0:00:24 > 0:00:26CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:00:30 > 0:00:32Well, well, well, well, well,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37howdy, howdy, howdy-doody and welcome.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Welcome to a QI that's all about hypnosis, hallucinations and hysteria.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45And with me tonight are the hypnotic Ronni Ancona...
0:00:45 > 0:00:48CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:00:48 > 0:00:51..the hysterical Robert Webb...
0:00:51 > 0:00:54CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:00:54 > 0:00:56..the histrionic Phill Jupitus...
0:00:56 > 0:01:00CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:01:00 > 0:01:03..and His Majesty Alan Davies.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:01:10 > 0:01:14With such a theme, we're all buzzing with excitement of course
0:01:14 > 0:01:15and Ronnie goes...
0:01:15 > 0:01:17'You are feeling sleepy.'
0:01:17 > 0:01:19And Robert goes...
0:01:19 > 0:01:22'Very sleepy.'
0:01:22 > 0:01:24And Phill goes...
0:01:24 > 0:01:27'Your eyelids are heavy.'
0:01:27 > 0:01:30And Alan goes...
0:01:30 > 0:01:32SNORING
0:01:33 > 0:01:37So if I hypnotised you but then cut off your leg,
0:01:37 > 0:01:38how much fuss would you make?
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Doesn't it depend what you've gone in for the hypnosis for?
0:01:42 > 0:01:47I mean, if you'd gone into stop smoking, I'd be a bit miffed really.
0:01:47 > 0:01:48That's a very good point.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50Assuming...
0:01:50 > 0:01:54Assuming you'd gone in because you had gangrene
0:01:54 > 0:01:56or you needed to lose your leg...
0:01:56 > 0:01:59They never used hypnosis as an anaesthetic, did they?
0:01:59 > 0:02:02Surely you'd be screaming in agony.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Oddly enough, no. It was used before ether in the 1830s very commonly
0:02:05 > 0:02:07or reasonably commonly at least,
0:02:07 > 0:02:14once Mesmer had sort of, as it were, introduced the world to the idea of hypnotism.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17What seems to be the case is that most of the discomfort we feel -
0:02:17 > 0:02:22even in an operation like sawing off a leg - is the ANXIETY of pain.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24If you can relieve yourself of the anxiety,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26an enormous amount of the pain goes
0:02:26 > 0:02:30and a good example to prove this is people who are in some way
0:02:30 > 0:02:33allergic to or resistant to anaesthetic
0:02:33 > 0:02:36and so can't be put under because it's too risky.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39So they're injected with Valium,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43which is an anti-anxiety drug and all it does is tranquillise them.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47It doesn't send them to sleep, it just makes them feel less anxious.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49PHILL: If I was going in for surgery,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53I'd feel anxious when I saw the man in the top hat with the crazy eyebrows.
0:02:55 > 0:02:56You're kind of suggesting
0:02:56 > 0:03:03that a lot of pain is just a manifestation of anxiety, isn't it?
0:03:03 > 0:03:07The fact is, pain is created by the brain. It's not a real thing.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10- It's just information, isn't it? - Information.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13The brain can create it, the brain can be told not to.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15- It's bloody sore information! - It doesn't help.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20You land a mallet on your thumb, "It's just information! It's just information!"
0:03:20 > 0:03:24- It doesn't really help. - Yes, hypnotic anaesthesia can be surprisingly effective
0:03:24 > 0:03:27though it seems to work mostly by helping you relax.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30You need answer only one of the following.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36What's the best way to hypnotise either A - an alligator, B - a tiger shark or C - a chicken?
0:03:36 > 0:03:38- I've seen them do it to sharks. - And what do they do?
0:03:38 > 0:03:43- Don't they lie them on their backs or something?- Exactly right, you flip it over.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47But I thought sharks had to keep moving in order to survive.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52Which is why whales have learned to tip them over, to make them suffocate and it will kill them.
0:03:52 > 0:03:57- There's a very small hammerhead shark being flipped. - That is a toy shark.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01Or a really big diver.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07- A frighteningly big diver. - I think we'd have heard of him!
0:04:07 > 0:04:09- I think we would. - 'Your lids are heavy.'
0:04:09 > 0:04:12I think I know how to do chickens.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16- Yes?- It's weird because it actually looks like you're...oppressing them
0:04:16 > 0:04:22- quite violently, but you have to hold them to the ground and draw a line.- Yes!
