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APPLAUSE | 0:00:28 | 0:00:29 | |
How do you do, how do you do, howdy, howdy, howdy doodie, how do you do? | 0:00:31 | 0:00:36 | |
Welcome to the QI zoo. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
Why is it hard to hang on to a hagfish? | 0:00:38 | 0:00:41 | |
-There's a hagfish. Yes? -I know. | 0:00:41 | 0:00:44 | |
-It releases mucus. To defend itself. -The hagfish. It does. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
Which works in real life. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
If anybody comes at me I just sneeze at them and they're backing off. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:53 | |
Have a look at a hagfish producing slime and tell me you could produce as much. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
Here's someone manipulating it. | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
AUDIENCE GROANS Eugh! | 0:00:59 | 0:01:01 | |
That is producing that. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
It can turn a bucket of 20 litres of water into slime in minutes. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
-Great party piece. -Isn't it. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:10 | |
I actually think... I think my baby daughter might be a hagfish. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:14 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
That's nothing. LAUGHTER | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
To be honest with you, I've got that on my trousers every morning. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:30 | |
It also can tie itself into knots, which is another impressive thing. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:34 | |
It literally does a slip knot or an overhand knot. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:37 | |
It is quite bizarre. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
Given the choice, if I had to have a special power, | 0:01:39 | 0:01:42 | |
I'd like to be bitten by one of them, because excreting mucus would be... | 0:01:42 | 0:01:46 | |
Like, Spiderman is all very well. Do a bit of climbing and that. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
Imagine you were sat in a chair and somebody went, "Do your thing," | 0:01:49 | 0:01:53 | |
and you went, "Bleaugh." LAUGHTER | 0:01:53 | 0:01:55 | |
Wouldn't it be fantastic? | 0:01:55 | 0:01:57 | |
If somebody tried to get you in a headlock, you'd go, "Bleaugh." | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
That's exactly it. That's what it does. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
Superheroes are meant to help people. How would you help people with mucus? | 0:02:03 | 0:02:08 | |
Spiderman helps people. How would you help people with mucus? | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
"There's a child that's got his head in the railings. Vv-phhh." | 0:02:12 | 0:02:16 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
You know, that's one. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:22 | |
-Or...or... -That's a good comic book story(!) | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
This gravy is unnecessarily runny. "Vv-phhh." | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
LAUGHTER AND GROANS | 0:02:32 | 0:02:33 | |
What's the key ingredient, then, in the world's nastiest cocktail? | 0:02:33 | 0:02:38 | |
-Malibu. -LAUGHTER | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
KLAXON | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:02:44 | 0:02:45 | |
I reckon you've got someone there who's a really good, quick typist, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
-and she goes, "Bang!" -LAUGHTER | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
Why is the Child Catcher now working as a barista? | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
-LAUGHTER -I suppose it's to suggest nastiness. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:00 | |
It is, indeed, Sir Robert Helpmann. We're after a nasty cocktail. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
-Is it a genuine drink? -It's a genuine cocktail. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
It's served in a bar in a genuine place in a genuine country. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
-Japan. -Switzerland? -Canada, Canada. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
-Some sort of moose? -In the Yukon, in a mining bar. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:17 | |
The Downtown Hotel in Dawson City. It's a part of a human being. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:22 | |
-Eye? -Toenail. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
-Well, toenails is good enough. -Bogeys. -It's a toe. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
-A toe? -A toe. Yeah. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:28 | |
The sourtoe cocktail is the specialite de la maison | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
-in the Downtown Hotel. -Where do they get the toe? | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
Well, there's a whole story there. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:38 | |
-GROANS -Yeah. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
It started in the 1960s, when a figure called Captain Dick Stevenson, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:45 | |
he'd been all kinds of things from a male stripper to a miner | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
-to a lumberjack, you know the way that men are. -All the usual ones. -Exactly. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:54 | |
He found himself in an old cabin, and there was a pickled toe | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
that had belonged to a rum-runner back in the prohibition days. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
And for some reason he thought it would be amusing to offer, | 0:04:01 | 0:04:05 | |
as a challenge, to put it in alcohol, | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
and the idea was you drank it. It became a very popular drink. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
You kept the toe. It moved from glass to glass. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
The important thing was there's a rhyme, which is key, | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
"You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, | 0:04:17 | 0:04:19 | |
"but the lips have got to touch the toe." | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
-LAUGHTER -The toe has to touch. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
Unfortunately, there was a series of accidents. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:26 | |
