I love Q.I.

[drbhoneydew]

You might want to check out the Museum of Curiosity as well - it's John Lloyd (QI producer amongst other things) + "curator" (Bill Bailey, Sean Lock & Jon Richardson in the series' thus far) + guest doing a less panel gamey radio version of QI.

Also, the radio version of Would I Lie to You? is the Unbelievable Truth, with David Mitchell as far as the mind's eye can see...

[GuanoLad]

The Unbelievable Truth started out quite dry and straightforward, though amusing. The last few series have been hilarious as they bend the rules and go off topic.

[Smeghead]

David Mitchell's pedantic officiousness (albeit affected, I'm sure) makes him a perfect panel game host.

[Mahaloth]

I just watched an episode of Would I Lie to You? and this clip with Kevin Bridges is one of the funniest panel show segments I've seen.

It's 7 minutes, but it is hilarious.

[ZipperJJ]

OMG yes Mahaloth! I've watched that like 4 times since it first aired - so funny!

Gotta find me some Unbelievable Truth now. I follow Mitchell on Twitter but have never managed to actually seek it out.

[dropzone]

Just asking. Seems he was toast.

[Uosdwis R. Dewoh]

Originally Posted by Mahaloth

I just watched an episode of Would I Lie to You? and this clip with Kevin Bridges is one of the funniest panel show segments I've seen.

It's 7 minutes, but it is hilarious.

I like this David Mitchell rant about temperature.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z15_0tkvvTg

[Indistinguishable]

Just started watching some of the newer QIs (G and H series). Has Stephen Fry always done this thing of rather pointedly repeating the answers to questions (after the conversation has gone off on whatever tangents) before moving on to the next question? [That may be a confusing description; I should perhaps link to some examples of what I mean]. I don't recall him doing that before and, I must say, I find it rather distracting in terms of the casual conversational flow...

[Indistinguishable]

For example, 8:22 here. (More examples to come when I feel like it...)

[Alessan]

Originally Posted by Indistinguishable

Just started watching some of the newer QIs (G and H series). Has Stephen Fry always done this thing of rather pointedly repeating the answers to questions (after the conversation has gone off on whatever tangents) before moving on to the next question? [That may be a confusing description; I should perhaps link to some examples of what I mean]. I don't recall him doing that before and, I must say, I find it rather distracting in terms of the casual conversational flow...

He's always done it. I strongly suspect that he has to do it for editing purposes.

[Indistinguishable]

Ah, alright. Just my flawed memory/the recency illusion, then.

[Gyrate]

Originally Posted by Alessan

He's always done it. I strongly suspect that he has to do it for editing purposes.

I haven't been to a QI taping but I've been to other panel shows and they can take up to three hours to tape, with a lot of rambling diversions and a few unbroadcastable quips as well as technical fixes and interruptions. It's useful for editing purposes to restate the question and answer to bring it back on topic before moving to the next question; otherwise it's just a mess.

Seeing these shows in person also reveals that the partcipants are not as quick off the mark as they appear; some of the jokes come long after the set up but are edited together later to seem snappier and the unfunny jokes are not shown at all. If you see a show with a lot of unfunny jokes, just think what the ones they cut out must have been like...

[Smeghead]

Yeah, for Red Nose Day, David Walliams did an online thing where he spent 24 hours straight doing various panel shows online for charity. One of them was QI. Everything was broadcast live, and it's just really not quite the same thing without editing.

[ErinPuff]

Originally Posted by Smeghead

Yeah, for Red Nose Day, David Walliams did an online thing where he spent 24 hours straight doing various panel shows online for charity. One of them was QI. Everything was broadcast live, and it's just really not quite the same thing without editing.

Celebrity Juice on 24 Hour Panel People was the most excruciating thing I've ever watched. It was about an hour and a half of Jedward being manic teenagers and derailing any structure the show was supposed to have, while Germaine Greer looked like she wanted to die. QI was pretty good in comparison (though most of the questions were recycled from previous episodes).

I've been to a few QI tapings and really enjoyed them (though the last one was the day I flew in from the US, and I had trouble staying awake through it). Yes, people ramble and go off topic, but if they're funny, it's not too painful.

[Mahaloth]

What is Mock the Week like?

I'm loving Would I Lie to You by the way. It really is hilarious.

[Gyrate]

Originally Posted by Mahaloth

What is Mock the Week like?

Basically a lot of comedians farting around and spouting obscenities. Andy Parsons and Russell Howard are deeply irritating and now that Frankie Boyle has left it's just not the same. Fortunately host Dara O'Briain is funny enough on his own to make the show worth watching.

[ZipperJJ]

But but...Mock The Week is a good place to see Chris Addison being adorable and cheeky!

[Mahaloth]

Is Mock The Week like a review of the week's news and funny stories? Like the Soup of VH1's best week ever, only panel style?

If so, I'm not familiar enough with British goings-ons to follow the humor.

[Smeghead]

Mock the Week is another weekly "Let's talk about the news" type panel show, but the premise is pretty thin. What it really is is a cutthroat feeding frenzy, as each of the six comedians try desperately to get out as much material as they can in the alloted time. As someone said a few posts ago, it's gone way downhill since Frankie Boyle left, and there are some truly obnoxious panel members, but I think it's still worth watching, most of the time.

[Kimstu]

Originally Posted by Lust4Life

Love Q.I. to death and have watched all of the shows, usually several times over. [...]

Fry and Davi[e]s have done a good job in the past but are getting a little tired now, time for a change.

Hi again everybody, sorry to wake you up but just saw this about the new QI series:

John Lloyd, creator of the panel show QI, which is hosted by Stephen Fry, said executives were so terrified of causing offence that "saucy" banter was banished from the flagship channel before the watershed. ["Watershed", btw, is Brit-speak for the transition in the TV programming day from "family-friendly" content to "adult" content.]