0:04:22 > 0:04:24You draw a line from their beak along
0:04:24 > 0:04:26and they just stare at it.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33That's what they do. It's called tonic immobility in animals and that's an example of it.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38There's another way to do it to chickens. Take a stick or a paddle...
0:04:38 > 0:04:43In this case, a light flagellation paddle I happen to have in the house. You fix eyes to it
0:04:43 > 0:04:46and hold it up to it and it will apparently stare at it forever.
0:04:46 > 0:04:52Our producer tried it on his - we're the kind of show whose producers have chickens -
0:04:52 > 0:04:55and he says it didn't work at all, they just went off to eat things.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57You just made that up, didn't you?
0:04:57 > 0:05:01No, no, it is in all the books. It says that that is a way to hypnotise them.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04- ROBERT:- In all the books?!
0:05:04 > 0:05:07In all of the chicken-hypnotising books? All of them?
0:05:07 > 0:05:08How many are there?
0:05:08 > 0:05:12This is why you can't ever let your chickens watch the Muppets.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14LAUGHTER
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Frogs, lizards, crocodiles, sharks, all go into a trance
0:05:17 > 0:05:21if they're turned over onto their backs and held there for just a few seconds.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Rabbits and guinea pigs do the same if you stroke them or roll them over first.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Do you know how you wake up rabbits and guinea pigs if they're in that state?
0:05:29 > 0:05:31You let a dog in.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36The kinder way is to blow on their nose.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40- On the nose?- Yes, a little blow on the nose will do.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44- What have I hypnotised, do you know? - Hugh Laurie.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47- STEPHEN LAUGHS - No, I did on a television programme.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51When I was in Maine, doing this documentary about America...
0:05:51 > 0:05:53- What is the most famous animal in Maine?- A lobster?
0:05:53 > 0:05:56A lobster, we have a lobster in here.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58- Ooh!- There it is.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02- Now how did I do this? - LAUGHTER
0:06:04 > 0:06:06I stroked... I remember. There you are.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08You stroke him here, that's it.
0:06:08 > 0:06:09He goes completely still.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14I remember the one I did in Maine, it was...
0:06:14 > 0:06:16I could stand him up on his own.
0:06:16 > 0:06:17You can see, there it is.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20They seem smaller there.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25There he is, completely still, not moving a muscle.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28- PHILL LAUGHS - A mussel!
0:06:28 > 0:06:30LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:06:32 > 0:06:35There he is, completely still,
0:06:35 > 0:06:37and if I lift him up,
0:06:37 > 0:06:38his tail will come up usually
0:06:38 > 0:06:39and he'll wake up.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Erm...have I killed you?
0:06:45 > 0:06:47No, there he is.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49He's all right. He's still asleep.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51- Anyway... - LAUGHTER
0:06:51 > 0:06:55There we are, he's quite active now, under there.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00So dinner's sorted.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03So he's going back to the zoo, Stephen?
0:07:03 > 0:07:06Of course, I'm going to throw him back into the sea, naturally.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08You truly are a Renaissance man.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11I wear tights, put it that way.
0:07:11 > 0:07:17What about, though... I mean that's humans hypnotising animals.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Can animals hypnotise humans?
0:07:20 > 0:07:23There was a dog - Oscar the hypno-dog -
0:07:23 > 0:07:25who was... There he is, look.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30- Those are pretty amazing eyes. - ALAN:- I'm feeling it now.
0:07:32 > 0:07:33I'll go and get the biscuits.
0:07:36 > 0:07:37The thing is,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40he can keep up that stare into a human's eyes for a very long time.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43LAUGHTER
0:07:43 > 0:07:47- ROBERT:- Depending on what human wants to be stared at!
0:07:47 > 0:07:51- Does he charge hourly?- ALAN:- Pack it in, Oscar. Stop looking at me.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Hugh Lennon was his trainer. He did go missing and a reward
0:07:56 > 0:08:01was posted for his return, though the public were warned not to look into his eyes.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Does that sound like a publicity stunt to try and get tickets?
0:08:06 > 0:08:10"Oscar the hypno-dog is loose! Don't look at him!"
0:08:10 > 0:08:12"I've seen him. He's in the park."
