Finding non-awful female comedians in the UK is a big ask. There may be a few working the stand up circuit but the mainstream standard is pitiful. We’re talking the level of Dawn French, Jo Brand, Gina Yashere etc. If you know any in the US send them over as they’ll clean up.
I like Johnny Vegas but can see he’s going to be desperately bad for a lot of people. He’s got a little bit of that Andy Kaufman style where he does not give a fuck if anyone is laughing. Not great for QI but I like the contrast. His acting stuff is very different, as mentioned by ZipperJJ - quite mainstream and he comes across amiable and likeable. His stand up has a lot of self-loathing, but he’s all the way in with it in complete contrast to your typical Footlights product.
One woman I HATED was only in one episode that I recall. She was the horse woman. Ugggggg.
The questions were clearly seeded so that she would have something to talk about and look intelligent on. Really didn’t fit the show at all.
ETA: And hasn’t John Sessions been on a couple episodes? God I can’t stand him - he always irritated me in Whose Line was well. You know the “Stuck up arrogant fucks” that Otto was always complaining about in “A Fish Called Wanda”? Yeah, Sessions was the person he was talking about. Specifically.
I know what you mean. Don’t get me started on “light is invisible”
There is a fairly decent QI messageboard (at http://www.qi.com/talk/) where you can quibble their facts and suggest questions for upcoming series. I posted a link about fainting goats on there once, and it turned up as a question a couple of series later.
I think this is a great post and I agree completely. Also about Sandi Toksvig, who was hilarious with David and Rob in the History episode I just watched last night. (And I’d forgotten about Bill Bailey when listing my favorites! How could I have forgotten about Bill Bailey??)
Yeah, but we Ashkenazi half-Jews count as white these days. In fact, pretty much all Jews (except those from Ethiopia or Kerala, natch) are considered white these days.
Not that skin-color racial categories intrinsically matter a damn, of course. I mention it merely to illustrate why the half-Jewish heritage of the Norfolk-born, Cambridge-educated, tweed-suited, Melchett-and-Jeeves-playing, “quintessentially English” Stephen Fry has no detectable modulating effect on the blindingly white cultural ambience of QI.
Oh yeah, so do I, I’d forgotten her. I also agree that the sharp-and-interesting-although-not-particularly-comic Victoria Coren might be a nice occasional addition to the panel.
Definitely one of the chief purveyors of the awesome on QI. Thanks to dwyr’s post upthread, I just found out about his “Dandelion Mind” show in NYC in September and have booked a ticket!
Victoria Coren’s been on HIGNFY a few times now, and she’s usually good value. Sanjeev Bhaskar is usually pretty funny, too. There’s quite a bit of overlap between the two, really, but then comedy panel shows over here are incredibly incestuous like that. I’m trying to think of more non-white men who’ve been on HIGNFY, but the first person that comes to mind is Germaine Greer, and she’d be terrible on QI.
Sue Perkins, if I remember correctly, is also gay. As of course is Fry himself.
QI is awesome. That and Nevermind the Buzzcocks. Two great shows. I still remember the day when I felt like a hipster…
“Ya know Ryan, if you aren’t watching British panel-style quiz shows, you aren’t watching TV.”
They require people who are both (a) famous and (b) capable of spontaneous wit. The intersection of those two sets, for whatever reason, is far smaller in the US than the UK.
Love Q.I. to death and have watched all of the shows, usually several times over.
They get me into trouble though, because I pick up on some unusual fact shown on the prog. and either mention it, or post it at a later date but can’t remember where I learned it when called on for a cite.
Dave Mitchell is awesome, Johnny Vegas was rubbish.
Fry and Davis have done a good job in the past but are getting a little tired now, time for a change.