Quite Interesting Trivia

1. The first forfeit in this episode occurs immediately after the first question, triggered by Alan Davies. With what answer, which would become a running gag in later episodes, does he trigger the forfeit?

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: "Blue Whale"

Alan's unfortunate run-in with the "Blue Whale" forfeit eventually caused him to give the same answer to many animal-related questions later in the series - hoping to get at least one right. Of course, the QI Elves have since set up the same forfeit several more times just to trap him. Unfortunately for Alan, when a question whose answer was actually "Blue Whale" finally came up, he failed to answer it!

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: A question that no one ever asked

Stephen's introduction always contains a witty remark. Self-humor, of course, is one of his finest qualities.

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: A bleating sheep

Alan's buzzer noise is revealed last, and always plays something funny or unexpected to play up Alan's role as the "Black Sheep" of the panel. This is probably also an in-joke, because Alan Davies tends to wear his hair long and curly like a sheep or a sheep-dog - it's been his trademark ever since he made his big break starring in "Jonathan Creek"! Curiously enough, Alan's buzzer keeps changing throughout this entire episode. At one point it is a ringing bell, and during the General Ignorance round it is a dog's "Woof". The idea of unexpectedly changing Alan's buzzer noise returned in a few later episodes.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: Keeping bees

The Lion's Mane jellyfish is brought up as the answer to the question "What is the longest animal on Earth" (the same question Alan got wrong by saying "Blue Whale"). In the Sherlock Holmes story, a man stumbles out of the ocean covered with scars from an encounter with one such poisonous animal, and mumbles only the words "The mane! The lion's mane!" before dying in agony. The lion's mane's tentacles can grow over 200 feet long according to Fry, making it the longest living animal on the planet.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: The number of toilet-related injuries in the United States in 1996

43,687 Americans suffered some kind of toilet-related injuries in 1996 - quite a staggering statistic! By comparison, only around 2200 people have been attacked by sharks since 1580 (at least, on record). Perhaps people should be less afraid of sharks and more afraid of toilets? Apologies to Stephen Fry's mother, who would've preferred the use of the word "Lavatory".

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: Adam's navel

Appropriately, the first question is about Adam, more specifically Michelangelo's Adam, as painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The question is what Adam's navel has in common with the Archbishop of Canterbury's left ear. In this famous painting, Adam has a navel, which contradicts the idea that Adam was not born of a woman and therefore shouldn't have had one at all. Therefore, the navel is purely decorative, much like the Archbishop's left ear: he's been deaf in his left ear since birth.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: Opening jars

This is brought up when discussing the fact that octopi can be taught to open jars. It's also mentioned that scientists are currently considering the possibility that octopi have separate "brains", or nerve centers, controlling each of their tentacles. Anderson then makes the somewhat sexist (though intentionally self-deprecating) remark that women can do anything men can do except open jars, and that once they learn to do that, men are practically "finished".

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: "It's 9pm"

Rich's buzzer noise is a loud bell tolling. Rich is a quick thinker, and would display the ability to use his buzzer creatively several more times during the course of the show (and even this episode!). Given his particular style of comedy, he was actually just as likely to have said any of the answers to this question. Rich is one of several Americans to appear on the show during the years, and definitely holds the record for most appearances by an American.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: The word "Sea"

The answer to the question is "Antarctica", which begins with an A, borders six different seas, and contains no B's (nor Bees). This sort of lingual puzzle crops up here and there on QI, owing greatly to Stephen Fry's love of languages and words. Surprisingly, it's Alan Davies who cracks this hard-nut-of-a-question. The astute Clive Anderson, however, stumbles over himself trying to count the number of U.S. states that start with C...

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: A tiger

According to Fry, the noise is known as "Fuffing". The sound of tigers fuffing is supposedly remarkably similar to that made by weasels. Tigers do not roar when they attack, only when warning off other tigers. Alan Davies says that they roar to tell one another where the "Frosties" are. By the way, very few of the modern Croatian coats of arms actually contain any weasels in them. When they do, they often appear at the bottom of the shield. Most Croatian coats of arms tend to feature eagles, and the current coat of arms features a small weasel and a small goat. Bailey wins 5 points for this semi-fallacy.

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: Danny Baker, "New balls please!"

This was the wrong response to a question about Caravaggio, who had murdered a man called Tomassoni during an argument at a tennis match. As Stephen remarks, Caravaggio claimed that it was an accidental murder, and that he was only trying to cut the man's testicles off. This prompts Baker to say "New balls please!", triggering the forfeit for a penalty of 10 points. During the first season, Stephen actually held up cards with the forfeit text printed on them. It was only later in the series that the forfeit was flashed on the large video screens behind the participants, and the cards were dropped.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: Anderson

This is mentioned before a question about various people named Anderson (or Andersen). Pictures are shown of Hans Christian Andersen, Gillian Anderson, Pamela Anderson, and Clive Anderson, and the panelists are asked who is the odd one out. It turns out to be Clive, who of these is the only non-vegetarian. Of course, as he points out, each of them could've been the odd one out, which is true for pretty much any "odd one out" lineup.

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: Sir George Scott

Odd bits of information seem to flow out of Stephen Fry's mouth every time there's a pause in the conversation. In a tangent about Burma, he says that Sir Scott once wrote in his diary that he "Stepped on something soft and wobbly. Struck a match. Found it was a dead Chinaman". He then wonders why the British are hated around the globe.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: A pair of close friends

After Meera Syal points out that Andersen was homosexual, Fry mentions that Andersen had a fancy for one particular lad who later married a woman, and was eventually buried together with the couple in the same grave. He says that this lasted for a while until the couple's family decided that this strange burial arrangement was a stain on their reputation.

