Knowledge QI


Knowledge

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Transcript


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APPLAUSE

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Good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening

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and welcome to QI, where tonight we're doing the Knowledge.

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Please welcome the well-educated Jimmy Carr.

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APPLAUSE

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Thank you.

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The well-informed Jo Brand.

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APPLAUSE

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The well-read Graham Linehan.

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APPLAUSE

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And the well, you know, it's Alan Davies.

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APPLAUSE

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And if you want to call me, you know what to do.

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-Jimmy goes:

-# Knowing me, knowing you, aha... #

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-Graham goes:

-# They don't know about us... #

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-Jo goes:

-# I know him so well... #

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-And Alan goes:

-# No no. No no no no There's no limits. #

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There's a spelling issue there, Alan.

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Now, um, I know what you want to know,

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once and for all how many moons does the earth have?

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Nobody knows.

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LAUGHTER

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-We're not doing that this year, are we?

-No, we're not.

-Three.

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-Ooh!

-BUZZER

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What a pity. What a pity.

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One.

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-Doh!

-Well, it is!

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Just because it's called "the moon"

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doesn't mean it's the only one, it turns out.

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The moons, it would be called. Yeah.

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BUZZER

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Six.

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-You're not doing yourself any favours early doors.

-Two.

-Two, oh!

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LAUGHTER

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Now, this could go on for ages.

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It could. So let me stop you right here.

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The point is, very early on, in the A series,

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we said there were two.

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-Are you taking that back?

-Yes.

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-What do you mean?

-Ah, this is...

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I rely on this show. This is all I know.

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This is the whole point of this round, in fact.

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Facts are not permanent.

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We thought there were two, and then we said, "oh, no,

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"it's either one or five," we said, in the B series.

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Because we were acting on the latest info that we

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had from the scientific community.

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And this has changed.

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Now NASA describes them as "mini moons"

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but we have about 18,000 moons.

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I thought it was the same moon.

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LAUGHTER

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-What, bits of it, you mean?

-No, I thought

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the ones that we keep seeing was the same one over and over again.

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-That was the...

-That's wrong?

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-No! Are you talking about the mini moons? There was like one extra mini moon?

-No.

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Or just that whole...

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Can I just say, if there's so many, why haven't we noticed them before?

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Well, the reason is they are actually tiny

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and it's only recently they've run computer simulations to show 18,000.

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One of those that has been observed, has been given the exciting name RH120,

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which orbited the Earth, four orbits, in 2006 and 7.

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They're also known as "temporarily captured objects".

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They're captured into a Earth orbit, perhaps for a short amount of time.

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But as satellites of the Earth, non-man-made, they are moons.

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-That's what a moon is.

-But the man-made satellites are satellites?

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Yes, but to be a moon you have to be a celestial body, rather than...you COULD count a man...

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Well. that makes me a moon, then.

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Yes, exactly, there you are. Precisely.

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-You orbit my life, Jo.

-But you have to be in orbit for at least five years before you can claim benefits.

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LAUGHTER

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Exactly right. But the quite interesting thing about this is the point that raised

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Jimmy Carr's tremendous eyebrows earlier, which is

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that facts don't remain stable.

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Things we know, or think we know, will be untrue.

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LAUGHTER

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Very good. Will be untrue in a number of years' time.

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-Yes. Appropriately, you look a bit like Patrick Moore.

-I'm trying to do a Mexican wave.

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Yes, you do look like Patrick Moore.

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"We just, we just don't know."

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LAUGHTER

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Can I just say, I did a course at university called...

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Shut up!

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-I bloody did.

-No!

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I bloody did, and it was called the Sociology of Science, and yes,

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I got a grant for it. It was a complete waste of time.

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But what I learnt during that course is there's no such thing as a fact.

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Yes. This is precisely our point. And indeed, at medical colleges,

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they usually teach that half of what the medical students are going

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to learn will be considered untrue in about 10 or 20 years.

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And this is known by academics as the half-life of facts.

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That's to say, you know half of it will be untrue.

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Unfortunately, you don't know exactly which half.

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And on QI, an estimated 7% of the things

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I tell you this evening will be shown to be untrue in a year's time.

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And if you're watching a very old repeat on Dave,

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-a much bigger proportion.

-It's probably untrue now.

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It's probably...even what I'm saying now is untrue.

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-I'm not even saying it, it's so untrue.

-I'm not on the show.

