QI

corblimey

Strange that there doesn't seem to be a thread for this already?

For the third week in a row, I had to turn off QI after about 10 minutes - the all-female one 3 weeks ago, last week's featuring Comedy Vacuum (tm) Phill Jupitus and then Katy Brand and Sue Perkins acting like giggly schoolgirls. Is it my imagination, or is this series dumbing down spectacularly in comparison to previous series? It used to be an intelligent show where I learned something new every week (or quite often, several new things), now it's just Stephen Fry reading off something vaguely scatological and everyone around repeating it, aghast.

Also, how does nobody on the panel know the name of the "Top Gear theme"? FFS.

mike65

It has dumbed down, it switched over to BBC1 for a few series and I feared for it but then it goes back to its natural home and is now quite removed from where it started, and yes women are not a good thing on QI (or at least more than one per show), at the risk of getting slated they appear to be there for jollity not urbane erudition which is or was the programmes stock in trade.

So either find a better class of female guest or just get back to first principles.

BlaasForRafa

corblimey wrote: »

Strange that there doesn't seem to be a thread for this already?

For the third week in a row, I had to turn off QI after about 10 minutes - the all-female one 3 weeks ago, last week's featuring Comedy Vacuum (tm) Phill Jupitus and then Katy Brand and Sue Perkins acting like giggly schoolgirls. Is it my imagination, or is this series dumbing down spectacularly in comparison to previous series? It used to be an intelligent show where I learned something new every week (or quite often, several new things), now it's just Stephen Fry reading off something vaguely scatological and everyone around repeating it, aghast.

Also, how does nobody on the panel know the name of the "Top Gear theme"? FFS.

I'd more or less agree with that. Katy Brand and Sue Perkins are awful and even David Mitchell couldn't rescue that episode. I wish Phill Jupitus would just f**k off and never appear on tv again, he was perhaps a bit funny 15-20 years ago with his continual pop-culture references but he's long since become old hat at this stage.

Victoria Coren is a pretty decent female panelist, she's not a professional comic so she doesn't try too hard and gets away with her wry sense of humour. Sandy Toksvig is usually pretty decent as well, although she does sometimes overplay the lesbian card. She was in probably the funniest show of last series with Henning Wehn. Toksvig is slated to appear in next weeks episode.

tommy2bad

BlaasForRafa;
Sandy Toksvig is usually pretty decent as well, although she does sometimes overplay the lesbian card.

Playing opposite Stephen Fry can you blame her! Best of the female guests though, Jo Brand is seldom funny but that's comedy, some people don't think Tommy Cooper is funny.

Technocentral

Completely disagree about Jo Brand not being funny, I've seen probably every episode since it started and she is one of the funniest, way funnier than Alan Davis who is mediocre at best. The best overall have probably been Brand, Sean Lock and Jimmy Carr.

bdoo

I haven't seen the up to date ones but find Clive Anderson very funny when he's on it as is Bill Bailey. Davies is rarely entertaining, even in the old ones.

Skid

Technocentral wrote: »

Completely disagree about Jo Brand not being funny, I've seen probably every episode since it started and she is one of the funniest.

I think you will find yourself in a minority there, I don't think she ever adds much to the show.

Gamayun

It might seem trivial (boom boom!) but what annoys me is the audience laughing at the buzzers being introduced for each guest, there's a laugh no matter how mundane the buzzer sounds and then the biggest laugh when Alan Davies hits his, regardless of what it actually is! They could just have him hit a standard buzzer sound and the audience will be in stitches at the anticipation and expectation of Alan's hilarious comedy buzzer bit.

BlaasForRafa

Technocentral wrote: »

Completely disagree about Jo Brand not being funny, I've seen probably every episode since it started and she is one of the funniest, way funnier than Alan Davis who is mediocre at best. The best overall have probably been Brand, Sean Lock and Jimmy Carr.

Jimmy Carr is pretty good and Sean Lock is excellent on just about everything he's ever appeared on. Bill Bailey, Dara O'Briain and Ross Noble are probably the best other regulars.

Jo Brand is a bit meh, you pretty much know what you're going to get from her, lots of jokes about how men are s**t, that she loves cakes and chocolate and an anecdote about her working in mental hospitals before she made it as a comic.