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: A fart in the bath

While the panelists can often show great wit and astounding knowledge, toilet humor tends to crop up at least once per episode if not more. That's part of the charm of "QI", and is always (ok, mostly) done in good taste. Stephen Fry himself is often guilty of starting a bout of various sexual or scatological jokes, although the honor usually goes to the less "mature" members like Alan Davies or Sean Lock.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: Atlas' hands

Alan comments that when he was a child, after seeing an image of Atlas holding up the Earth, he thought that it would be possible to go to the place where you could actually see the hands! Atlas was famously shown on the cover of Mercator's book of maps as holding up the Earth, when in fact in Greek mythology he was actually holding up the sky.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: The nipples

Stephen poses a question about how best to defend against an alligator using one of five household objects. Bill Bailey suggests an elaborate strategy involving a popped paper bag as well as clamping alligator clips on its nipples. It's Rich Hall that points out the absurdity of clamping anything on an alligator's nipples when it doesn't actually have any. Alligators are reptiles, not mammals, and therefore do not lactate and do not require nipples for any other reason.

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: A giant anteater hugging a man

Stephen asks what would happen to John Sessions if he were to be hugged by an anteater, and the answer is that he would probably be badly hurt - anteaters have long sharp claws and a powerful grasp, and can kill a man with a hug. Alan proceeds to give a hilarious impression of an anteater greeting John with a hug and then apologizing for having killed him. Impressions are also another common occurrence on the show, performed by many of the guests, and are often very funny. Alan once said of Stephen that "he doesn't do many impressions, but when he does they're hilarious". And he's right!

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: 2,000,000 years

According to Stephen Fry, this region of Antarctica is free of ice and snow, and hasn't seen rain in a ridiculously long amount of time - two million years. That would make it the driest region on the Earth, drier than the Sahara desert, the Atacama desert, and even North Wales on Sundays.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: A wooden horse

As Stephen Fry recounts from the Daily Telegraph, a man reported that he had driven by a one-eared, three-legged horse tied to a pole so short that it couldn't even reach down to chew the grass. As it turns out, the horse was a wooden advertisement for a nearby riding school.

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: Which country has the highest suicide rate?

If you answered wrong, give yourself -10 points! General Ignorance comes at the end of each episode, and often contains questions completely unrelated to the show's weekly theme. These questions are specifically selected to lure players into forfeits, causing them to lose 10 points per forfeit. In other words, these are questions where the average person would THINK he's got the right answer, possibly through common myths and urban legends, and would be tempted to push the buzzer quickly and give that answer, falling instead into a trap. Most guests have taken the bait at least once. After a particularly devious General Ignorance round, it's likely that at least one guest (usually Alan) would end up with a staggeringly low score, somewhere deep in the negative regions.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 3

Answer: -20

Due to falling into no less than 3 different forfeits, Alan staggers behind with -20. All other panelists come out with positive scores, Clive Anderson winning with a grand score of 26. Alan did manage to get some points back near the very end when he correctly said that a day is slightly less or slightly more than 24 hours. A good guess on his part, but not enough to save him from utter defeat.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: 2 & two

The second moon he is referring to is "Cruithne", pronounced "Cru-ee-nia", a small object whose orbit goes mainly around the sun but is strongly influenced by Earth's gravity. At the time of this show's airing, the scientific community was actually divided on whether to classify it as one of Earth's moons. Later on, several more such objects were discovered by astronomers, and it was decided not to classify them as moons, leaving us again with only one moon. The question "how many moons does the Earth have?" was then asked again in a later episode, as a trap to anyone who would answer "two". Alan Davies fell for it.

From Quiz "QI" - The first episode

Answer: Danny Baker

Despite having given many correct and interesting answers early in the show, John Sessions only comes in 3rd place with 10 points. Danny Baker, who had the show's first forfeit, somehow managed to win this episode with 18 points, followed by Hugh Laurie with 11. Due to the nature of the show's editing, it's sometimes hard to tell why or how a person has won. But then again it doesn't matter - it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game!

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: Strange and foreign-sounding words

He mentions this in passing when talking about IKEA and its custom of naming products with all sorts of funny foreign-sounding names like "Lublick" and "Lunebar". He also claims that IKEA outlets never have any windows, so that customers would not be able to tell how much time they spend shopping there. He's actually spot on, with both assumptions!

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: Under his desk

Approximately 90% of the universe is made of Dark Matter, a theoretical form of matter that scientists believe is undetectable by us at our present technological level. In fact, many astrophysicists now believe that there is also a similar "Dark Energy" which is also undetectable, and is causing the universe to expand faster and faster. The Large Hadron Collider may someday be able to reveal these elements of nature, and hopefully propel our understanding of the universe forward, assuming it doesn't destroy the planet in the process.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: Gay Whisper

Stephen asks "what is the color of the universe", to which Jeremy Hardy correctly answers "beige". Fry then admits that he thought it was more like "Gay Whisper", the shade used for his make-up base. Alan Davies asks if "Gay Whisper" was anything like "Chinese Whispers" (the child's game), and Stephen replies "Yes, but more fun". Stephen is a proud homosexual, and does not refrain from making jokes about the issue every few episodes, for great comedic effect.

From Quiz "QI" - Series A, Episode 2

Answer: Jeremy Hardy and Rich Hall

Jeremy and Rich scored 20 points each. In the early days of "QI", high scores such as this were not uncommon. As the show evolved however, penalties were handed out much more "generously", and most players (even the winner) usually reached the end of the show with negative scores.

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