0:08:13 > 0:08:19Presumably when he's running around, someone thought they'd find him and go, "It's Oscar the hypno-dog,"
0:08:19 > 0:08:23and he'd go, "I'm not the dog you're looking for.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25"I'm a Pomeranian."
0:08:27 > 0:08:31So, yes, dogs can apparently hypnotise humans. Snakes...
0:08:31 > 0:08:35maybe not humans, but they're said to be able to freeze a rabbit by staring at them.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39- They're very gullible, rabbits. - Oh, please!- They believe anything.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41- They're quite grumpy.- Grumpy?
0:08:41 > 0:08:42- Yes.- They can be aggressive.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47They're not supposed to be very good pets. They're very grumpy... and violent.
0:08:47 > 0:08:48I like the Dutch ones you can ride.
0:08:50 > 0:08:51Surely not?
0:08:51 > 0:08:54They're huge, they're massive!
0:08:54 > 0:08:55OK, maybe not ride.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57Crush.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02- That is a rabbit costume. - A Dutchman wearing a rabbit costume.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07DUTCH ACCENT: "OK, I am wearing a saddle and it's time to go."
0:09:07 > 0:09:09I love rabbits.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Oh, my...
0:09:11 > 0:09:14"Wow, I am thinking maybe I should have had a smaller celebrity."
0:09:16 > 0:09:19So, yes, many animals can be put into a trance,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23but it's probably better to practise on the ones lower down the food chain first.
0:09:23 > 0:09:29So why not consult Zoe D Katze, PhD, CHt, DAPA?
0:09:29 > 0:09:34That's a pretty good series of... I would say...
0:09:34 > 0:09:36- Anagrams.- Hell of an anagram.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38Is she invisible? There's nobody there.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40'Your eyelids are heavy.'
0:09:40 > 0:09:44- Is she an animal hypnotherapist? - She is an animal hypnotherapist.
0:09:44 > 0:09:45She's a cat.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49- Eh?!- Zoe D Katze is a cat with a PhD,
0:09:49 > 0:09:51a CHt and that diploma.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53LAUGHTER
0:09:54 > 0:09:58I think Oscar is sitting opposite her.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01It's a man called Steve Eichel who is an academic
0:10:01 > 0:10:05who wanted to demonstrate the ease with which you can get
0:10:05 > 0:10:11a doctorate online or any of these apparently important professional
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Hypnotherapy Association qualifications,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16- all of which were given to a cat. - Oh, great.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21The point is once you get one, you can use the others to parlay
0:10:21 > 0:10:23until you get a whole list of them.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27She has a doctorate in counselling psychology from a mail-order university
0:10:27 > 0:10:30and the CHt is a certified hypnotherapist -
0:10:30 > 0:10:32in the National Guild Of Hypnotists, no less -
0:10:32 > 0:10:37and the DAPA is a Diplomat of the American Psychotherapy Association,
0:10:37 > 0:10:42both qualifications which are supposed to connote genuine professional standing.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Oh, my cat's only got a BA!
0:10:45 > 0:10:48LAUGHTER
0:10:48 > 0:10:52It is astonishing, isn't it? There are also what are called diploma mills and degree mills,
0:10:52 > 0:10:56which give out either a fake diploma from a real university
0:10:56 > 0:11:00or, as it were, a real one from a fake college that doesn't exist,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04like they make up one that says "Christ's College, Oxford" or something.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08Are those hats falling from the sky or are there hands beneath them?
0:11:08 > 0:11:13- There are.- Is that how you get your hat? They're dropped out of a plane and you have to catch one?
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Throw it in the air at your excitement of having got a degree.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19I like to think that underneath that photo there's about 60 cats.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Miaow!
0:11:22 > 0:11:25The thing is, that if you were a cat,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29because of the tassels, you wouldn't leave them alone, would you?
0:11:34 > 0:11:39I've got diplomas for all of you. Alan, you can put that on the wall.
0:11:39 > 0:11:40ABSO?
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Ronni, ABSO. That's a QI award.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46- Academy of Advanced Banter. - It actually has...
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Do you get letters from the American Biographers' Association or something?
0:11:50 > 0:11:56And they say, "You have been selected as one of the men of the year..."
0:11:56 > 0:12:01- Oh, it's a scam.- "..by the American Biographers' Association for expertise in your field."
