in the USA in 1897 was the electric Columbia Motor Carriage. By 1930, 38% of all US cars were electric, 40% were steam powered, and only 22% used petrol. However, the discovery of crude oil in Texas and the petitioning of better road surfaces for cyclists meaning that people could travel further resulted in the market in electric cars collapsing, as they could not travel as far. Their range was about 20 miles at about 15mph. Mass production of the petrol powered Model T Ford reduced car prices enough to make petrol cars the preferred choice.
- XL Tangent: The question is illustrated with a photo of Thomas Edison, who owned several electric cars. Joe once more asks if he is actually Liz Truss. (Forfeit: There's Liz Truss again)
Scores
- Nabil Abdulrashid: 4 points
- Alan Davies: 0 points
- Lou Sanders: -6 points
- Joe Lycett: -29 points
Broadcast details
- Date
- Tuesday 22nd October 2024
- Time
- 9pm
- Channel
- BBC Two
- Length
- 45 minutes
- Recorded
-
- Monday 26th February 2024, 18:45 at Television Centre ('Voyaging', with Nabil Abdulrashid, Joe Lycett and Lou Sanders.)
Cast & crew
Sandi Toksvig | Host / Presenter |
Alan Davies | Regular Panellist |
Joe Lycett | Guest |
Lou Sanders | Guest |
Nabil Abdulrashid | Guest |
James Harkin | Script Editor |
Anna Ptaszynski | Script Editor |
Sandi Toksvig | Script Editor |
Will Bowen | Researcher |
Anne Miller | Researcher |
Mike Turner | Researcher |
Jack Chambers | Researcher |
Emily Jupitus | Researcher |
James Rawson | Researcher |
Lydia Mizon | Researcher |
Miranda Brennan | Researcher |
Tara Dorrell | Researcher |
Manu Henriot | Researcher |
Joe Mayo | Researcher |
Lieven Scheire | Researcher |
Leying Lee | Question Writer |
Ben Hardy | Director |
Piers Fletcher | Series Producer |
John Lloyd | Executive Producer |
Nick King | Editor |
Jonathan Paul Green | Production Designer |
Gemma O'Sullivan | Lighting Designer |
Howard Goodall | Composer |
Aran Kharpal | Graphics |
Helen Ringer | Graphics |
Chris Reid | Graphics |
Sarah Clay | Commissioning Editor |
Video
Is this the world's most dangerous golf course?
Is this the world's most dangerous golf course?
Featuring: Nabil Abdulrashid, Joe Lycett, Lou Sanders, Sandi Toksvig & Alan Davies.