In 1980, Gary Younger, a local miner, accidentally swallowed the toe. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:31 | |
So they found another one. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
This very nice lady called Mrs Laurence of Alberta, | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
whose middle toe was amputated due to an inoperable corn, donated it. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:41 | |
So you're drinking a toe that not only was amputated but had a hideous corn on it! | 0:04:41 | 0:04:47 | |
-That lasted well. -I've drunk worse. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
I remember being at a party once, | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
no glasses, drinking Tia Maria out of a dog bowl! | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
-LAUGHTER -Wow! | 0:04:58 | 0:05:00 | |
No glasses. Slurp. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
"That? That's... That's chicken. It's fine." | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
It's called a sidetone. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
It's when your voice is played back through the earpiece. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:14 | |
So that it's slightly amplified. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
You hear your voice back in the ear, which you don't on mobile phones. Except the newest ones. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:22 | |
You nearly did a thing that annoyed me then. Um... | 0:05:22 | 0:05:26 | |
Oh! Oh! | 0:05:26 | 0:05:27 | |
He gets annoyed when you've nearly done it! | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
It's a new thing I've noticed when people pretend to talk on the phone and they do that. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
-Is that getting to you? -Not that new. I know what you mean. -That's starting to get on my nerves. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:40 | |
LAUGHTER What if you do that one? | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
-Where you bring it down, like. -A flip phone! | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
LAUGHTER Is that all right? | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
You know the, err... I've got a touch phone. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
-I've got an iPhone. -Yeah, I've got an iPhone. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
Call me! | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
I work in a call centre, look. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
Hello? D'you want double glazing? | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
Since the death of Marcel Marceau, the world of mime has gone to chaos. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
Absolute chaos. People don't know what they're doing. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
That was a hell of a funeral as well, wasn't it. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:06:24 | 0:06:25 | |
But when the... The mad thing was, at the funeral, they didn't use a coffin, | 0:06:31 | 0:06:37 | |
they just had him like that. LAUGHTER | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
Now, a lorry-load of birds are being weighed on a weighbridge. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
At some moment, all the birds simultaneously rise off their perches and flap in the air. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:53 | |
-They're all alive? -They're all alive, yeah. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
-Does the lorry weigh less when they rise up in the air? -Yes. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
-No. -Got a yes and a no. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
Not in contact with the thing? So no, it would weigh less. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:07 | |
Is it sealed, the lorry? | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
It's closed. It's got a tailgate, it's all locked up. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
They're inside the lorry. You can't see them. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
-Wouldn't there be pressure from the air? -Yeah. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
-It weighs the same. -Yes. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
It's something very similar to if you weigh yourself, then you do a number two | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
and weigh yourself again, you don't lose the weight of the number two. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
There we're in a slightly different territory. | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
If you will crap on the scales, yes! | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
You're right. The answer is not to poo on the scales. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
No! No! | 0:07:45 | 0:07:46 | |
Leave the scales, do the number two, go back to the scales. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:50 | |
-Seriously? You don't lose... -Of course you do! | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
-The money I've wasted on enemas. -No, no! | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
No, it doesn't, it weighs the same, and I can't remember the reason why. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:59 | |
I know this. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:00 | |
So they all lift off at exactly the same time? | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
It's the bird, the bird... Lorry system. It's there in the... | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
-I know it's weird, but... -Is it sealed? | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
Is it to do with it being sealed? | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
If you're carrying a bowling ball and you're on the scales, | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
and then you throw the bowling ball in the air... It would kill you. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:19 | |
-Because it's sealed. -And the air's moving. Exactly. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
You and the air have created that weight. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
Wherever the birds put themselves, it weighs the same. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:27 | |
But the interesting question, and you're absolutely right. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
Don't pass it off that easily! | 0:08:31 | 0:08:33 | |
The interesting question is if it's an open-top lorry, | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
