The guy who plays Dr House seems to be pretty smart. Maybe he could host the US version 
But what if it WAS lupus?
Hugh Laurie was actually on the first episode of QI. I recall he was a pretty lame guest, unfortunately.
I was trying to think of panelists I’d want to see on a North American QI.
- David Sedaris
- Sarah Vowell
- Stephen Colbert
- Jon Stewart
- Craig Ferguson
- Alan Alda (I know he’s fascinated by science and nature)
What do you think? What other smart and funny/quick-witted folks are out there?
That’s the one I found online and watched. If there are any standout episodes I should watch, please point me in the right direction.
http://www.youtube.com/user/YouGluben#p/u/87/Gq-7fAvbG0M
Series G, I’m pretty sure this person will get their account suspended soon, so watch it while you can.
I love Jo Brand, Bill Bailey and Rob Bryden. Jimmy Carr is okay. Clive Anderson is good. The more newbie guests aren’t as good, like someone said before, either they say stuff that’s not that funny or they just don’t talk at all.
Seriously no one is thinking Conan O’brien and Andy Richter could pull this off? Andy Richter whupped ass in his Celebrity Jeopardy episode around September 2009. Conan is quite intelligent and self-depricating.
Yeah look for episodes with these guys. Skip Johnny Vegas and Jeremy Clarkson episodes.
Sean Lock, Rob Bryden, Phil Jupitas, Dara O’Briain, Hugh Dennis, Jeremy Sessions, Andy Hamilton and David Mitchell are good to watch, IMHO, along with the ones mentioned above.
Here’s an episode guide. Look for episodes that feature all (and only) the good guests mentioned above and you’ll get the cream of the crop!
BMada – I’ve never seen Conan O’Brien aside from brief guest shots on 30 Rock, and the only thing I know Andy Richter from is a couple of eps of Andy Barker, P.I.. So I can’t really give my opinion! But maybe they’d work.
Hey ZipperJJ – that’s John Sessions, not Jeremy. 
What piques my interest with him is, what’s with his hair? Gray in the first series, suddenly red/brown for the middle series, and then gray again. I haven’t seen him in anything since Whose Line…, when his hair was almost jet black, and he seemed manic.
My favorite guests are, in rough order: David Mitchell (he reminds me a lot of a young Fry), Rob Bryden, Phil Jupitas, Clive Anderson, Bill Bailey, Sean Locke, Andy Hamilton, Jo Brand (though sometimes her dour persona can get tedious), and Rory Bremmer – the latter who surprised the hell out of me for being so damn smart. I wouldn’t say skip the Clarkson / Vegas episodes, though; they’re not the best guests, but they don’t spoil the whole show IMO.
I’ve seen all QI episodes through the F series, and I’d say the only episode I didn’t enjoy was the Children in Need episode with Terry Wogan. His old fashioned, smarmy talk show style threw me. It was like Merv Griffin trying to keep up with Stephen Colbert.
(I was shocked to learn Wogan’s been knighted. I vividly remember the Yes Prime Minister novel, where newly installed PM Hacker is contemplating his first TV interview and whom to choose for questioner. He wonders if he might get easier questions if he offers the interviewer a knighthood. Bernard says in dry disbelief, “Sir Terence Wogan?!”)
You’re not the only one. When I first caught QI on YouTube, I thought the humor was somewhat similar. I could definitely see them doing it. The problem is, I don’t think the Coco fans would go for it.
It’d be really cool if there was a hole in Conan’s settlement and he was allowed to host a free web show. That’s where he could pull this off, easily.
ETA: What I mean is, he could try it out and do really well, and wouldn’t have to worry too much about viewership. If he doesn’t get any views, it could just be a silly thing he was trying while waiting to have real TV show.
I love love love QI. And I hate hate hate BBCAmerica for not having it on. It’s hard for me to consistently find it online - anyone got a source?