Lloyd expressed relief that the show is leaving BBC One and returning to its original home on BBC Two, even though that might lead to a drop in viewing figures. [...]

QI began in 2003 and proved to be one of BBC Two's biggest ratings winners. That success prompted executives to move it to BBC One in 2008.

Lloyd lamented: "Our relocation to BBC One increased ratings, but there was a cost. It had to stop being what we had become - eclectic, uncompromising, slightly saucy.
"It's a happy return [to BBC Two]. QI can be itself again, instead of masquerading as something else."

So maybe the perception that the last couple seasons have become a little more "tired" or stodgy or formulaic is related to having tweaked the format to conform to different venue standards. It'll be interesting to see if this fall's episodes are noticeably altered in style.

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by Kimstu

So maybe the perception that the last couple seasons have become a little more "tired" or stodgy or formulaic is related to having tweaked the format to conform to different venue standards. It'll be interesting to see if this fall's episodes are noticeably altered in style.

Good news. I bet it will have bit again.

[Mahaloth]

What is the "luvie alarm" that goes off? Is luvie another term for "super gay" or "flaming gay" in England? I think it goes off when Stephen does something really gay.

Watch Series 3, episode 10(Cleve Crudington). It's about 5-8 minutes in.

[Uosdwis R. Dewoh]

Originally Posted by Mahaloth

What is the "luvie alarm" that goes off? Is luvie another term for "super gay" or "flaming gay" in England? I think it goes off when Stephen does something really gay.

Watch Series 3, episode 10(Cleve Crudington). It's about 5-8 minutes in.

Luvvie seems to be a term actors stereotypically call each other. So when someone tells a story with another celebrity involved to show who they know, it's a luvvie alarm.

From the thefreedictionary.com:

luvvie, luvvy [ˈlʌvɪ]
n pl -vies
(Performing Arts / Theatre) Facetious a person who is involved in the acting profession or the theatre, esp one with a tendency to affectation
[from lovey]

It's supposed to be camp, I think.

[SanVito]

Originally Posted by dropzone

He's Conservative.

He's funny.

He's paired with a funny Liberal.

It may be a different show. In the US such niceties are not needed because we have only one.

Are you thinking of Have I Got News For You? It's a long running topical news panel quiz. Ian Hislop is the smug Tory who laughs at his own jokes, although if the readers here are expecting a Fox New style panelist, they'll be disappointed. He may be a conservative, but he's no extremist.

[SanVito]

Originally Posted by Uosdwis R. Dewoh

Luvvie seems to be a term actors stereotypically call each other. So when someone tells a story with another celebrity involved to show who they know, it's a luvvie alarm.

From the thefreedictionary.com:

It's supposed to be camp, I think.

A luvvie is also known as a 'thesp' (thespian). A sort of over-the-top classical British actor-type who greets his colleagues with 'Luvvie! Darling!' Mwah Mwah (ostentatious cheek kissing). Not necessarily gay. Think Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud. The sort of person that opens a sentence with "When I was playing Cleopatra to Larry's Anthony at the National...."

[LawMonkey]

Just joining the love. What other show will tell you what happens when you put smarties tubes on cats' legs?

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by SanVito

A luvvie is also known as a 'thesp' (thespian). A sort of over-the-top classical British actor-type who greets his colleagues with 'Luvvie! Darling!' Mwah Mwah (ostentatious cheek kissing). Not necessarily gay. Think Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud. The sort of person that opens a sentence with "When I was playing Cleopatra to Larry's Anthony at the National...."

Not necessarily gay, but Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud? Heh.

I get it, though.

I know, I know. Olivier was most likely bi.

[Gyrate]

Originally Posted by SanVito

Are you thinking of Have I Got News For You? It's a long running topical news panel quiz. Ian Hislop is the smug Tory who laughs at his own jokes, although if the readers here are expecting a Fox New style panelist, they'll be disappointed. He may be a conservative, but he's no extremist.

Ian Hislop and Paul Merton are very much conservative and liberal respectively in the lowercase mode. Hislop has never withheld his scorn for the antics of the Tories, nor has Merton promoted a political agenda as far as I know.

[Robot Arm]

Originally Posted by LawMonkey

What other show will tell you what happens when you put smarties tubes on cats' legs?

Mythbusters, if it runs long enough.

[GuanoLad]

QI returns to UK TV, BBC2, tonight.

Not that this concerns me, of course, for I do not live in the UK and must therefore wait for it to screen locally. *ahem*ahem*

[Smeghead]

Originally Posted by GuanoLad

QI returns to UK TV, BBC2, tonight.

Not that this concerns me, of course, for I do not live in the UK and must therefore wait for it to screen locally. *ahem*ahem*

Thanks for the heads up! I, too, will be impatiently awaiting its duly scheduled arrival on our shores.

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by GuanoLad

QI returns to UK TV, BBC2, tonight.

Not that this concerns me, of course, for I do not live in the UK and must therefore wait for it to screen locally. *ahem*ahem*

I won't link, but the first one is up on Youtube already. XL version, too.

[Mahaloth]

I see that the "Idleness" episode is also floating around on Youtube. Apparently, Jeremy Clarkson made a fool of himself about some public strikes and they delayed the episode.

When does "The Immortal Bard" episode air. It has David Mitchell, my favorite panelist.

[Mahaloth]

Originally Posted by Mahaloth

When does "The Immortal Bard" episode air. It has David Mitchell, my favorite panelist.

Mahaloth, it aired the other day and indeed, David Mitchell was on it. It was pretty good and yes, it is floating around the Youtubes.