ScrubsfanChris

The episode with Ross Noble and Prof. Brian Cox was brilliant..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r_TlPwZOvU

The show seems to work better when they have at least one intellectual along with the comedians/actors.
Jimmy Carr isn't the brightest but at least he always looks genuinely interested and not just there to muck about, there are plenty of other panel shows for that.

Capt'n Midnight

Daniel Radcliffe was a pleasant surprise.

Johnny Vegas being in shock for getting that question right was entertaining. But that's been done. No need to try to do it again with him or others.

I did like the bit where Dara got docked a point at the very start because on the previous series he gave the incorrect value for the trebble point of water by 0.01 degrees.

Victoria Coren does her own show Only Connect over on BBC4 too.


But if you dumb it down too much what's the point ?

The formula from Have I Got News For You works well enough, one comedian and one political person per team. You can't have just 4 comedians anymore than you can't have 4 straight guys.

Skerries

Victoria Coren had a good show but it only lasted for one season i think called P's and Q's where they tried to find the first reference and etymology to a given word

Capt'n Midnight

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Johnny Vegas being in shock for getting that question right was entertaining. But that's been done. No need to try to do it again with him or others.

Johnny Vegas is someone that always surprises me with quite how funny he can be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prEXdN0fBZo

LordSutch

corblimey wrote: »

Strange that there doesn't seem to be a thread for this already?

For the third week in a row, I had to turn off QI after about 10 minutes - the all-female one 3 weeks ago, last week's featuring Comedy Vacuum (tm) Phill Jupitus and then Katy Brand and Sue Perkins acting like giggly schoolgirls. Is it my imagination, or is this series dumbing down spectacularly in comparison to previous series? It used to be an intelligent show where I learned something new every week (or quite often, several new things), now it's just Stephen Fry reading off something vaguely scatological and everyone around repeating it, aghast.

Also, how does nobody on the panel know the name of the "Top Gear theme"? FFS.

Yes yes yes and yes, I agree with all of that, and yes Mr Jupitus is not funny, and I don't see the point of him being on there.
Hope the next series makes a return to the previous format (which was compelling TV).

Cienciano

BlaasForRafa wrote: »

Jimmy Carr is pretty good and Sean Lock is excellent on just about everything he's ever appeared on. Bill Bailey, Dara O'Briain and Ross Noble are probably the best other regulars.

Add Rich Hall and David Mitchell to that list. They could just rotate those 7 and have a great show.

Technocentral

Cienciano wrote: »

Add Rich Hall and David Mitchell to that list. They could just rotate those 7 and have a great show.

Mitchell is great in everything he does, from "Peep Show" to his excellent BBC R4 show "The Unbelievable Truth" and his column in the Observer.

Why are they suddenly giving Sue Perkins so much airtime on QI?

Cienciano

Deleted User wrote: »

Why are they suddenly giving Sue Perkins so much airtime on QI?

Because she has a vagina

I really think Jack Dee said it best and it's been true on recent episodes -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5_IcqrM96M

mike65

corblimey wrote: »

Strange that there doesn't seem to be a thread for this already?

There is a dormant one http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055520363 in the Gameshows/Quizzes sub forum.

Gamayun

Deleted User wrote: »

Why are they suddenly giving Sue Perkins so much airtime on QI?

She presents on that baking contest show (The Great British Bake Off) that pulls in 5m viewers, and as such the BBC are probably trying to 'cross-brand' or whatever and pull in some extra viewers. I wouldn't bet against her appearing on Have I Got News For You soon either.

quickbeam

Must disagree with the most here. I'm still loving the program, it's the highlight of my weekend.

Sure, some guests are better than others, and looking at the Wiki page it's disappointing to hear that Sean Lock and Rich Hall don't appear at all this series (first time ever) but then to counter that there are some funny and interesting people they're having, including the brilliant Brian Cox.

I'll watch it still. It'd have to take a major downturn to make me turn off.

FreudianSlippers

QI L Series (Season 12) starts Thursday 21 August. Are they still doing QI XL on Fridays BBC2?