0:12:01 > 0:12:04All you have to do is pay 700.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08And it says, yes, "If you would send 695, we'll send you a plaque."
0:12:08 > 0:12:10I've got 12.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14- LAUGHTER - Well, there you are, yes,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16pseudo-credentialling, it's a big issue.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Other qualifications which the same Eichel who gave Zoe the cat her...
0:12:21 > 0:12:23or managed to get her these qualifications,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27he found energy therapist qualifications easily got,
0:12:27 > 0:12:31past-life regression therapist and alien abduction therapist.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35- That's sad. - I want to do that course.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40Yes. I'm going to get a guinea pig and make it an alien abduction therapist.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44Yes, the Zoe the cat is a cat, but that doesn't make her a bad person.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49I need your help. How can we persuade the audience to elect me Pope
0:12:49 > 0:12:52without them noticing that we've done it?
0:12:56 > 0:12:57That's odd.
0:12:57 > 0:12:58That's wrong.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04My hand is not that liver-spotted!
0:13:04 > 0:13:06I'm having that.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09You wouldn't wear such cheap cassocks either.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12No, I wouldn't either. No, that's so odd.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Is there a technique?
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Suppose I wanted to sell them something without telling them.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20- Some sort of mass suggestion. - Subliminal advertising.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22Subliminal advertising...
0:13:22 > 0:13:25KLAXON BLARES
0:13:25 > 0:13:27Horribly cruel of me to try and pull it out of you
0:13:27 > 0:13:29and then punish you for it.
0:13:29 > 0:13:35No, the fact is, subliminal advertising has never been shown to work. It's a complete myth.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39Although it's banned by most broadcasting authorities and the FCC in America,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42it's not actually ever been shown to work.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46In fact, the person who invented it in 1957 - a man called Vicary - in 1962
0:13:46 > 0:13:48he admitted he'd falsified the evidence.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52He claimed he'd used it and sold lots of cola and burgers
0:13:52 > 0:13:56by putting in a flash frame, a single frame out of 24 frames a second.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Obviously the eye doesn't consciously register...
0:13:59 > 0:14:01LAUGHTER
0:14:01 > 0:14:04It just hasn't been shown to work. I remember they did one in the Young Ones.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07- They did it all the time in the Young Ones.- Yes, they did.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11It's like going back to my childhood and I'm remembering it all now.
0:14:11 > 0:14:12- Your childhood?!- Well...
0:14:12 > 0:14:16- Yes, Ronni, deal with it. - LAUGHTER
0:14:16 > 0:14:21Anyway, sound - do we know any stories of audio subliminal messages?
0:14:21 > 0:14:28Oh, the court cases about "backward masking" they call it, which is, you know, satanic messages.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32- Judas Priest.- Yes, perhaps the most alarming story was two boys
0:14:32 > 0:14:34who committed suicide, or attempted suicide,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38- and their parents took Judas Priest to court.- They did.
0:14:38 > 0:14:40Do you know what the message was supposedly in the track?
0:14:40 > 0:14:44- It was... "Do it, do it now." - "Do it, do it now." Yes.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48So Halford, as part of the court case, went in with a load of records
0:14:48 > 0:14:53and played them backwards and then just read out a list of things you could hear
0:14:53 > 0:14:56in records when played backwards just to show how...
0:14:56 > 0:14:59He also said, "I don't wish to paint myself as greedy,
0:14:59 > 0:15:04"but if we were going to put a message in it would be, 'Buy more of our records.'" He also said,
0:15:04 > 0:15:06"Do it doesn't mean kill yourself."
0:15:06 > 0:15:10- Stephen, the song WAS called Suicide Solution.- Oh, was it?- Yes.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Finally, being in a pop quiz pays off!
0:15:21 > 0:15:27Other subliminal images have been seen, Lenin, for example, was seen by some in the Labour Party rose,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29there.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34- That's someone from Planet of the Apes.- It's more like that, isn't it?
0:15:34 > 0:15:38But there we are. So, yes, subliminal advertising doesn't...
0:15:38 > 0:15:41work. Seriously though, I'd be very pleased.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46Anyway, what kind of behaviour would you expect from a superstitious pigeon?
0:15:46 > 0:15:52They always wear their feathers in exactly the same colour and exactly the same order every day.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57Well, it is just that sort of superstition that pigeons have been found to exhibit.