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We actually have a chart showing the rate of decay of QI facts.

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And you can see, there's series A on the right,

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-and plotted against it is the 10th series, J.

-J.

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And so, as you can see, the further you get away,

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the greater the number of untruths.

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60% of things in the first series are bollocks.

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Yes, are now untrue. If that's true, yes, that's right.

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We do talk a lot of bollocks, in fairness.

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But the most important thing, you'll be excited to know, is that that means over the years,

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cumulatively, you must be owed a lot of points.

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And going according to this theory, things we have said are wrong,

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a proportion of them are likely to have been right.

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Therefore, we have actually calculated how many points

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we owe you. Um, and...

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-This is, suddenly this has gone brilliantly. Suddenly we're smiling.

-Yeah. Jimmy...

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Alan is going to be way out in front, isn't he?

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Jimmy, we owe you 43.58 points.

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Jo, 84.73.

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Can I use them in Sainsbury's?

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LAUGHTER

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I'm giving you permission. If you work at Sainsbury's and she tries to claim them, yes, she can.

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The audience are owed 23.24. Well done.

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Even not having done anything.

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APPLAUSE

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Alan, you are owed 737.66!

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APPLAUSE

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There you are.

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And, um...

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Are those transferable?

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If I went onto Have I Got News For You,

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-could I use...

-Yes.

-Could I arrive and go, "I've got 24 points that I could use here?"

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-Yeah. You can take this, yes.

-I can just...?

-Use them, yeah, yeah.

-Oh, fabulous. Great news.

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Mastermind, can I have it on Mastermind?

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I don't think you could slip that in, somehow.

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Someone's going to have to answer a lot of questions to beat that.

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-And of course, unfortunately, Graham, you get nothing.

-Yes. Yeah, no.

-That's really unfair.

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You're playing it first time and you get a huge disadvantage.

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Yeah. Well, you needn't have pointed it out. Yes.

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I'll try and find a way to make it up to you, in some way,

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by giving you a random 600 points.

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I'll give you some examples of facts that we gave in good faith on QI.

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So in the I series we said nobody knows how to tell

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the age of a lobster.

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Well, that was only a few years ago.

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But since then, Canadian scientists have discovered,

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the way you do, that if you dissect their eye stalks

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and count the rings, you know how old they are.

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-Really?

-What?

-It's not a very kind thing to do.

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What you mean is, you know how old they were.

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LAUGHTER

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I think that's a reasonable point.

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There's a flaw in this plan. I still think you should ask them first. Before you dissect their eye stalks!

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Another one was in the G series. We said giraffes' necks may have evolved for fighting each other,

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which was commonly held by quite a few zoologists. But it now seems this hypothesis is not believed.

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-And in the A series...

-They used to like wading across deep rivers.

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Yes, that, keeping their necks above, very, very deep.

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LAUGHTER

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-As the river got higher...

-Yeah.

-They evolved.

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LAUGHTER

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-That might prove to be correct.

-It might, you see. Who am I to say it isn't?

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In the A series, we said that the best-endowed millipede had 710 legs.

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Soon afterwards, a millipede with 750 turned up,

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but that's still the greatest number we know.

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-Is there someone checking them?

-Yes. That's superb.

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I like the idea that counting a millipede's legs, you would lose... You'd have to keep going back.

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-Yes, you would, exactly.

-Argh! One, two...

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Yeah, it's the same thing...

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-Many times.

-It's the same thing with all these things,

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before they count the legs, they kill it.

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LAUGHTER

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-It's true.

-So the legs are very still. Just pluck them off.

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-Oh, dear!

-One...

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-She loves me.

-Two, three... It might still be alive.

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They might think it was dead, and then they'd just hear it go, "Argh!"

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LAUGHTER

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-"Argh! Argh!"

-Do you know, that's an interesting fact, that's how they make worms.

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LAUGHTER

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-It's true. True story.

-Brilliant.

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Yeah, a worm would come along,

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"Are you not doing anything with these legs?

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"Now you've counted them off the millipede, can I have four?"

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And a whole new species is born.

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-Yeah.

-And that is how sausage dogs are made.

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-And Daschunds, exactly.

-Yeah.

-We've discovered a lot of new science here, none of which is

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likely to be disproved, or possibly may come round again to be proved.

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Now, what did the inventor of the thermometer spend 30 years measuring?

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I'm going to say temperature, OK?

