Love QI, but like HIGNFY it really requires people with a very specific comic ability (spontaneous clever and relevant wit). Not all comedians can do all sorts of comedy. Ronni Ancona does funny impersonations but was dire on QI. Conversely Paul Merton is hilarious on HIGNFY but was on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and fell flat on his face. Horses for courses, as they say in Britain.
I’m watching one now. I love David Mitchell. Is he in every episode then?
Yep, David mitchell is one of the regular team captains, and on every week.
If you’re fan, he also has his own radio show, some of which is available on youtube…
:slight hijack:
Yes, you can hijack your own thread. Well, it’s related anyway.
Was Jonathan Creek a good show? I like Alan Davies on QI, but I know literally nothing about Jonathan Creek except it is a mystery who.
Mrs. Mahaloth and I rather don’t like mysteries, but there are exceptions. If the characters are great, we tend find it bearable.
We’ve liked:
Veronica Mars - one of the best shows we’ve seen
Sherlock(the one with Benedict Cumberbatch)
We’ve disliked:
Psych(did like it for the most part, but was too contrived)
CSI(horrible)
Foyle’s War(boring for the most part)
Nero Wolfe(boring for the most part)
Thoughts?
Good Lord, Would I Lie To You was quit funny. Glad it is on youtube. I hope its legal.
I’m telling you, David Mitchell kills me.
Maybe somebody from the UK can explain to me why Stephen is always picking on Alan Davies. Is his being kind of dumb part of his schtick or something?
Good question. I’ve just kind of come to accept the "in-joke’. Obviously, Alan is not dumb, but they pick on him quite a bit.
It’s a classic comic routine - the smart guy with the dumb sidekick. He’s Chico to Fry’s Groucho, Pinky to his Brain.
The Alan and Stephen relationship is the basis the whole show is based on: Fry is incredibly clever and knows everything, Davies is Everyman and represents you and me, the TV audience giving the obvious answer that’s always wrong. Obviously Fry doesn’t know everything - though he is pretty damn bright - and Davies is smart than most.
Instant link to Jonathan Creek: Alan Davies plays the brains behind a magic act - the guy that invents the tricks while a bumptious, arrogant “star” takes the credit. Alan Davies’ character is always quiet and unassuming but always sees through the baddies complex plots. Personally I enjoyed the earlier programmes - haven’t watched it for a while.
Yes, Alan Davies, as the only permanent “bantermeister” on the QI panel, seems to have a sort of semi-official role as the class clown and/or dunce. He’s the one who perennially gets put down, takes the fall on obviously wrong answers, usually (though not always) winds up with the lowest score, and so on, to keep the show moving along and help show off the other panelists.
Naturally, it takes a pretty brilliant comic actor to seem that dumb while being that effective, and Davies is an absolute genius in the role. Ars est celare artem, as Fry would say and Davies wouldn’t, and it’s a tribute to Davies’ skill that so many QI viewers honestly think of him as a lovable but slightly dimwitted naif. (Alan’s own very forgivable irritation about that confusion is hilariously showcased in this YouTube clip of a conversation between him and Bill Bailey.)
Following up the OP’s hijack: I personally liked Davies’ charmingly flaky mystery TV series Jonathan Creek quite a bit, but primarily the first two series when he played opposite Caroline Quentin. I dutifully watched the episodes after Quentin left, but wasn’t anywhere near as captivated by them, though Davies was still very good.
To hijack the hijack further, I have seen one episode of Davies’ filmed-but-never-broadcast first season of the comedy series Whites, which started screening on Hulu a few weeks ago: Whites. Davies plays a dysfunctional restaurant chef trying to get his career re-started, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes.
Whites is quite good, though not unforgettable. I watched a couple of episodes of Jonathan Creek, but it wasn’t my thing. If you like TV detective-type shows, you might like it.
You will love his three-minute video/podcast Soapbox rants, if you don’t already.
Which we don’t, so it doesn’t look like its going to be something we’re into.
from my thread last year.
I suggest that:
Neil DeGrasse Tyson (Nova ScienceNow Host) would be an okay host. I like hearing him speak and he’s intelligent and kinda humourous. However he is highly intellectual and would perhaps need someone of high intellect to be his Alan Davies counterpart.
Colin Mochrie is good with word play, but I don’t know if i could believe him to be too funny a lot of the time. Improv comedians would be awesome.
Conan O’brien could probably be in the mix too. Harvard educated. Have him as host and Andy Richter as Alan Davies.
I guess this a YMMV thing, but it was Whose Line Is It Anyway? that made Merton a star, long before he was on HIGNFY. Personally, I think his schtick on HIGNFY has got pretty tired, but he is still funny when he is on Just a Minute on the radio.
Personally, I think NPR’s Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me now does the news panel show genre better than any of the British originals on which it is modeled.
Other things I’ve learned from QI: Peter Cushing lives in Whitstable.
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No love for Sue Perkins? Contrary to what she might think, she totally rocks the coquettish goth librarian look.
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She’s not unattractive, but she doesn’t make me laugh.
Is it modeled on British panel shows?
It wasn’t much my thing either, and I really tried, given how much I love Alan Davis on QI and in stand up. My main problem with Jonathan Creek was how far they reached for their “locked room” mystery solutions - it’s been a while, so I don’t recall details, but the one from series one involving a gorilla was especially ridiculous.
QI, however, I love to the center of my bones. The fact that they keep a show this hilarious, this clever, and this, well, interesting from American tv and dvd is baffling. With a little marketing and word of mouth, surely they could sell it.
My favorite panelists are Sean Lock, David Mitchel, Bill Baily, Jo Brand, and Rich Hall.
Never!!!