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…
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.
David Mitchell’s pedantic officiousness (albeit affected, I’m sure) makes him a perfect panel game host.
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.
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.
Just asking. Seems he was toast.
I like this David Mitchell rant about temperature.
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…
For example, 8:22 here. (More examples to come when I feel like it…)
He’s always done it. I strongly suspect that he has to do it for editing purposes.
Ah, alright. Just my flawed memory/the recency illusion, then.
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…
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.
What is Mock the Week like?
I’m loving Would I Lie to You by the way. It really is hilarious.
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.
But but…Mock The Week is a good place to see Chris Addison being adorable and cheeky!
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.
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.
Hi again everybody, sorry to wake you up but just saw this about the new QI series:
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.