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-BUZZER

-Oh!

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-Wa-hey!

-Do you know what, Alan, you've got points to burn this evening.

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-Just relax.

-Sometimes it's right, you know, sometimes he goes, yes, it is.

-Exactly.

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I know a joke about thermometers, about nurses and thermometers.

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It's about a rectal thermometer.

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-Go on.

-Well, a nurse finds a rectal thermometer in her pocket

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and goes, "Aw! Some arsehole's got my pen."

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LAUGHTER

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It's an old joke, it's an old joke.

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It's very fine, though. Very fine.

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One very old nurses' joke that we used to...

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was that a nurse comes running in and says to the matron,

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"Oh, dear, I think I've got something the wrong way round.

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"You asked me to prick someone's boil."

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LAUGHTER

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-Very good.

-I do know quite an interesting fact about thermometers.

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-Thermometers.

-The difference between an oral and rectal thermometer.

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Yeah, I hope you do know the difference!

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-Yeah. Taste.

-Oh!

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LAUGHTER

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No, his name was Sanctorius Sanctorius. At least that

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was his Latinised name. He was from Padua, and there you can see him.

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-Right.

-He's weighing himself, that's a special balance he had created.

-Oh, he's weighing himself?

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Every single day he'd weigh himself AND the food he ate.

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And, indeed, the faeces and urine that he expelled, he excreted.

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Was it some sort of weird Weight Watchers thing he was on?

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No, well, what he discovered is that his urine and faeces weighed

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only a fraction of what he'd eaten and drunk, but despite that,

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he stayed the same weight, which is amazing, he thought.

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He thought, "Why is it if I put in, say, 100 pounds of food,

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"but I poo out only 30 pounds of faeces..."

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It had taken him 30 years...

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did he not work out that there's a fuel thing?

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It is easy to look back at past generations and say,

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"How can you not have known?" But of course NONE of them knew.

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And really, before people like him, who was almost one of the world's first scientists...

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-They hadn't measured and calibrated things.

-You're absolutely right about all of those things.

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-Well, as right as we know.

-However...

-Yeah?

-30 Years!

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I mean, really, after three years with the same...

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Oh, no, he had a theory, but his theory was wrong, that's all.

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His theory was that the rest came out of your skin

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so it was very dangerous to cover most of your skin, because you wouldn't let the poison out.

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He knew that faeces was poisonous, or at least toxic and bad for you.

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Its smell is a big warning, obviously.

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Sorry, your faeces smell?

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Of Parma Violets. Yeah.

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Jimmy's make a noise.

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They point at him.

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They emit a totally different...

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They're very unusual.

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It's one in a million people who have noisy faeces.

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"Aah!"

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HE IMITATES TOILET FLUSHING

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Very good. He co-invented, with his fellow at Padua,

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a much better-known scientist.

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Who would that be, in the same period?

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-Co-invented?

-Da Vinci.

-His co-inventor. Not Da Vinci, no.

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-Is he going to be Martin Centigrade, or...

-Galileo.

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-It won't be future.

-Galileo.

-Galileo is the right answer.

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Oh, I nearly said Galileo!

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APPLAUSE

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Thank you.

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I was going to say Scaramouche or Fandango.

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Galileo Galilee.

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Can do the Fandango!

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Yes, he could, darling, that's right.

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Thunderbolt and lightning!

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-Oh, no. Please!

-Very, very frightening!

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-Stop, behave.

-That's what one of Jimmy's poos sounds like!

-No.

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"Galileo, Galileo!"

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"You all right in there, Jimmy?!"

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LAUGHTER

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Be out in a minute, I'm reading a very interesting article!

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-Your faeces is made up of 70%...

-Shit?

-Liquid!

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30% solid. It just takes a bit of separating out.

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Not that I would urge you to do it when you get home!

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When I get home? Why wait?!

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I've got a centrifuge in my dressing room!

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Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.

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Anyway, what can you find out by hiding under a student's bed?

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BUZZER

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Yes, Jo?

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I've got to go for this. Is it a massive pile of porn mags?

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-That's probably true.

-I thought that would go off.

-Those were the days.

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I think, I think now you've got the internet, it's...

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I'm afraid, yeah, you wouldn't, really.

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Broadband are doing a terrific job now. Terrific.

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I think that's a bit sad though, in a way.

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It's not, yeah, they were...

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-You prefer mags.

-Not for men.