and they're sitting on the perch and they jump up and they jump slightly higher. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:40 | |
Then they're no longer part of the lorry-bird system. Then it would be lighter. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
Where does the phrase "there isn't room to swing a cat" come from? | 0:08:44 | 0:08:48 | |
-Cat swinging. -Cat o' nine tails. -Cat o' nine tails? No, oddly enough. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
It's the kind of thing people think it is. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
It's when they flogged people with an actual cat. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
The phrase is older than the cat o' nine tails. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
It literally means what it says. It's a folk expression, meaning to swing a cat round. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:05 | |
The first use of cat o' nine tails is 1695 in the English language, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:09 | |
and at least 40 years earlier than that, there are references to not being able to swing a cat. | 0:09:09 | 0:09:15 | |
So disappointing when you find that out. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
-Meo-o-ow! -Do you know where the "whole nine yards" comes from? | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
-The whole nine yards? -Meow! Boof! | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
-Alan's doing cat sounds. -An American term? | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
Yeah, but how would you swing it, though? | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
There's that way, but then there's also that way. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:32 | |
LAUGHTER Round and round. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
One thinks by the tail, definitely, whatever. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
Do you get a big, loopy swing? Or do you get some speed up? | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
It'd be nice to find a room where there was enough room to swing a cat in. Just. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:48 | |
So the cat's constantly just going, "Ah! Whoosh!" | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
-By a whisker! -By a whisker. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
How would you use one of these to save someone from drowning? | 0:09:55 | 0:10:00 | |
I've got one here. I have to put gloves on because it's a delicate instrument. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
I'm not allowed to touch it. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:05 | |
It's been lent to us by the Wellcome Collection, | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
one of the best medical collections in the world. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
He could save himself by, for example, swimming. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
-Yeah, but... -Rather than going, "Aaah." | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
Let's imagine somebody had landed on a beach, almost dead from drowning, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:21 | |
-and you have one of these. -Is it a bellows? | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
It is a bellows, a set of bellows. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
-Pump air into his lungs. Easy. -You'd think that. No. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
-Up his bum. -Are we saving him from drowning? | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
-Alan. Alan, repeat what you said. -Up his bum. -Yes. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
Up the bottom, but it's not air. There's more to it. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
-Is it spit? Is it air? -Brandy! | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
-You unscrew that...tobacco in. -Are you ordering? | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
-You put tobacco in and light it. -Blow smoke up his arse! -Up the bottom? | 0:10:45 | 0:10:51 | |
Basically, if you're trying to resuscitate someone, | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
and it's not like someone once wrote it might be a good idea and so we've seized on it. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:58 | |
This was general, mainstream medical belief. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
And these were hung up all along the Thames. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
On the embankment and on canals and waterways. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
People were expected to know, as you might be expected to know where a fire extinguisher was, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:12 | |
where the bellows were. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:13 | |
You fill that with tobacco and, presumably, you puff it like a pipe, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
having washed it from its previous use. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
-And then, "Phht, phht." Like that. -So it'd be next to the life ring. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:26 | |
-You throw the ring and drag them in. -I know it seems bonkers. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
What happened, apparently - there's an example. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
This is before this was invented, and you needed someone with a pipe. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
"Blow, man. For God's sake!" | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
"Is it sucking or blowing? I can't remember." | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
"I think it's blowing, is it?" "I don't know." "Be sure! He's drowning!" | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
"I'll do both. I'll suck first." | 0:11:50 | 0:11:52 | |
Is it the shock of the sensation of having smoke blown up your arse | 0:11:52 | 0:11:57 | |
-that makes you splutter back into life? -Who knows. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:01 | |
Apparently, in the 18th century, the late 1700s, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
a woman was found drowning and apparently almost dead, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:08 | |
people tried the normal things, and someone suggested blowing smoke up her arse. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:13 | |
It seemed to work! | 0:12:13 | 0:12:14 | |
There was a point when they went, "Kiss of life? Just wait a second. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:19 | |
"Hand me that pipe!" LAUGHTER | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