0:15:57 > 0:16:03It's quite interesting, a very well-known American psychiatrist called B F Skinner,
0:16:03 > 0:16:08he found that if you feed pigeons at predetermined intervals,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12the pigeons, because they can't predict when the food is coming,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16they seem to register what they were doing at the time the food arrived
0:16:16 > 0:16:21and repeat the action to make the food come next time, which is a very human thing.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25It's like humans blowing on dice before a game of craps.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30They would walk in anti-clockwise circles because maybe twice they were walking anticlockwise
0:16:30 > 0:16:34when the food arrived and they think that must be why the food comes.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37- That's not superstitious, that's just hopeful.- It's superstitious.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41Last time I won this game, I was wearing one red sock and one blue, so I'll wear
0:16:41 > 0:16:45a red sock and a blue sock again, sportsmen do it all the time.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49- They repeat actions that happened before... - People do it all the time.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54- It's called magical thinking, where you think you're having an effect on the world.- Exactly.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56- And you're not.- You're not.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01I can't watch this match because the last round, I didn't watch and we won.
0:17:01 > 0:17:06Or I was standing up when England scored a goal, so I've got to stand up for the rest of the match.
0:17:06 > 0:17:12- I'm going to go to the toilet now, we'll definitely score. - All that. We do it all the time.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17- My uncle, when he lights a cigar, we always score.- Yes, it happens to all of us.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20They're all dead now, because I killed them.
0:17:20 > 0:17:26It's almost like a form of megalomania, isn't it, in a bizarre sort of way.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30- That we could possibly affect the outcome.- Yes.- That is the nature of superstition.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32It's quite hard, it has to be said,
0:17:32 > 0:17:37to find any definition of superstition that doesn't also cover religion.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42It makes the same promises, the same suggestions of individual actions...
0:17:42 > 0:17:44You convince yourself you're involved
0:17:44 > 0:17:50in the world somehow - if I wear my lucky scarf, then I'm really in the game.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54- And you're just wearing a scarf. - Yes, that's right, it is.
0:17:54 > 0:17:59And each religion will regard other religions as superstition and theirs as not being.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01I am religious, you are superstitious.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05In the Catholic Church, it is a sin to be superstitious.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09- You'll change that when you're Pope. - I'll change that when I'm Pope, yes.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11- APPLAUSE - No, no, stop.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16What are we going to do with the gold?
0:18:16 > 0:18:24"And as Pope Stephen walks out onto the balcony, underneath the ladder, with several black cats..."
0:18:24 > 0:18:28American psychologist B F Skinner managed to train pigeons to be superstitious
0:18:28 > 0:18:33by giving them arbitrary food rewards and keeping his fingers crossed, and best of luck to him.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37Now, what's hysterical about wandering womb trouble?
0:18:37 > 0:18:42- Wandering womb.- Hysterical as in, that's Janet Leigh in Psycho. - It certainly is.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47- But she didn't have a wandering womb, she was being stabbed to death by a maniac.- She was.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53- She was hysterical for a very good reason.- Yes. What does hysterical mean? Where does the word come from?
0:18:53 > 0:18:54'You're feeling sleepy.'
0:18:54 > 0:18:58- I think this is something to do with hysterectomies.- Yes.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00Originally...
0:19:00 > 0:19:04The Greek word for uterus is hystera, so the word hysteria?
0:19:04 > 0:19:08Yes, it was Hippocrates also who thought
0:19:08 > 0:19:16that there was a correlation between mental un-balance and the womb becoming wandering around the body.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19He thought the womb, like an animal, moved around the female body.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24I've got a very good female friend who's a gynaecologist who was telling me.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26That is how the word hysteria came about,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30it was associated entirely with women from the same root as hysterectomy.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36- She's hysterical, slap her!- Yes, slap her, that was the attitude that men had towards women's illnesses or
0:19:36 > 0:19:42particularly neuroses, that somehow it was to do with them being women, and women of a certain age
0:19:42 > 0:19:47were associated with all kinds of what were called hysterias, hysterical responses.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50But it was Freud who said that almost
0:19:50 > 0:19:55for every real condition, you might have a hysterical version which was created by the mind,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58but it was as real, it wasn't feigned, that's the point.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03- This was before hysterical became a synonym for hilarious?- Yes.