-No, not personally.

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LAUGHTER

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They did this in the 1930s, it was extremely unethical,

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but we're in pursuit of knowledge, which is our theme today.

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-Oh, scientists?

-So they were researchers.

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They were researching, and the only way to find out

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what people are saying without knowing they're being overheard

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was to hide somewhere and take notes while they were talking.

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And they wanted to know what sort of things students spoke about.

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-So they used to hide underneath the beds?

-Yeah, and take notes.

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It sounds to me, Stephen, I don't want to, you know, throw stones

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at these lovely scientists, but it sounds to me like a cover story.

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You wait, you wait till I get to some other unethical scientists,

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-you hold that back. Because it gets worse.

-Oh, tell me more!

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We're on the subject of unethical research.

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And basically, this was the only way you can have of being sure

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that you know what people are talking about with absolute clarity.

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Because people change what they say

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when they know someone's listening, someone outside their circle.

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But the idea was to discover what the main subject was, that people spoke about.

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They listened to...

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They just thought, "They'll never look under their bed!"

0:14:450:14:48

Why would you look under a bed?!

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There's nothing interesting down there!

0:14:500:14:52

Yeah, where they could overhear them.

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And they discovered that 40% of their conversation was devoted to?

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-The opposite sex.

-No, it wasn't that, it was themselves.

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It was a study in egocentricity. They spoke about themselves.

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-I would never do that.

-A-haha!

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Jimmy Carr would never let that happen!

0:15:050:15:07

Oh, don't, that's the worst thing in the world you can do!

0:15:070:15:10

So, there are other dodgy experiments.

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There was a "Personal Space Invasion In The Men's Restroom", a study of 1976.

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GRAHAM SNORTS

0:15:150:15:17

Someone hid a camera under the partition,

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under the sort of floor space.

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"Someone", Stephen? "Someone?"

0:15:210:15:23

LAUGHTER

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You seem to know a lot about this, Stephen!

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I've got a couple of questions.

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You like technology, don't you?

0:15:290:15:31

And there's a camera in the men's room!

0:15:310:15:34

"Oh, I'm just doing a study." "Are you?!"

0:15:340:15:37

-It was...

-Apologise, Stephen!

0:15:370:15:40

It was to see how they filled space when, if there was one person, let's

0:15:400:15:43

say the third one in a row of six, where would the average person go?

0:15:430:15:47

Would it be as far away apart, or would that look too obvious?

0:15:470:15:50

It's very interesting when you go in there, because I used to be, I don't have it any more,

0:15:500:15:54

but I used to be quite a shy pee-er, are you aware of shy peeing?

0:15:540:15:56

Yeah, of course.

0:15:560:15:57

-I have a technique for that.

-What's your technique?

0:15:570:15:59

My technique for shy peeing is,

0:15:590:16:02

I think of the most embarrassing thing I can do.

0:16:020:16:04

I just think of doing something like saying, "I think I love you",

0:16:040:16:10

or just something like that, and then it's all go.

0:16:100:16:13

-When you say, "I love you", you will automatically pee.

-Have a little wee.

0:16:130:16:18

I don't need to say it, I just need to THINK it.

0:16:180:16:20

And I always have to imagine it very, very realistically.

0:16:200:16:23

I imagine the guy going: "What?! Did he really say that?"

0:16:230:16:26

And then the next thing it's just, you know, it's no longer a problem.

0:16:260:16:30

It is very maddening when you've been absolutely bursting to go

0:16:300:16:34

and then, hello. "Come on! Come on!"

0:16:340:16:36

I find men's rooms...

0:16:360:16:37

There's a story about Bono going into a men's room

0:16:370:16:41

and standing up there and the guy standing beside him, a long silence,

0:16:410:16:45

and then eventually the guy saying, "Bit of stage fright, Bono?"

0:16:450:16:49

JIMMY HOOTS UPROARIOUSLY

0:16:490:16:52

But in 1942, and this is the one

0:16:520:16:54

where you're going to go, "Yeah, right(!)",

0:16:540:16:57

a psychologist called Lawrence LeShan

0:16:570:16:59

tried to use sleep-learning at a summer camp.

0:16:590:17:01

-Yeah, right(!)

-To cure some boys of nail-biting.

0:17:010:17:04

-Oh, no.

-He recorded the phrase,

0:17:040:17:06

"My fingernails are terribly bitter," on a phonograph,

0:17:060:17:10

and then played it 300 times a night in the boys' tent, or room or whatever it was.

0:17:100:17:13

And they all went on to kill and kill again?

0:17:130:17:16

One boy appeared to respond positively,

0:17:160:17:18

but then after five weeks the phonograph broke.

0:17:180:17:20

So, to keep the experiment running, he stood in the boys' dormitory

0:17:200:17:26

through the night and repeated the phrase himself.

0:17:260:17:29

"My fingernails taste terribly bitter."

0:17:290:17:31

This seemed to work, and he claimed it as a success.

0:17:310:17:33

It's thought, generally, these days, that the boys were awake

0:17:330:17:36

and just freaked out by the experience

0:17:360:17:38

and they stopped biting their nails to make the nasty man go away.

0:17:380:17:41

It's all very peculiar. Anyway, moving on.

0:17:410:17:44

How did the Romans tell their Keiths from their Kevins?

0:17:440:17:47

Some Keiths and Kevins there, in case you don't know what they are.

0:17:490:17:51

-Keith Richards.

-Kevin Bacon... Kevin Keegan. Keith Lemon.

0:17:510:17:55

Well done, that's enough. That's all, you won't get any more.

0:17:550:17:58

The other ones don't look real.

0:17:580:17:59

-No... And they're looking...

-Are they the actual Romans?

0:17:590:18:02

I think on the far left, that's Burger King, isn't it?

0:18:020:18:06

I think it might be, it does look a bit like Burger King.

0:18:060:18:08

They could have, because in Latin they both mean the same?

0:18:080:18:11

It's not that. It doesn't have to be Keiths and Kevins,

0:18:110:18:13

it means how did Romans know people's names?

0:18:130:18:15

-How do they know people's names?

-Because we all forget them...

0:18:150:18:18

-Did they remember them?

-No. That's the point, they'd forgotten.

0:18:180:18:21

-Badge, they had a badge.

-No.

0:18:210:18:23

You have a special servant.

0:18:230:18:25

A servant to say your name?

0:18:250:18:27

A nomenclator. Not to say YOUR name!

0:18:270:18:29

LAUGHTER

0:18:290:18:31

-I'm assuming you'll remember your own name!

-This is Pepe!

0:18:310:18:34

It's when you forget other people's. So you come in and the person whispers, "Alan Davies",

0:18:340:18:38

and you go, "Alan, how lovely to see you!"

0:18:380:18:40

Because otherwise you've forgotten, like a politician.

0:18:400:18:42

-That's very useful.

-Yeah. Absolutely right. And politicians...

0:18:420:18:46

-I have a technique for names.

-Yeah?

0:18:460:18:48

I've forgotten someone's name, I just say,

0:18:480:18:50

"Excuse me for a second", and then I go home.

0:18:500:18:52

LAUGHTER

0:18:520:18:54

APPLAUSE

0:18:550:18:57

Works every time!

0:18:570:18:59

-If you're the nomenclator...

-Yes?

0:19:000:19:03

And you keep saying this is Steve, this is Fiona.

0:19:030:19:06

-Stevius, Fiona.

-After a while he goes, I know, I know that one!

0:19:060:19:09

Yes, you would, you're allowed to tell them...

0:19:090:19:11

Just tell me the ones I don't know. She thinks I've forgotten her name!

0:19:110:19:15

I really thought I was in there,

0:19:150:19:18

and now you've just gone "Fiona",

0:19:180:19:20

as if I didn't know it was, look at her face now!

0:19:200:19:24

Go over there and say, "He knew, I was just doing my job."

0:19:240:19:26

"He wants you to know that he knew you were Fiona."

0:19:260:19:29

"This is this your wife, Susan. You've been married 15 years."

0:19:290:19:33

I actually do have a system involving my wife,

0:19:330:19:37

which is, we go over to someone whose name I don't know,

0:19:370:19:40

and I just stand there in total silence,

0:19:400:19:43

and then eventually my wife says, "I'm sorry, my name's Helen."

0:19:430:19:45

And the guy says, "Oh I'm Gary, and I go, I'm sorry, Gary! Gary, Helen. Helen, Gary."

0:19:450:19:49

-Didn't I introduce you? I thought I, yeah...

-Yeah.

0:19:490:19:51

Just as soon as they say it, you go, "Ah!" And then you sort of...

0:19:510:19:55

Is that a system, per se? LAUGHTER

0:19:550:19:57

Sounds like you being awkward at a party.

0:19:570:20:00

I'm sorry, I am...

0:20:000:20:02

So, moving on, a question about kith and kin now.

0:20:020:20:04

What's the best way of avoiding talking to your mother-in-law?

0:20:040:20:08

BUZZER

0:20:080:20:10

Yes, Jo?

0:20:100:20:11

Removing her vocal cords,

0:20:110:20:13

with some pliers!

0:20:130:20:15

That's the best way of avoiding HER talking to YOU.

0:20:150:20:18

Well, lean in for the kiss.

0:20:180:20:20

-Ugh! Oddly enough, you're in the right hideous area.

-Really?

0:20:200:20:24

Prince Charles's hair is being stealthily removed

0:20:240:20:28

from his head by Camilla's hair-grabbing, hair-eating hat.

0:20:280:20:32

LAUGHTER

0:20:320:20:35

It's like a Triffid.

0:20:350:20:37

And she's operating it slyly with her hand and going like that.

0:20:370:20:41

And the hair is being sucked into that hat.

0:20:410:20:43

-She's looking down at the dial.

-The hat devours it!

0:20:430:20:45

I think, if you don't like your mother-in-law,

0:20:470:20:49

what hope is there for you?

0:20:490:20:51

I view the mother-in-law as, it's Christmas Future.

0:20:510:20:53

Yes, that's true.

0:20:530:20:55

If you don't like your mother-in-law,

0:20:550:20:56

you're in trouble, 20 years down the line. That's what you're buying into.

0:20:560:21:00

My mother-in-law makes absolutely no sound when she moves.

0:21:000:21:05

LAUGHTER

0:21:050:21:07

That's remarkable, like Jeeves.

0:21:080:21:10

She is the stealthiest person.

0:21:100:21:13

You've got a Stealth mother-in-law. Is she sprayed black?

0:21:130:21:16

Honestly, she could be a brilliant spy, you know?

0:21:160:21:20

You might be in a room and you're looking in a thing or something,

0:21:200:21:23

and then suddenly she'll go, "Hello." "Oh, Jesus!"

0:21:230:21:25

Where did you come from?!

0:21:250:21:27

Where did you come from?! It's a long way from the door!

0:21:270:21:30

Anybody would have gone, "Ahem", made a little noise. Nothing.

0:21:300:21:33

Oh, that's terrible. It's like the famous story

0:21:330:21:35

of the boy who was, you know,

0:21:350:21:37

having a play with himself in his bedroom, with his eyes closed.

0:21:370:21:40

And by the way, I was not doing, I was not playing with myself!

0:21:400:21:43

-No, not you.

-In this story, before you conflate them.

0:21:430:21:46

-No, that's true.

-What's that story or that thing where Alan Davies,

0:21:460:21:50

and his mother-in-law comes up behind him?

0:21:500:21:52

Let's just separate those two things!

0:21:520:21:54

All right. But he closes his eyes in bliss

0:21:540:21:57

and when he opens them afterwards,

0:21:570:21:59

he just finds a cup of tea next to him!

0:21:590:22:01

LAUGHTER

0:22:010:22:03

It sounds so appalling!

0:22:030:22:05

She thought, "Well, your father always likes a cup of tea afterwards!"

0:22:050:22:10

And a biscuit!

0:22:100:22:13

APPLAUSE

0:22:130:22:14

Oh, gracious! Oh, Alan!

0:22:140:22:16

We haven't even begun to answer this question yet.

0:22:160:22:19

It's about sexual taboos with mothers-in-laws...

0:22:190:22:21

Sexual taboos with mother-in-laws?!

0:22:210:22:23

Taboos, and there is this particular language

0:22:230:22:26

-where you have a special language...

-What?!

-In which to speak to your mother-in-law.

0:22:260:22:29

It's called an avoidance language, so you have your own, the natural line of language.

0:22:290:22:33

We've got one of those, haven't we? It's called small talk.

0:22:330:22:36

But this has a different vocabulary and it's absolutely different.

0:22:360:22:39

A whole language where you can talk to your mother-in-law so it's just safe subjects?

0:22:390:22:43

You also have to avert the eyes and look at the ground, which is part of using that language.

0:22:430:22:46

And there are certain words that don't exist in that language,

0:22:460:22:49

most notably things like pubic hair and sweaty smells.

0:22:490:22:52

-But why?

-Because there is a taboo and a sense of respect

0:22:520:22:55

that is given by the male to the mother of his wife.

0:22:550:22:58

It's in Australia.

0:22:580:22:59

There's some Aboriginal peoples who have these avoidance languages.

0:22:590:23:02

And it's really fascinating, isn't it?

0:23:020:23:04

In Japan, they have a special language when talking about the royal family.

0:23:040:23:08

Is there a phrase for "You've spilt the Tippex"?

0:23:080:23:11

In their culture.

0:23:110:23:12

Someone needs to address that.

0:23:130:23:15

You're so bad, you're so bad!

0:23:150:23:17

Now, what did this bird bring to the German city of Klutz?

0:23:170:23:21

-Chlamydia.

-Chlamydia!

0:23:230:23:24

-The Chlamydia Stork.

-It's a good idea. The Chlamydia Stork!

0:23:260:23:28

Sounds like a desperate man back from a business trip in Holland,

0:23:280:23:31

-going, "Ah, ah, the thing is, storks."

-Yes!

0:23:310:23:36

Is that a particular, like a giant stork that you only find in Germany?

0:23:360:23:39

I'll show you a picture of it. It's been stuffed and is in a museum.

0:23:390:23:43

How big is it, really?

0:23:430:23:44

Well, it's hard to tell the scale, but storks are quite big.

0:23:440:23:46

But that's an arrow through it, or spear, rather.

0:23:460:23:49

They call it an arrow in German, which is pfeil,

0:23:490:23:52

and it's known as the Pfeilstorch,

0:23:520:23:53

which is just literally "arrow stork".

0:23:530:23:55

Now, you may say what's odd about that? Nothing, particularly.

0:23:550:23:59

But what they recognised was that the arrow was not German.

0:23:590:24:03

Indeed it was not even European.

0:24:030:24:04

-But they recognised right away that it was African.

-That it had flown a very long way.

0:24:040:24:08

What on earth would a bird be doing

0:24:080:24:10

with an African spear in its neck, they thought?

0:24:100:24:12

So they puzzled out the possibility that birds,

0:24:120:24:16

rather than disappearing at winter...

0:24:160:24:18

-Oh, went to Africa.

-Yes, migrated.

0:24:180:24:20

Sorry, are you saying it flew back with that...

0:24:200:24:23

-Yes. It survived.

-No way!

-I know, yeah.

0:24:230:24:25

I was just, I mean, no way!

0:24:250:24:26

It happened. Yes, it did.

0:24:260:24:28

It flew to Germany going, "Well, I'm never going back there."

0:24:280:24:31

LAUGHTER

0:24:310:24:33

The worst holiday ever!

0:24:330:24:37

APPLAUSE

0:24:370:24:39

I find that, the survival of that bird I find extraordinary, that it arrived.

0:24:390:24:43

It is. But you hear stories of bullets piercing people's heads

0:24:430:24:45

without somehow managing to...

0:24:450:24:47

Not an arrow, not an arrow travelling the length of its,

0:24:470:24:50

its neck and through its head.

0:24:500:24:51

It somehow managed, I know, it is astounding that it flew.

0:24:510:24:54

-"Something's different!"

-Yeah.

0:24:540:24:55

Do you think it was originally from Germany, or it got kind of,

0:24:550:24:58

it was from England and somehow, "Whoa, we're going right a bit!"?

0:24:580:25:01

It might have slightly tilted to the right, we don't know. It was in the 1820s.

0:25:010:25:05

Anyway, until that time, people had observed birds disappearing,

0:25:050:25:08

and they'd assumed all kinds of things, that they went underwater,

0:25:080:25:11

that, you know, they changed into other animals, I mean, but

0:25:110:25:14

-there was no particular evidence, anyway, except they disappeared.

-It was 18?

-1820.

0:25:140:25:18

This was the first kind of clear evidence, as it were,

0:25:180:25:20

that the bird had been to Africa.

0:25:200:25:22

And so things began to get put together.

0:25:220:25:24

Samuel Johnson wrote that "Swallows certainly sleep in the winter.

0:25:240:25:27

"A number of them conglobulate together by flying round and round

0:25:270:25:30

"and then all in a heap throw themselves underwater and lie on the bed of the river."

0:25:300:25:34

That's what he thought, because swallows disappear in winter.

0:25:340:25:36

He assumed they hibernated, like other animals.

0:25:360:25:39

So, moving on. Get this right and you can have your weight in points.

0:25:390:25:43

I'd like you to add these numbers up.

0:25:430:25:45

-Look at the screen, add up the numbers.

-Hang on. Hang on. Pen.

0:25:450:25:47

Ow!

0:25:470:25:50

That's silly.

0:25:500:25:51

-Nine, nine, nine, nine.

-No.

0:25:510:25:53

-431.

-No. I'll let you have,

0:25:530:25:57

which the winner of this competition did not have,

0:25:570:25:59

the opportunity to see it again. All right, again. Two-second burst.

0:25:590:26:03

Add that up.

0:26:040:26:06

Oh, it's about 8,897.

0:26:060:26:08

No. It would be astonishing if you got it,

0:26:080:26:10

but in Japan - where else -

0:26:100:26:11

they have this, it's called "Flash Anzan".

0:26:110:26:13

And actually the world record holder had a shorter time than that.

0:26:130:26:16

You have to correctly add 15 three-digit numbers,

0:26:160:26:20

and he did it in 1.7 seconds.

0:26:200:26:23

There's a particular reason Japanese people are very good at this.

0:26:230:26:25

I think I know the reason. It's in Malcolm Gladwell's book.

0:26:250:26:28

It's because of how they process, how the language processes numbers.

0:26:280:26:32

There is a strange thing in Chinese and Japanese,

0:26:320:26:34

in both languages, with the number, if you say the numbers together,

0:26:340:26:37

it automatically adds them up, sort of linguistically.

0:26:370:26:40

Yes, but there's a really interesting addition to that,

0:26:400:26:43

which is that what they're doing,

0:26:430:26:44

and their fingers are the giveaway, they do this.

0:26:440:26:47

What do you think that is?

0:26:470:26:48

That, that is a living one of those!

0:26:480:26:51

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

0:26:510:26:54

Come on!

0:26:540:26:55

Genius! You see?

0:26:550:26:58

I've always said, he's a savant!

0:26:580:27:01

Or it's a herd of those!

0:27:010:27:03

The answer, incidentally was 1,966.

0:27:050:27:08

But the secret actually is in the Chinese, Japanese abacus.

0:27:080:27:13

They're actually doing the action of the abacus.

0:27:130:27:16

And the more amazing thing, perhaps,

0:27:160:27:18

is that at the same time, they can have a conversation with someone.

0:27:180:27:22

Because it's another part of the brain that's being engaged.

0:27:220:27:25

And they'll say the answer, but they won't remember a single one

0:27:250:27:29

of the numbers they added up.

0:27:290:27:30

Which brings me to some very complicated adding up of my own, as a matter of fact.

0:27:300:27:34

Oh, my gracious goodness, heavens! The scores are unusual, because we have of course been giving scores

0:27:340:27:39

to make up for our errors on account of the half-life of facts.

0:27:390:27:44

So, in last place, I'm afraid,

0:27:440:27:45

it's magnificent for a first appearance, minus 19,

0:27:450:27:48

Graham Linehan.

0:27:480:27:49

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

0:27:490:27:50

-Graham, congratulations.

-Thank you.

0:27:500:27:52

In fourth place, with 23.24, it's the audience!

0:27:540:27:58

Well done!

0:27:580:28:00

-And in third place...

-So I'm behind the audience?

0:28:050:28:07

Yes, I'm afraid so. It's deeply unfair.

0:28:070:28:10

-And the Star Wars guy's in the audience.

-I'm on the show!

0:28:100:28:13

I'm so sorry.

0:28:150:28:16

And in third place, with plus 33.58, is Jimmy Carr.

0:28:160:28:22

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING Come on.

0:28:220:28:24

In second place, with plus 85.73, Jo Brand.

0:28:270:28:32

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

0:28:320:28:34

Not bad for a lady!

0:28:340:28:35

And today's out-and-out winner,

0:28:370:28:41

with 689.66, is Alan Davies!

0:28:410:28:45

APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING

0:28:450:28:47

It was worth it.

0:28:520:28:54

And, so, it's thank you and good night

0:28:540:28:56

from Graham, Jimmy, Jo, Alan and me.

0:28:560:28:58

Be useful and lovely to yourselves, good night.

0:28:580:29:01

APPLAUSE

0:29:010:29:04

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0:29:250:29:28

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