# QI - What does it mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549 "2013-09-11T02:14:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/21 "2013-09-11T18:31:19Z")
In general an advantage of the game show format is that it provides a strong obviously and openly scripted framework. That means that you can keep the actual funny bits largely unscripted – or alternatively create a better illusion of them being unscripted. Being amusing for a whole show without any structure is impossibly difficult and if you try to hide the scripted elements then there is always a chance that it backfires and makes the whole thing seem contrived and artificial. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/22 "2013-09-11T18:32:50Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I’ve never seen the show (I adore Stephen Fry! Loved him as Booth’s shrink on Bones), but I’m reminded of a couple of British “quiz” programs that were on NPR for a while, “My Words” and “My Music.” They were fun to listen to and gave people a chance to use esoteric knowledge that had been gathering dust since grade school. > > “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” is another example of a “quiz” show that is more about entertainment and opportunities to be funny than about actual facts. In a similar vein, you might like [Says You](http://www.saysyou.net/) if you can find it on a local station (or just find someone who plays it at a convenient time and listen to their web stream). > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I’ve always wondered, why doesn’t BBC America bring this show over? You’d think it would be a huge hit. **Achren** already mentioned the issue with licensing the images. I sometimes wonder if an American version would work. I think Bonnie Hunt would make an excellent host. > [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Alan once lost 150 points for guessing that Gandhi’s first name was “Randy”. He finished that episode on -144 points, which I think is still the lowest ever score. > > He could actually have beaten that record by quite a margin in the “Jobs” episode. When Stephen is fishing for compliments by asking which actor did such an amazing job as the voice of the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” (the voice actor was Stephen), Alan suggests Hugh Laurie, and Stephen jokingly docks him 2000 points. Unfortunately, the scorer apparently wasn’t in on the joke, as Alan still finished the episode on zero points. Or in the German episode, he could have just mentioned the war a couple hundred times. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/23 "2013-09-11T18:32:53Z")
It’s a parlour game for the age of electricity. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/24 "2013-09-11T18:44:01Z")
“Everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.” StG ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/25 "2013-09-11T19:57:39Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > “Everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.” > > StG Which, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, comes from another show based on a British panel game show… _WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP_ (NOT a klaxon, as we learned in the last episode) ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/26 "2013-09-11T20:21:39Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Why did you quote me and then link to this? I didn’t. Look again. I quoted urban1a. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/27 "2013-09-11T21:53:43Z")
If you look again you’ll see you qouted both of them. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/28 "2013-09-11T21:59:56Z")
I think one of the closest things to a panel show in the US was Hollywood Squares. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/29 "2013-09-12T00:30:38Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > I didn’t. Look again. I quoted urban1a. And me. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/30 "2013-09-12T01:00:38Z")
It was very silly of me to quote Mahaloth without first asking, perhaps by singing telegram, whether I have his permission to do so. Everyone should know that no expansion of any explanation of Mahaloth’s, by linking to a source, would elicit nothing but extreme displeasure. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/31 "2013-09-12T01:33:22Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > It was very silly of me to quote Mahaloth without first asking, perhaps by singing telegram, whether I have his permission to do so. > > Everyone should know that no expansion of any explanation of Mahaloth’s, by linking to a source, would elicit nothing but extreme displeasure. I think we’re just confused since your link was not related to my post. And that you said you didn’t quote me. That’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/32 "2013-09-12T02:01:13Z")
> [@moriah](#): > > I think one of the closest things to a panel show in the US was Hollywood Squares. [Whose Line Is It Anyway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whose_Line_Is_It_Anyway%3F_%28U.S._TV_series%29)? (An originally British show, remade in USA with \*some \*of the same cast.) ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/33 "2013-09-12T02:09:50Z")
I briefly tried some of the earlier episodes (they are on YouTube) but decided that I preferred the longer XL ones. I’ll go back and try the earlier ones, thanks for the suggestion. I was aware of Jonathan Creek (and that’s where I first saw Alan), but hadn’t seen him in anything else. I don’t know whether I saw all the Creek episodes, and, now, don’t remember where I saw them (maybe Netflix). I preferred the earlier episodes of that with the dumpy female reporter rather than the hot woman. Bob ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/34 "2013-09-12T02:21:15Z")
Oddly enough, Jonathan Creek is also all on youtube. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/35 "2013-09-12T03:19:21Z")
There have been a couple of recent one-off _Jonathan Creek_ specials, and a whole new series is now in production, of three episodes I think. Frustratingly they eliminated the magic and windmill angle of his character in the last one. I hope that’s not permanent. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/36 "2013-09-12T03:48:34Z")
There’s some of [Alan’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAOn330LcGk) [standup](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJSK3t0gSRY) on YouTube, although it’s from quite a few years back. He doesn’t seem to be exactly amazingly prolific, but looking at his [Wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Davies) and adding up the comedy stuff, QI, Jonathan Creek and various drama and documentary things for TV, I suppose he keeps reasonably busy. He’s written a book as well. It also says he’s planning a new comedy tour. ---
**Author:** ![keving](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a587f6/32.png) [@keving](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keving)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/37 "2013-09-12T11:58:46Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > fake quiz shows to allow people to be witty goes back to radio maybe at least 75 years ago. No doubt you are right, but in the case of British comedy panel games, what really opened the floodgates was Have I Got News For You, about twenty years ago. There were comedy panel shows on radio before HIGNFY, to which it undoubtedly owes a lot (e.g. The News Quiz, and I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, which is an out-an-out spoof of panel games). And on TV there were panel games such as Call My Bluff in which being funny was important, but which still had real scoring and proper winners and losers. But those shows were quaint, minority interests. Like it or not, the audience for clever radio shows and panel games from the 1950s is small. Have I Got News For You vaulted comedy panel shows into the mainstream. It rode on the back of the alternative comedy boom of the 1980s. After HIGNFY’s success came many imitators of varying quality. QI is one of the good ones. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/38 "2013-09-12T12:13:28Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > [Whose Line Is It Anyway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whose_Line_Is_It_Anyway%3F_%28U.S._TV_series%29)? > > (An originally British show, remade in USA with \*some \*of the same cast.) Also _Around the Horn._ Four sportswriters “compete” on various topics and get awarded random points. The prize is to be the last one left and get the last word on any topic they wish. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/39 "2013-09-13T19:41:33Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Alan once lost 150 points for guessing that Gandhi’s first name was “Randy”. He finished that episode on -144 points, which I think is still the lowest ever score. > > He could actually have beaten that record by quite a margin in the “Jobs” episode. When Stephen is fishing for compliments by asking which actor did such an amazing job as the voice of the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” (the voice actor was Stephen), Alan suggests Hugh Laurie, and Stephen jokingly docks him 2000 points. Unfortunately, the scorer apparently wasn’t in on the joke, as Alan still finished the episode on zero points. Coincidentally I just watched [this episode](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnqUcwktUhs) where Jonathon Ross scores I think 4 million and Alan scores minus 29 million. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549/40 "2013-09-13T21:35:54Z")
> [@Moe](#): > > Coincidentally I just watched [this episode](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnqUcwktUhs) where Jonathon Ross scores I think 4 million and Alan scores minus 29 million. Oh, right, I forgot about that. Yeah, I guess those are the record high and low scores, and not likely to be beaten. 😛 Also, Jonathan Ross displays some pretty impressive knowledge about comics in that episode. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/qi-what-does-it-mean/668549.md?page=3)