0:20:03 > 0:20:08"You have a hysterical condition." "Well, it doesn't feel very hysterical to me!"
0:20:08 > 0:20:13But there is such a thing as hysterical blindness and muteness,
0:20:13 > 0:20:20people will lose the ability to see, although physically there is nothing wrong with their eyes at all.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Anyway, hysteria, as Ronni rightly knew, used to be attributed
0:20:24 > 0:20:28to the womb roaming about the body, interfering with other organs.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31Doctors thought it would cause anything from a nervous breakdown to blindness.
0:20:31 > 0:20:36Now a question which will test your reflexes. Watch the film here of the setting sun.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41All I want you to do is to hit your buzzer at the moment the sun has dropped below the horizon.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45It's speeded up, obviously.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54'Eyelids are heavy.'
0:20:54 > 0:20:55You got there first.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58KLAXON
0:20:58 > 0:21:03Well too late! Well too late!
0:21:03 > 0:21:07That is the moment at which the sun is below the horizon.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10What we see is a mirage.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12I know it sounds crazy, but it's true.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14You're looking at me as if to say...
0:21:14 > 0:21:17- Is this to do with how far away it is?- It's to do with
0:21:17 > 0:21:21the bending of light and the eye not accepting it, but it is genuinely below the horizon.
0:21:21 > 0:21:27Physically, the Earth has turned such that it is not there.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33I know you're looking very cross and "That can't be true!" about it.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36That's a film of it, though.
0:21:36 > 0:21:42I know, but you can get thermal mirages and there's nothing there, on the roadside, water puddles.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44You get rainbows and they're not there.
0:21:44 > 0:21:49That's a photograph, but it's not there. There's no water there, it's just air.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54I'll try and explain. Light from the setting sun passes through our atmosphere at a shallow angle
0:21:54 > 0:21:57and gradually bends as the air density increases,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01not dissimilar to the image of your legs in a swimming pool. The effect artificially raises
0:22:01 > 0:22:05the sun in the last few minutes of its decline, and by coincidence,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09the amount of bending is pretty much equal to the diameter of the sun.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14So it's exactly as it's there, but it's actually disappeared.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19- I hate this show.- Oh, Phill!
0:22:19 > 0:22:24- Be interested, please. - The sun is there.- I know.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26And you're like, "No."
0:22:27 > 0:22:35"It's the sun!" "Not there. Mirage."
0:22:35 > 0:22:37Have you ever seen a mirage?
0:22:37 > 0:22:43- Yes.- Where?- Travelling through the desert in America, you see them all the time.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48The standard ones in the roads. What appear to be huge puddles of shimmering lakes of water,
0:22:48 > 0:22:51which are not there. You must have seen those in the roads.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55Yes, but I grew up in Scotland, and they are there.
0:22:59 > 0:23:05- Fair enough.- In New Zealand, you get quite bad sunstrike off the roads, causes accidents.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07And what does that entail?
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Because New Zealand is so low on the planet, if you see what I mean,
0:23:11 > 0:23:16and the sun comes through quite a lot of atmosphere to get to it,
0:23:16 > 0:23:21and the angle of it when it hits the road causes a lot of blindness in the eyes of drivers.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25- Right.- I daresay that the drivers in New Zealand, as they see
0:23:25 > 0:23:31the sun setting, are reassured to know that it's not there.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40APPLAUSE
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Yes, the fact is that despite Phill's reluctance to understand it,
0:23:44 > 0:23:48that the setting sun is actually below the horizon the moment
0:23:48 > 0:23:50that its lower edge seems to touch the sea.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54So to the place where everything you think you know proves to be an illusion,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58the nightmare that we call General Ignorance. Fingers on buzzers, please.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00What shape is this staircase?
0:24:00 > 0:24:02'Eyelids are heavy.'
0:24:02 > 0:24:04- Yes, Phill.- It's not there.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07Now, Phill!
0:24:07 > 0:24:10APPLAUSE
0:24:13 > 0:24:15'Very sleepy.'
0:24:15 > 0:24:17Spiral.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20KLAXON
0:24:21 > 0:24:23I'm very happy for you.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25- 'Eyelids are heavy.'- It is a helix?
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Yes, it's helical, well done, exactly right.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33It's terribly pedantic, but a spiral is when it gets bigger and bigger and wider and wider,
0:24:33 > 0:24:38- and a helix, it stays the same, as a staircase does.- (I knew that!)