I love the show, but I also think it probably wouldn’t do well here. We just don’t have the chat-show-disguised-as-a-game-show thing here, and I’m not sure the audience would catch on in the short time the producing network is likely to allow it.
VH1 or MTV should do a North American “Never Mind the Buzzcocks,” though. They’d have to come up with a name people here would understand, but I think it would be one of the biggest shows those networks had if they did it. Maybe Justin Timberlake could host it.
As for QI, I think Sarah Vowell is a good suggestion for the Alan Davies spot. For the host, I’m not sure who’d be best.
Another great thing British TV does along these lines is their annual “Big Fat Quiz of the Year,” hosted by Jimmy Carr. I’d love to see an American version come December. I’d give the hosting job to Craig Ferguson.
I PMed you with links. Don’t want to get kindly folks in trouble, either the uploaders or our hosts here on the SDMB.
Anyone else wants the info, lemme know. Glad to hook up fellow addicts!
I think this idea has a different problem - the panel show one too, but I honestly don’t think you’d be able to get away with quite the amount of taking the piss out of people as you do in the UK version than you would in a US version. And certainly not in terms of mocking the people that are actually there in the studio with you, which is a pretty important part of the whole thing.
I think this may be the clincher, the jabs get quite fierce but that’s the British way.
I also think that the criticism of Stephen’s demeanour when he takes the panellists to task might also be a transatlantic misunderstanding.
He puts his schoolmaster hat on sometimes and lets rip but I never feel that it is personal. Remember, such as Alan Davies do only play the part of plebs and ingoramuses (ignorami? ignoramopod?) they are all smart, sharp and thick skinned. They wouldn’t be invited on otherwise.
I also think that if Stephen thought for a second that he was unfair to anyone he would be mortified, he strikes me as that sort of person.
Also, we are lucky enough to see and extended version in the UK and on that it is plain to see that the panellists are merciless when it comes to having a go at Stephen.
He gets as good as he gives.
American host?
Why, me, of course.
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year has become a must see every year. It’s very funny. Again there’s a level of piss taking of the guests that’s very British but I think of all the formats mentioned in this thread it’s the one that’s most open to change IMO.
Buzzcocks wouldn’t work in it’s current format in the US I reckon. It’s just too vicious, in fact some Brit guests have got very upset on it as well. Here’s a clip were Preston(a singer in some band) walks off as his wife’s autobiography(a Paris Hilton look alike he met on a reality show) is torn apart. The show dealt with it in it’s own cruel and very funny way. In the states someone could get shot* 
*I kid.
Oh, yes, I have no doubt that it’s all in fun. It’s just a bit odd on those occasions (more frequent than his reputation would suggest) when Stephen plays the role of the all-knowing schoolmaster correcting the ignoramuses and yet, in doing so, reveals himself to be the one who is blunderously wrong, albeit unacknowledgedly.
Fry’s only going by the info from the Elves, and must trust their work. When they make mistakes, they often follow it up either on air or on their website. The marsupial thing, for example, is discussed on their forum.
Plus, with that relativity dealie, he did say, when elaborating on the question, that they were looking for the first ‘idea’ of relativity. So they were going for who had the first (small “t”) theory, not Theory, and that certainly wasn’t Einstein. (For all I know it wasn’t Galileo either – I ain’t no physicist – but either way, the claxons were well-earned.)
My favorite clip of Fry vs. Alan is this one, where Alan pulls his hilarious Mexican accent gag and Stephen snarks at him with history. Alan’s crestfallen face is priceless, as is his “did you ever feel like your weapon isn’t big enough?” to Jo Brand. Then there’s the back-and-forth about Bill Bailey’s knowledge of beetle collecting, and Stephen’s digs about Alan’s wondering how Bill knew that… Just awesome.
That Mexican accent kills me every time. I don’t know why I tolerate such silly stereotyping when it comes from him, but instead of finding it offensive, I crack up. Maybe because he’s so good-natured?