It would've been a beautiful sight, | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
when you've blown the smoke up there, and the person splutters back to life and then takes off, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:30 | |
with the smoke coming out! | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
"Look at the speed they're going at!" | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
Bloke on the left looks like he's going to rob his trousers if he doesn't come round. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:39 | |
-There's always a villain in 18th-century London. -He's generating smoke. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
They didn't have an all-in-one device like this. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
-The one on the right has the pipe. -Christ. He has to French-kiss the bloke in the hat. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
This has nothing to do with saving a drowning man! | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
-Perversions of old London. -I think we've got another picture. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
-I hope it's real people this time. -There you are. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:00 | |
LAUGHTER He's not drowning! | 0:13:00 | 0:13:02 | |
-No, well he's... -He's just in the pub! He's just in the pub. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
It's just that scene from Pulp Fiction. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
This is bad, because it means, at any point, people could say, "I think I might be drowning." | 0:13:10 | 0:13:16 | |
Also, as if that's bad enough, as if that doesn't look wrong enough, | 0:13:16 | 0:13:21 | |
the bloke in the background went, "I think I'll get my donkey in on this." | 0:13:21 | 0:13:26 | |
Oh! When you said, "Blow smoke up my ass..." | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
Oh, dear. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
I know. What a strange world we lived in. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
-That was mainstream medical science. -GAGGING | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
That's got stuck in my throat, that! | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
The bellows! | 0:13:47 | 0:13:50 | |
I went hunting with an Amazonian tribe, with curare-tipped darts. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
It was a great experience. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
It was the Matis people in the Amazon, in the Upper Amazon. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
They sort of... They're huge, these blowpipes they use. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:08 | |
The darts are very, very long and beautifully flighted with the fur of monkeys on the end. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:15 | |
And they just... Phht! And they'd blow them up. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:17 | |
The thing is, they go a huge distance. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
-They go right to the top of the jungle canopy. -Really? -They go an enormous distance. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
He said, "Do you want to have a go at it?" | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
-I said, "Yes, of course!" -Yes! | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
You went, "Phut." | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
He said, "You've got to aim at the monkey." | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
There's a spider monkey, a howler monkey, on the tree. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:38 | |
He said, "Go for it." And I went like that, phht. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
And instead of going at the monkey, it went vertically up in the air. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
All the tribes, they just scattered. LAUGHTER | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
Wow! | 0:14:49 | 0:14:50 | |
I went like this, I went, "Phht" and they all went, "Aaah!" | 0:14:50 | 0:14:54 | |
Standing there going, "What? What?" and one of them went, "Get out!" | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
-Because it would kill you? -It would. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
What's the best way to hypnotise either A - an alligator, | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
B - a tiger shark, or C - a chicken? | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
-I've seen them do it to sharks. -What do they do? | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
Don't they lie them on their backs or something? | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
Exactly right. You flip it over and it goes... | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
But I thought that if sharks have to keep moving in order to survive. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:22 | |
That's right. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:23 | |
Which is why whales have learnt to tip them over in order to make them suffocate. It will kill them. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:28 | |
There's a very small hammerhead shark. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
-That is a toy shark. -LAUGHTER | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
Or a really big diver. LAUGHTER | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
A frighteningly big diver! | 0:15:39 | 0:15:42 | |
I think we'd have heard of him. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
BUZZER | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
I think I know how you do chickens. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:49 | |
It's weird, because it actually looks like you're oppressing them violently. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:55 | |
You have to hold them to the ground and draw a line. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
Yes. You draw a line from their beak along, and they just stare at it. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:03 | |
That's what they do. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
But they're not hypnotised, they're just... | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
They're wondering, "What's that prat doing scribbling on my beak?" | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
It's called tonic immobility in animals. That is the example. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
There's another way of doing it with chickens. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
You take a stick or a paddle, this is a light flagellation paddle | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