0:24:38 > 0:24:41But you just wanted the forfeit, didn't you? Yes.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45So, strictly speaking, a spiral staircase is actually helical.
0:24:45 > 0:24:50So why are there so many lavatories in the Pentagon?
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Er, one each?
0:24:52 > 0:24:56- Do you know how many people work in the Pentagon?- Thousands.
0:24:56 > 0:24:5823,000.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02There aren't 23,000 lavatories, so, no, I'm afraid it's a really ghastly reason.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05- Where is it?- Virginia.
0:25:05 > 0:25:11Virginia is a southern state and it had laws, not nice laws.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16- Oh, no.- Segregation. By law, you had to have one lavatory for white people
0:25:16 > 0:25:19and one for black people, so there were double the number.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22I'm afraid it's true, it's a horrible truth.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26It shouldn't have happened, because it was built in the '40s under the presidency of FDR,
0:25:26 > 0:25:32who had specifically outlawed racial segregation in federal...
0:25:32 > 0:25:36he couldn't legislate for the states but he could say that no federal building...
0:25:36 > 0:25:39So when he arrived for his first inspection, he was told,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42he was furious that there were all these lavatories.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47Well, it's not very PC, it's true, but have you ever been for a queue in the ladies' loo?
0:25:47 > 0:25:51So it's nice for you that there are so many, yes. You racist.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56But although they built them all for that reason,
0:25:56 > 0:26:00they were banned from using it and they were never racially segregated.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Look at all the tennis courts they've got as well.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08That centre bit alone, just to give you a sense of the scale of it, is five acres, just the middle bit.
0:26:08 > 0:26:1517 and a half miles of corridor, at least 284 lavatories, six separate zip codes,
0:26:15 > 0:26:22just the Pentagon, but apparently, it takes only seven minutes to walk from one place to another.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Only one cleaner, they have.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Yes, poor darling.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31Name something invented by Vyacheslav Molotov.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34'Very sleepy.'
0:26:34 > 0:26:36A Molotov cocktail.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38Oh!
0:26:38 > 0:26:41KLAXON
0:26:45 > 0:26:48He didn't invent the Molotov cocktail.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52He invented the Sloe Comfortable Screw Against the Wall.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59- Which he is drinking there.- Yes, having one right now. Pina colada.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03Well, he invented some grim things like death lists.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07The Molotov line, like the Maginot line, a defensive line, various other things.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11- He was a Bolshevik.- He was a Bolshevik, he was the Foreign Minister under Stalin, all the way.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13He lived until 1986.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16A very exciting job, Foreign Minister under Stalin.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20- You can imagine, absolutely. - Every day, "What are we going to do today?"
0:27:20 > 0:27:23"I don't know. Have you asked him?" "He hasn't woken up yet."
0:27:23 > 0:27:27He claimed his country, in the war against Finland, was dropping food parcels
0:27:27 > 0:27:28when it was dropping cluster bombs.
0:27:28 > 0:27:34So the Finns called them Molotov's breadbaskets, these bombs that came down.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39When they fought against the Soviet tanks... Don't forget, the Finns beat the Russians.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42It was quite an amazing war. They used petrol bombs and they said,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45"These are Molotov cocktails to go with the bread you're giving us,"
0:27:45 > 0:27:49so it was kind of their joke. But they humiliated Russia, Finland,
0:27:49 > 0:27:54- it was an extraordinary achievement. - Very, very well done.- Yes, very well done, Finland, absolutely.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59Which brings me to the real matter of the scores, and my goodness, are they interesting or not?
0:27:59 > 0:28:00Well, they are quite interesting.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04I'm afraid in fourth place, with minus 32, it's Robert Webb.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:28:08 > 0:28:13And in third place with minus 17, Ronni Ancona.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:28:17 > 0:28:22- In second place, Alan Davies with minus eight.- Thanks very much.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Which means our runaway winner,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28our solar sceptic with minus two, Phill Jupitus.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31CHEERING AND APPLAUSE I'm not here.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41That's all from QI. Goodnight from Ronni, Robert, Phill, Alan and me,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44and I will leave you with this thought.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47You will tune in again next week, you will. Goodnight.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:29:09 > 0:29:12E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk