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This programme contains some strong language. | 0:00:03 | 0:00:10 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:00:27 | 0:00:31 | |
Good evening! | 0:00:31 | 0:00:35 | |
Good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening, | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
and welcome to QI, for the middle show of the M series. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:42 | |
Which is in the middle of the alphabet. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:44 | |
Where our theme is, well, not so much middle as muddle, to be honest. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:49 | |
But we have the magnificent Aisling Bea. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
CHEERING | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
The mighty Danny Bhoy. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
CHEERING | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
The magnetic Jimmy Carr. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
CHEERING | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
And the miscellaneous Alan Davies. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:10 | |
CHEERING | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
And their buzzers are merrily multifarious. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:18 | |
Aisling goes... | 0:01:18 | 0:01:19 | |
# Here we go round the mulberry bush, | 0:01:19 | 0:01:21 | |
# The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush. # | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
Danny goes... | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
# This old man, he played one, | 0:01:26 | 0:01:28 | |
# He played knick knack on my drum. # | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
Jimmy goes... | 0:01:31 | 0:01:32 | |
# Three blind mice | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
# Three blind mice. # | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
It's like the soundtrack of a horror film. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
And Alan goes... | 0:01:41 | 0:01:42 | |
# My Bonnie lies over... # | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
-BANG ON DOOR -Will you go to bed?! | 0:01:44 | 0:01:45 | |
DOOR SLAMS | 0:01:45 | 0:01:47 | |
-Was that a gunshot? -I don't know. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
The bit at the end, yes. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:51 | |
Well, the best place to start, I always think, is in the middle. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
How do you know when a chimpanzee is having a midlife crisis? | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
Does it get a Chinese tattoo? | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
-Just on the back of his neck there. -A motorbike. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
A motorbike? | 0:02:06 | 0:02:07 | |
CLAXON SOUNDS | 0:02:07 | 0:02:09 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
Where does the phrase midlife crisis come from? | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
How long has it been in the language, do you think? | 0:02:19 | 0:02:21 | |
Do you think the Victorians used it? Do you think... | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
-I bet it's more recent. I bet it's like a '50s... -Yeah. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
Cos it was about buying sports cars and doing those kind of crazy... | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
divorcing your wife and going out with someone of 22. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
It was actually 1965 | 0:02:32 | 0:02:34 | |
that a psychologist decided on this midlife crisis. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
He thought that only geniuses got a midlife crisis. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
He used the phrase, | 0:02:41 | 0:02:42 | |
but he said it was something that happened to geniuses. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
-But we... -It's not only us. It's not only us. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
Is it, Alan? You get them too. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:49 | |
-Yeah. -Yeah. LAUGHTER | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
The awkward thing about midlife crises, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
I've had some friends that have gone through them recently | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
and they've left their partners, gone out with much younger women | 0:02:56 | 0:02:58 | |
and they've bought sports cars, and the most difficult thing | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
is pretending to my other half that, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
"Aw! That's terrible. Isn't it sad?" | 0:03:03 | 0:03:05 | |
"Aw, ah. God, he's had a disaster there. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
"Yeah. No, apparently she used to be a dancer. Yeah." | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
Yeah. LAUGHTER | 0:03:14 | 0:03:16 | |
He's not... But is he happy? | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
Aw. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:20 | |
Yes. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
He can't stop smiling. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
He showed me some photos on his phone, it looks amazing. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
Well, it turns out that chimpanzees, when they're young, they're high | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
and when they get to middle age, they kind of go down | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
and then up again, which is supposedly what a midlife crisis is. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:37 | |
Does it only affect the men, or does it affect the women chimps as well? | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
It seems to be a male thing, doesn't it? And I think... | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
Yeah. I hear that, sister monkeys. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:44 | |
Are those guys laughing at the ginger ones? | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
Well, the tests were done on the ginger ones, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
or orang-utans, as some people prefer to call them... | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
-The ginger ones, yes. -..and on the chimpanzees. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:57 | |