I happened to have in the house. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
You fix eyes to it and hold it up to it and it'll stare at it forever. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:31 | |
Our producer tried it on his - we're the kind of show whose producers have chickens, | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
that's how cool we are. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:36 | |
He said it didn't work at all. They went off to eat things. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:40 | |
You just made that up, didn't you? | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
No, no. It's in all the books. It says that is a way to hypnotise them. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
In all of the books? In all of the chicken hypnotising books? | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
All of them? How many are there? | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
Which is why you can't ever let your chickens watch the Muppets. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:58 | |
How would you use one of these to calm a horse down? | 0:17:00 | 0:17:05 | |
-Oh, now. Yeah. Calm it down? -LAUGHTER | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
What I'm thinking of is not going to calm it down! | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
Have they been used? If they're what I think they are, I don't want to touch it. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:21 | |
-It'll only have been on a horse. -Is it over its nose? | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
It's that big. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
-On the tail? -You fire an arrow at the horse. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
-Well, the points have gone to Alan. -Tastes weird. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:34 | |
Alan's identified where it goes. Not the full points. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
-BUZZER -Yes, Claire? | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
-It's a twitch. -It's a twitch. She knows, you know. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:42 | |
Of course she knows, she's Claire Balding! | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
She's here expressly... | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
I couldn't let Alan get more. I thought I'd give him a go and he's nearly right. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
Yes. Imagine you have to give medication... | 0:17:52 | 0:17:56 | |
Are these... Here, I'll do... Chweep. Twin-ng! | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
-LAUGHTER -This isn't calming me. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
Is this Whose Line Is It Anyway? from about ten years ago? | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
Imagine you're giving a horse medication. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
They're very nervous animals. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
They don't like being fiddled around with any more than anyone else. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
When they're uncomfortable, they can hurt themselves as much as they can hurt a vet or anyone attending them. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:21 | |
They strike out, so you need to calm a horse down. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
There's a very magical thing about horses. It's most peculiar. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:28 | |
What is it, Claire? | 0:18:28 | 0:18:29 | |
If you take their top lip... You can do it with your hands or rope. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
To me it looks a little bit severe, I've never seen one quite like this. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
You take their top lip and they won't move. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
They just go into a state of almost trance-like... | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
It's a bit like the rabbit in the headlights freeze. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
It makes them go completely - phhh. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
-Yeah, like that. -Then you can administer. That's it. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:52 | |
-Alan is a horse. -LAUGHTER | 0:18:52 | 0:18:55 | |
-Give me the drugs now, the drugs. -You don't need them now. -You can sing at the same time. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
With some, if you take their ear and it has the same effect. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
How did they find that out? | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
There's been a lot of experimentation going on. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:10 | |
"I suppose we'll try... That went badly. Let's try the lip now." | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
It was thought originally that it was almost some kind of distraction, | 0:19:15 | 0:19:19 | |
and that if you did that it couldn't concentrate on something else. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
It was discovered that it releases endorphins and just gets blissed out. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:28 | |
It's rather nice to know, because it looks a bit cruel. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
-LAUGHTER -I'm fine. I'm fine. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
What is the roundest thing in the universe? | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
-No, just saying. -Oh, no, Phil! | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
Is it a black hole? | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
It's that kind of a deal. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
When a supernova has a gravitational collapse, it turns into something called a neutron star. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:56 | |
-Ah, the neutron star! -They're really round. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:01 | |
That's not round! | 0:20:01 | 0:20:04 | |
That's a supernova, I think. That's a supernova going supernova. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
Show us the round thing! | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
-The rec... -STEPHEN LAUGHS | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
-You're very upset, aren't you? -Yes! | 0:20:14 | 0:20:18 | |
It only has a diameter of 15 miles or so. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
There isn't one near enough for you to see with the eye. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
Have you ever noticed how we always have to take Stephen's word for it? | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
What's interesting is if I had a thimbleful of a neutron star, | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
it would weigh more than a mountain. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
Yeah, but you don't! | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
I tell you what, imagine how confused the old woman darning your socks would be | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
if you had a thimble full of it and she was trying to fix a hole. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:45 | |
And the were, "Phoomph!" Space and time coming out of a thimble. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
That's no way to treat the elderly. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
When you've got a good cleaning lady, you want to hang onto them. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:57 | |
"I'm leaving, Mr Dee." "Why?" "Because of this space business with your thimble. I don't like it." | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
Could you give us your impression of the average WWII British... | 0:21:03 | 0:21:08 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:21:08 | 0:21:09 | |
Oh, dear. The average British WWII fighter pilot. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
-You look hilarious on the end. -LAUGHTER | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
That is a character! I'm going to... | 0:21:19 | 0:21:21 | |
Someone has got to write a sitcom around David Mitchell's character. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:26 | |
You look like you're posing with a successful novelty air force team, | 0:21:27 | 0:21:33 | |
and you've just agreed to have your photograph taken with them for your birthday. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
I know you're not, but if they'd invented Gaydar instead of radar... | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
I'm sorry to say, that would mark high. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
"I'm ordering these helmets for my wife's birthday." | 0:21:47 | 0:21:52 | |
In this war film, I think I die about two thirds of the way through. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:58 | |
Breaks the heart of the audience and inspires the hero. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:02 | |
Everyone kills a load of Germans as revenge for my death. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
And I'm the old WWI hero with a gammy leg who watches them come back | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
-and cries because... -I don't think Alan dies. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
I think you make it through. I think I die. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
You think I'm going to live, and then right near the end, I die. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
Like Von Ryan's Express as I'm running towards the train. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
-I get shot at the end. -Right. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
I'm the plucky woman who was just supposed to do the radio | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
that's been forced to fly one of the planes. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:29 | |
You look as if you could do it. You've got your sergeant stripes. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
How do the pilots talk? That's the thing. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
(NASAL VOICE) Red leader, red leader. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
We've got a lovely team today who will be furnishing you with the easy kiosk... | 0:22:38 | 0:22:44 | |
Scratch cards, Minstrels. Like that. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
-Clean up in aisle three. -LAUGHTER | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
What sort of people were they? That's what it comes down to. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
What sort of people? Quite posh. KLAXON | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
I think you'll find you're wrong. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:04 | |
They so weren't. 30% of all fighter pilots in the Battle of Britain went to public school. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:10 | |
In fact, of that 30%, they were mostly minor public schools, | 0:23:10 | 0:23:14 | |
and of the Eton, Harrow and Winchester, the top 13, only 8%. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:18 | |
The actors that played them were posh. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
That's the point. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:21 | |
In the war films during and after the war, | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
Kenneth Moore and David Niven and so on, they spoke like that. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
Did the Germans know we were sending out the lower classes? | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
(GERMAN ACCENT) Someone who has got no manners whatsoever! | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:23:38 | 0:23:39 | |
The first time I did scuba diving, I made a basic error. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
You know you have a big lead weight belt and a big buoyancy jacket, | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
lovely floaty, floaty buoyancy jacket, very heavy lead weight. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
Which one should you take off first? | 0:23:57 | 0:23:59 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:00 | 0:24:01 | |
So I took the buoyancy jacket off, | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
handed it to the bloke, and... SPLUTTERS | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
He just grabbed my hand. I went, "Whoa!" | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
I thought I could die, but I was laughing. | 0:24:11 | 0:24:14 | |
"Oh, what am I like? Oh, I'm dying." | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
Wouldn't it be awful if your last words were, "What am I like?" | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
From testing spells, you'll like this, to spelling tests. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
GROANS | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
I before E, fingers on buzzers, excepting after? | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
-BUZZER -C. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:36 | |
KLAXON | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
No. That just isn't the rule. Why isn't it the rule? | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
-Because of words... -Words where it's not. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:46 | |
When E comes before I after C. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
There are more exceptions to the rule than the rule itself, by quite a long way. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
-Ceiling. Is "ceiling" one? -They've been counted. Would you like to know? | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
Yeah. Err... Yeah. There are 923 English words that have a C-I-E in them. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:02 | |
-Do we have to name them all? -No. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
-Name some. -Ceiling. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
No. That's C-E-I. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:09 | |
-C-E-I is what you said. -No. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
-The rule is, the supposed rule is... -I before E, except after C. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
I'm saying, in fact, there are 923 which break that rule. | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
-Receive. Receipt. -I before E, except after C? | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
-We're looking for words where E follows C, aren't we? -No. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
No. The rule is, it should be C-E-I. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
-According to that. -Oh, you're saying it's wrong! | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
There are 923... | 0:25:38 | 0:25:39 | |
I know one which it isn't. Ceiling. That's not one. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
No! | 0:25:42 | 0:25:43 | |
-"Ceiling" isn't one. -No! | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
"Ceiling" isn't one of the ones you're looking for. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:47 | |
-Yes. I want the ones I am looking for. -That's right. | 0:25:47 | 0:25:50 | |
So I repeat - not "ceiling". | 0:25:50 | 0:25:51 | |
I'm looking for the ones I'm looking for. So give me a C-I-E. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
Ceiling? | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
God... I may explode at any minute. | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
C-I-E. Um... | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
-"Receipt" is CIE. -Those are the ones that conform to the rule. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:05 | |
The rule is looking pretty good right now. | 0:26:05 | 0:26:08 | |
Glacier. Species. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
Yes. But now I know them, and I didn't think I knew any. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
Yes. The point is there are lots and lots. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:15 | |
These are ones with E-I without the C in front, obviously, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | |
as well as the C-I-E. Congierge. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:20 | |
Oh, you don't even have to have a C in it now! | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
No! They're E-I! Are you incapable of rational thought?! | 0:26:22 | 0:26:26 | |
Are you... You cannot be that stupid! | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
You cannot be that... | 0:26:31 | 0:26:32 | |
Can I just say, you really are going to have to work on your Bruce Forsyth patter. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
MIMICS BRUCE FORSYTH: "Are you really capable of rational thought?! | 0:26:36 | 0:26:41 | |
"I tell you! Are you a human being? I don't think you are." | 0:26:41 | 0:26:44 | |
No. But work it out. | 0:26:44 | 0:26:47 | |
-These words don't count. They're not even English words. -Well... | 0:26:47 | 0:26:50 | |
-You can't have "hacienda" and "congierge". -The point is | 0:26:50 | 0:26:53 | |
there are 21 times as many words that break the rule than don't. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:57 | |
However, if you want to spell "ceiling"... | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
-If you want to spell "ceiling"... -Or "receipt". | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
Or "conceit" or "deceit". But if you want to spell "veil" and "weird"... | 0:27:01 | 0:27:08 | |
Yeah, but there's no C in them. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
It's I before E, every time, except after C. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:14 | |
But in "weir"... That's the point! | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
Oh, I see! | 0:27:18 | 0:27:19 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
You cannot be that stupid! | 0:27:21 | 0:27:24 | |
He said it, and you're looking at me! | 0:27:24 | 0:27:26 | |
Why do I get the blame for his stupidity?! | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
I've got my own, thank you! | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
Wow. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:33 | |
Daniel, you're the only person who isn't a complete idiot. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
No! | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
It's become clear. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:39 | |
-No, I assure you, I am... -"Stephen" begins with S... | 0:27:39 | 0:27:44 | |
What about my surname? Am I spelling that right? | 0:27:44 | 0:27:47 | |
-There's an I and an E in that. -It's I before E always. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
According to the rule. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
-But the rule's wrong, Stephen! -Yes, the rule is wrong. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
The rule is officially no longer taught in schools | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
-because it is so clear. -Oh, really? Is it not at all taught any more? | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
The rule now is it's I before E, but sometimes it's E before I. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:06 | |
Mostly after C, it's I-E. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:09 | |
If in doubt, look it up, you lazy git. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
-I before E except for the following 923. -Yes. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:15 | |
And then you reel them all off. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:17 | |
Thank God for spell check. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
Ceiling. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:22 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:28:37 | 0:28:41 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 |