Now, what mania was started by a few myopic Merseysiders? | 0:03:57 | 0:04:03 | |
-# Mulberry bush. # -Weirdly, you know... | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
-Yeah? -No, keep going. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:06 | |
Does this buzzer stop Jimmy speaking? Try again. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
Say something. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
-I was just going to say... -# Mulberry bush. # | 0:04:12 | 0:04:13 | |
There's some support for it. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
I find the buzzers really disconcerting. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:21 | |
It does feel like someone's about to get murdered in the show. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
-"Oh, go to bed!" -LAUGHTER | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
Those childish ghost cries. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
# Mice. # | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
It's usually The Beatles. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
-Hmm. -Isn't it? | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
Yeah, it's usually The Beatles. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:39 | |
-The Beatles is what you're saying. -It's usually The Beatles. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
He's saying The Beatles. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:43 | |
-CLAXON SOUNDS -# Mulberry bush. # | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
Very good. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
No, is the answer. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:51 | |
-Oh. -It was a mania, but not Beatlemania on Merseyside. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
-Myopic Merseyside. -It involves something to do with M. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
-Myopic is short-sighted, is it? -Yes. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
-Partially-sighted. -So, what M could help you | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
with partial-sightedness? | 0:05:01 | 0:05:03 | |
-My glasses. -LAUGHTER | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
Yes. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:08 | |
Any particular type of ophthalmic instrument | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
-that would help, that began with M? -Monocle. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:13 | |
Monocle is the right answer. There we go, very good. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
Yeah. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:18 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
I only knew that cos there happens to be a monocle next to me. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
It was a bit of a giveaway. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:30 | |
There you are, pop 'em in. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:32 | |
It was a fashion thing that seemed to sweep Liverpool. | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
I can imagine it taking off again, to be honest. | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
-You do look great. -You look very good. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
-Ah, Jimmy! -LAUGHTER | 0:05:38 | 0:05:40 | |
-Oh, my goodness. -My old pal. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:42 | |
What are you laughing at? | 0:05:42 | 0:05:43 | |
Jimmy, you've never looked more like a ventriloquist's doll in your life. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:49 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:05:49 | 0:05:51 | |
So, Jimmy... | 0:05:53 | 0:05:55 | |
SPEECH DROWNED OUT BY LAUGHTER | 0:05:55 | 0:05:58 | |
Oh, my! You really did look like Lord Charles there. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
I now feel slightly haunted. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
Wow! Thank you for putting your hand there, by the way. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:10 | |
It was really...special. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:11 | |
Your hair is all up. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:12 | |
They won't fit because monocles had to be made to fit, | 0:06:12 | 0:06:15 | |
which is why they were expensive. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:17 | |
And because they were expensive, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
they were associated with the upper classes. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:22 | |
And even when you wear them, | 0:06:22 | 0:06:23 | |
it's very hard not to look rather kind of like that, isn't it? | 0:06:23 | 0:06:26 | |
At what point in history did someone just go, | 0:06:26 | 0:06:28 | |
make that mental leap between, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
"I've got it here and I've got a little bridge here. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
"I could maybe just put another one..." | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
Well, it's funny you should say that. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:37 | |
Which came first, the monocle or the spectacles? | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
I'm going to say the spectacles. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
Yes. The spectacles, by hundreds of years. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:43 | |
-What? -When do you think the monocle came in? | 0:06:43 | 0:06:44 | |
1974. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
No. They came in, in the 1800s and they were instantly a success, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:53 | |
but they were expensive. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:54 | |
And we associate them with, I suppose... | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
-Oh, there I am. -DANNY: -Yeah. There you are, yeah. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
I had all three of those. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:02 | |
-DANNY: -They knocked that up pretty quickly. -Yeah. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:04 | |
But something gave them a rather bad image | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
-in the 20th century. -Californian vegetables. -Nazis. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
Nazis, and in fact... LAUGHTER | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
Californian vegetables. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
Buy Californian vegetables. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
-By Jove, they're awfully good. -LAUGHTER | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
-Yeah, they were associated with... -You do become instantly posh. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
..aristocrats, German soldiers and generals. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
Ludendorff wore one, Krebs, various of those figures there did. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
Ja. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
Advance. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:32 | |
-They really did never stop... -No squinting. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
-..trying to look more evil, did they? -No, they didn't. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:36 | |
Well, what could we add to this? | 0:07:36 | 0:07:38 | |
I've got the, you know, the skull and crossbones, | 0:07:38 | 0:07:40 | |
I've got the weird look, I've got the steely eyes. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
-They're a very good fit. -I know, I'll put one spectacle lens | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
over here. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:46 | |
-GERMAN ACCENT: -What about a monocle? | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
Zat would make us more evil. A tiny moustache. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:52 | |
Anyway, now for a medical question. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:55 | |
What malady could you ameliorate by standing in the middle of Wales? | 0:07:55 | 0:08:02 | |
-Yes? -Er, Moby Dick. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
Ha! | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
-Stand in the middle of whales. -Moby Dick! | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
Ah. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:11 | |
Oh, very good. Very good. APPLAUSE | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
-Very good. -Whales or Wales the country, though? | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
Well, you see, this is the thing. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
Not whale, the giant mammal. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:20 | |
You kind of deserve a little point for your Moby Dick. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
-Oh, do I? -Because I am actually talking... | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
If you stood in the middle of a blue whale. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
I know you're obsessed, but it doesn't have to be blue. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
Yeah, but let's say it's blue. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:33 | |
All right, blue. All right blue. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
Because you know you can stand in one of those. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
-You can? -They're huge. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:38 | |
Yeah. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:40 | |
They are quite big, aren't they? | 0:08:40 | 0:08:41 | |
Of course, they're not the biggest life form on earth, as you know. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
Hell no! | 0:08:44 | 0:08:46 | |
Sorry, are we doing a 'best of' show? | 0:08:46 | 0:08:47 | |
In some ways, it's the 'worst of'. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:51 | |
You two have had this conversation like a million times. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
What's the question again, Stephen? | 0:08:55 | 0:08:56 | |
Yeah, what sort of amelioration for what sort of malady | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
could you expect, if you stood... | 0:08:59 | 0:09:00 | |
A cream, an ointment? Some...a balm. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
No. No, this is...the act of standing, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
it's not something that's just taken from a whale. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
This is an example. This is in 1896 or thereabouts. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
-This is an Australian... -Is that a dead whale? | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
A drunken Australian found a dead whale on the beach... | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
Just say Australian, you don't need to beleaguer. | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
-I knew you'd say that. -Is that him there? | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
Yeah, that's him. ..and decided to walk into the whale. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
That looks like something from Embarrassing Bodies, doesn't it? | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
It does a bit. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:30 | |
-AUSTRALIAN ACCENT: -I've put on a little bit of weight. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
-AUSTRALIAN ACCENT: -I've fallen into a bloody whale. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
I thought a blowhole meant something else. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
I feel like a bloody fool now. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
I'll look for a malady and ameliorate it. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
Just the kind of language you'd use. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
But no, he got out of the whale... | 0:09:51 | 0:09:53 | |
He got out, he stank. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:54 | |
..and was amazed to discover... | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
He could walk. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:57 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:09:57 | 0:10:00 | |
-That his... -He was sober. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:01 | |
..his rheumatism had disappeared. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:03 | |
We'd never have got that. We could have been here about a week. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:06 | |
I know. That's why I helped you out. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
-Thank you so much. -So it cures rheumatism? | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
-Well... -But I mean, you can't get them at the chemist, can you? | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
No, you can't. It started a fad, though. People... | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
-Would go and stand in the middle of dead whales? -Yeah. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
And whalers would leave a hole, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
a little, sort of, area for people who would pay | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
and go and stand inside. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:24 | |
And the decaying blubber would act as a kind of poultice. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
-Is there any kind of...? -I want to go now. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
-No. -Total... -No evidence that it works at all. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:33 | |
But it was just one of those fads that they had in those days. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
-What a fun fad. -A fun fad. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:37 | |
-These days we've got... -Imagine if the monocle people went | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
and they were standing there like, "Oh, I'm all for a fad now. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
"Here I am with my monocle, sat in a whale. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:44 | |
"I'll do anything." | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
Well, yeah, that's it really. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:47 | |
Australians with rheumatism had a whale of a time. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
What would you find in a medieval manhole? | 0:10:50 | 0:10:54 | |
Do they keep their favourite things in it? | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
Do they bury them in case of marauding pillagers? | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
We're actually in the Germanic regions here. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:03 | |
Obviously, there was no Germany in medieval times, but... | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
Is it access to drains? | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
Ah, no. It's a legal issue. It's a rather bizarre one. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
If a man wanted to take another man to court, | 0:11:12 | 0:11:16 | |
in Germany and in England, they used trial by battle. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
In England, if a man wanted to take a woman to court, | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
he couldn't use trial by battle. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
But in Germany, you could, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
but you had to dig a hole and be inside a hole | 0:11:26 | 0:11:30 | |
and tie one arm behind your back... | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
-LAUGHTER -Oh, yeah. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:33 | |
-No way! -..and then you could fight. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
-Yeah. -Yeah. -I feel like on this panel show, | 0:11:35 | 0:11:36 | |
I should be stood up like this and all of you should be down there, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
-and I'm slashing around me jokes. -LAUGHTER | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
Erm... The man would be given three clubs | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
with which he could, you know, try and hit the woman. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
And the woman would have rocks and a slingshot. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:51 | |
-Now... -Did this actually happen, or...? | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
-Yes. Oh gosh, yes. -Really? | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
That should be surely be the other way on. | 0:11:57 | 0:11:58 | |
He should have the slingshot and the rocks, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
if he's just stuck in a hole. | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
-Yeah, I know. It's strange. -She can stand back quite a way | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
-and just fire at him. -With stones. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
Imagine then I suppose you can get right down in your hole, can't you. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:11 | |
Yeah. And just go round like that, with a club. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
If the man touched the side of his hole... | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
Oh, that's... LAUGHTER | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
You know what I mean. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:20 | |
If he touched the side of the hole, he forfeited one of his clubs. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:24 | |
-Right. -And then he only had two clubs left. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
But, it's important to remember, | 0:12:26 | 0:12:27 | |
whoever lost the battle would be put to death. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
So this is quite a serious thing. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:33 | |
They've already sort of dug the grave, so it's all right. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
-Yes, that's true. -It's not as bad. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
-Pop them in there, fill it in, we're done. -Yeah. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
-That's extraordinary. -Isn't it? -Yeah. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
-Yeah. -Anyway... | 0:12:41 | 0:12:42 | |
That's what I love about this show, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
that sometimes we can all just go, "Yeah, fine." | 0:12:44 | 0:12:46 | |
-Indeed. -Perfectly lovely. -That's quite interesting, yeah. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
Still on the medieval match-ups, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
what brilliant new strategy was employed by the England team | 0:12:51 | 0:12:56 | |
in the European Championships of 1176? | 0:12:56 | 0:12:59 | |
Did they just do what they always do - | 0:13:02 | 0:13:03 | |
get a really easy qualifying group? | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
And Scotland got, you know, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
-the Holy Roman Empire. -LAUGHTER | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
The Knights Templar and Spain. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
And England...England get Lindisfarne. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
This is medieval again, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:18 | |
and it's early medieval, I suppose you might say. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
It's not football though, is it? It must be another... | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
-No, it's not football. -Jousting? | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
Jousting came later. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:28 | |
-What happened in early medieval... -They need more space for that. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
..was that. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:32 | |
I know, they do, don't they? It's rather crowded. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
They're not getting enough of a run-up. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:36 | |
Yeah. Before jousting, the two with lances, you know, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:40 | |
riding towards each other, | 0:13:40 | 0:13:41 | |
there was something, which was a French word | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
that we still use to mean a kind of fray. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
-It begins with M. -Menagerie. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
Not a menagerie. LAUGHTER | 0:13:50 | 0:13:52 | |
Menage a trois. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:54 | |
A European menage a trois. | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
-Melee. -Yes! A melee is what it was. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
Well done. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:04 | |
The original cast of Avatar in a melee. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
And we're looking at the 12th century, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:13 | |
-and the great king then was... -Henry II. | 0:14:13 | 0:14:15 | |
-Followed by his son, Richard I, the Lionheart. -Oh, right. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
And they liked this melee when Richard wasn't out at the Crusades. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
-I like it. -And... | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
"I do. It pleaseth me." | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
And they saw this very good trick and they copied it. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
And that is, you tell them you're not going to fight today. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
You know, "I won't do the melee today." | 0:14:33 | 0:14:35 | |
And they go, "Oh, OK." | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
And then they exhaust each other. And then you come with your lot saying, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
"I think I will actually." | 0:14:40 | 0:14:41 | |
And they're all completely tired, and you win. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:43 | |
What do you mean they exhaust each other? | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
Well, because they're running backwards and forwards at each other, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
-running and running. -This is how I do a menage a trois. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
I let them go for a while and then I come in late. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
They stole the idea off Philip of Flanders | 0:14:55 | 0:14:57 | |
and it seemed to work pretty well. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:59 | |
The sport is called melee and it's similar to jousting? | 0:14:59 | 0:15:02 | |
Well, the reason jousting then took on, | 0:15:02 | 0:15:03 | |
as you can see from the picture, this involves a lot all at once, | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
whereas jousting is cheaper. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
-Ah, I see. -It's simply that. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:09 | |
It was so much cheaper to have that. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
And you've got champions at the jousting | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
who appeal to the ladies. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:16 | |
You know, the handkerchiefs and the favours | 0:15:16 | 0:15:18 | |
and the rather extraordinary elaborate form of romance. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
It's kind of funny that that would appeal to ladies. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
It's kind of like the version now for men for The Only Way Is Essex. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:26 | |
-That you don't actually know what someone looks like... -Yes! | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
..because they've got so much fancy stuff and extensions on. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
You're like, "Oh, he's gorgeous. Look at him! | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
"I really like the look of him." | 0:15:34 | 0:15:35 | |
Then he takes off his thing at the end | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
and you're like, "Oh, God! | 0:15:37 | 0:15:38 | |
"Maybe I don't like him." | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
Going round in a miniskirt with a massive pole in your hand. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:42 | |
-Yeah. -LAUGHTER | 0:15:42 | 0:15:44 | |
The chicks go wild. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:45 | |
Well, the first rule of knight club was to cheat. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:51 | |
Now, for a question about moral turpitude. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
What morally questionable activity will you finally be able to do | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
on the streets of Knutsford in 2015? | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
-Is the clue in the picture, Stephen? -Sort of, yeah. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:05 | |
Does it involve nuts? | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
No. Sadly not. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:08 | |
Does it involve bunting? | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
Nor bunting. And look lower down. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:11 | |
What is there particularly noticeable? | 0:16:11 | 0:16:13 | |
-Terrible shoes. -Oh. Look at them, oh. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:16 | |
-Very bad shoes. -Yeah. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
-The road. -Pavement's... -Parking. Double yellow lines. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:20 | |
The pavement. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:21 | |
-What about the pavement? -It's small, very narrow. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
It's a very narrow pavement. Thank you, Danny. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
-It is a narrow pavement. -You can't have that. | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
There's a reason for the narrow pavement. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
-Because... -Those two people are massive. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
In the olden days... | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
-Yeah? -A certain class of person virtually ruled the roost in Britain | 0:16:37 | 0:16:42 | |
-and that was an aristocrat. -Oh, the bastards. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
Yes. Absolutely shocking people. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
And you had to throw yourself into the gutter if one approached you. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
Well, sometimes they had strong, stern and absurd moral views. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:54 | |
-And... -Oh, so they weren't allowed to walk... -Well, yes. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
-If you imagine... -..side by side? | 0:16:57 | 0:16:58 | |
ARISTOCRATIC VOICE: "I'm not having the working classes | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
"next to each other in the street. | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
"cos it can only lead to touching." | 0:17:03 | 0:17:05 | |
I know you think you're doing a voice, but that is how you talk. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
There's no difference. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
Like a hair's breadth. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:18 | |
You are a beast. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
Voicing the inner workings of the mind. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
So, you weren't allowed to walk hand-in-hand with a lady? | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
You could just walk behind her? | 0:17:28 | 0:17:29 | |
-Basically, yeah. -I'm happy with that. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
Well, the Lady Jane Stanley, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:33 | |
who was the daughter of the 11th Earl of Derby, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
-and she laid down this strict code of... -Single-file pavement... | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
-Single-file pavements. -..in case they touched one another. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
-Yes. She died unmarried, as you might expect. -Yeah! | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
She wrote her own epitaph, apparently, which is, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
"A maid I lived and a maid I died. I never was asked and never denied." | 0:17:48 | 0:17:53 | |
I think that's not bad, considering she was dead. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
Yes, quite. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
Fair enough. | 0:17:57 | 0:17:58 | |
But perhaps the most famous prude of his era was a little later, | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
in the 1870s - a fellow called Anthony Comstock. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
Comstock, was from New York | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
and founded a league against lewdness of any kind. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
He saw it everywhere. He hated it. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:12 | |
He'd been in the civil war, didn't like the swearing, apparently. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
-Yeah, that's the worst thing about war. -Yes, I know. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
Especially that civil war, you know? I mean... | 0:18:19 | 0:18:22 | |
They've blown my fucking leg off! | 0:18:22 | 0:18:24 | |
Now, now. Language. | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
"I'm going to fucking kill you." | 0:18:27 | 0:18:28 | |
"Please, could you just kill me? Thank you." | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
But the particular tragedy that struck him in 1873, | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
after the war, | 0:18:33 | 0:18:34 | |
was a friend of his - who was addicted to pornography - died, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
supposedly having masturbated himself to death. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:18:41 | 0:18:44 | |
There's a lesson in there, Jimmy. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
I'm happy to report, Stephen, that cannot happen. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
You're just not trying hard enough, boy. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:52 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
I thought you looked pale, Jimmy. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:55 | |
Comstock believed that anyway. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:57 | |
Yes, he founded the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
and for nine years in its height, from the '70s to early '80s, | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
the society was responsible for 700 arrests, 333 prison sentences. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:08 | |
So, almost a 50% success rate on its arrests. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
And fines totalling 65,000, which was a heck of a lot then. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
The seizure of roughly 65,000 articles as well. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
Articles for immoral use of rubber, etc. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
As late as 1927 they were still going | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
and they managed, reprehensibly, | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
to shut down Mae West's Broadway play, Sex, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
and had her imprisoned for ten days. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
Really? | 0:19:33 | 0:19:34 | |
There was the Comstock Law, which made it a federal offence | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
to send obscene matter - for example, contraceptives - through the post. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
It was finally overturned in '36 in the wonderfully named case of | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
United States versus One Package of Japanese Pessaries. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:48 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
The US was always going to win that one. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
It was, wasn't it? I think so. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
I've never had...I've never had, in 14 years, | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
people eating sweets in the front row. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:02 | |
What the hell?! | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
And I can't think about anything else. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
Thanks, Jimmy. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:20 | |
You can have them back at the end of the lesson. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
I feel really bad for those people, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
because, obviously, you're just sat there watching an episode of QI, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
and then suddenly the telly gets up... | 0:20:28 | 0:20:30 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
..and nicks your sweets. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:35 | |
I didn't press the red button, what's going on? | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
Anyway, what did the French do with marmosets | 0:20:42 | 0:20:47 | |
that normal people did with cheese? | 0:20:47 | 0:20:48 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
-I have no memory of that whatsoever. -That's Alan! | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
Oh, we all remember our student days. | 0:20:57 | 0:20:59 | |
Forget the marmoset. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:02 | |
-Right, forget the marmoset. -I say normal people do with cheese? | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
-What do we do with cheese? -I put it on bread or crackers. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
Put it in the back of the fridge for six months, then chuck it out. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
Think laterally. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
Not the substance, not the food even. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
What else is there? | 0:21:14 | 0:21:15 | |
-Cheese. -Oh, not...not on some sort of, no... | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
-No, don't. -Oh, Jimmy. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:19 | |
Not the substance. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
Not any substance at all. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:24 | |
-Say "cheese". We say "cheese". -That's it! Thank you, Danny. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:27 | |
Thank you. APPLAUSE | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
Very good. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:30 | |
So do the French say "marmoset?" | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
-They do. -They say "marmoset"? | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
Well, they used to. I put it in the past tense. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
That makes me go, "Oh, no wonder." Cos that makes you go like this... | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
and that's what old French people look like in photos, "Allo. Allo." | 0:21:40 | 0:21:43 | |
We have a Frenchman in the audience. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:44 | |
We have Vincent, who's come all the way from la belle France, | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
-from la Republique. -Bonjour. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:48 | |
Let's just listen to him shouting marmoset in French. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
Ouistiti. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:52 | |
Ouistiti. Brilliant, thank you. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
And the point is, we smile when we say the... | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
-Which titty? -Which titty? -Which titty? | 0:22:03 | 0:22:04 | |
-Ouistiti. -This titty... -Which titty? -..or this titty? | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
-Which titty? -This titty or this titty? -Ouistiti... | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
-Which titty? -Which titty will make you smile? -Which titty? | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
It does make you smile, just saying "which titty?" | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
If you stretch your face to say "ti-ti". | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
-Titty. -Titty. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
-As you do to say cheese. -Little titty, big titty. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
Exactly. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:24 | |
And other languages, of course, have other words, or used to. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
I don't think it... But people Blue Steel now, don't they? | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
-They Blue Steel it. They don't... -Well, there is that, unfortunately. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
But do you know of any other country's words? | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
-Yes, the Danish... -Yes? -Yeah, what? Yeah? | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
They say "orange". | 0:22:40 | 0:22:42 | |
Well, they don't say the word orange, do they? | 0:22:42 | 0:22:44 | |
Well, I don't know what it is, but I remember someone... | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
It's the Danish for orange. Do we have Danes in the audience? | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
-There's one. -Oh. -You're Danish? | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
It sounds like apple, doesn't it? Say, if you could... | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
-AUDIENCE MEMBER: -Appelsin. -Yeah, there we go. -AISLING: -Appelsin? | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
A pussy? | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
-Appelsin. -Where titty, a pussy? | 0:22:58 | 0:23:00 | |
-Which titty? A pussy. -A pussy. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
-This is... Europe is filth! -Europe is filthy. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
And in various other languages, we have Serbian, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
-I don't suppose anyone. Well... -I don't think they smile in Serbia. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
Do we have any Slavs in the audience? | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
No, we don't. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:19 | |
"Little bird" in Serbian is ptica. | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
Tee-chee-tsa. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:23 | |
-Tee-chee-tsa. -It might be the same in Russian, I don't know. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
-Iticheetza! -LAUGHTER | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
Iticheetza! Iticheetza! | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
Iticheetza! | 0:23:31 | 0:23:32 | |
Honestly. Korean you might get, cos it's their favourite thing. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
-Eating dogs. -AUDIENCE MEMBER: -Kimchi. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:40 | |
-Kimchi. -Nuclear. -Kimchi, yeah. -Kimchi. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
They love their kimchi. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:43 | |
Argentina and some other Latin countries | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
is actually an English word they say. Or Scottish. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
A Gaelic word, I should say. 'Usquebaugh' means whisky. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:51 | |
-Usquebaugh? -Yeah, whisky. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
-Or water of life, isn't it? -Usquebaugh. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
Ah, usquebaugh is the same in Irish, in Gaelic as well. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
Except you put an 'e' in it when you make it English. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
No, we don't put an 'e' in it, because that's really... | 0:24:00 | 0:24:02 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
They did for one 48-hour period, yeah. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
Bulgarian is... We don't have any Bulgars in the audience, I'm sure? | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
-There's one! -Weh! -A Bulgar! -You're joking, really? | 0:24:12 | 0:24:15 | |
Is that what you say, a Bulgar? | 0:24:15 | 0:24:17 | |
You don't say you're a Bulgar? Bulgarian? | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
-AUDIENCE MEMBER: -I am Bulgarian. -And what would you say if...? | 0:24:19 | 0:24:21 | |
-We say "zele". Yes! -Zele. Which means? | 0:24:21 | 0:24:25 | |
-Cabbage. -Cabbage, yes. -Cabbage. | 0:24:25 | 0:24:27 | |
Good God, very good. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:29 | |
The sad thing is that they've tended to die out. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
Not because people do Blue Steel, as you were saying, | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
but because the Americanisms and British even, | 0:24:38 | 0:24:40 | |
they say "cheese" or "smile". | 0:24:40 | 0:24:42 | |
People go "hmmm" and they just do it. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:44 | |
Isn't it sad? People saying smile, how awful. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
No, I didn't... | 0:24:46 | 0:24:47 | |
So, now it's time to run screaming into the disaster zone | 0:24:47 | 0:24:52 | |
that we call General Ignorance. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
So, fingers on buzzers if you please. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:56 | |
When is the best time to charge your mobile phone? | 0:24:56 | 0:24:59 | |
At night. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:00 | |
Well, good. Yeah, it might be. Any other thoughts? | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
Oh, really? I thought that would go off. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
Yeah. When it's completely almost run out of battery. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
-CLAXON SOUNDS Oh! -Oh! | 0:25:10 | 0:25:12 | |
If you've got an iPhone, it's every 15 minutes. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
It used to be the case with an old phone. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
Nokia would go on for weeks. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
Yeah! Look at that beauty. Bring 'em back! | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
That's like one of the most modern, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
"Oh, it's not like it was in the old days." | 0:25:28 | 0:25:30 | |
These phones of that generation used what sort of batteries? | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
-Lithium? -Lithium. -No, nickle is the point. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
And if you charged it when it was 20% full, | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
it wouldn't remember the rest of it, as it were, | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
it was called memory problem. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:43 | |
So, you had to drain them. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:44 | |
You had to use them completely, so that it would charge | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
the whole battery. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
But we use lithium now and that isn't a problem any more. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
But here's a great thing about batteries, | 0:25:51 | 0:25:53 | |
and I'm going to demonstrate this to you, | 0:25:53 | 0:25:55 | |
and I think it'll be rather interesting. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:57 | |
We're just talking about ordinary AA batteries here, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
whether or not they're charged or... | 0:26:00 | 0:26:02 | |
They have a thumb thing on them now, don't they? | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
-I would, I would use... -Well, but they did the thumb thing, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:07 | |
but they've got rid of that, haven't they? | 0:26:07 | 0:26:08 | |
They never quite worked. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:10 | |
It was supposed to shine a... go green or something. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:12 | |
Yeah, yeah, go green and there was like a press thing. | 0:26:12 | 0:26:14 | |
I would attach it to my nipple clamps | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
and see if it gives me a buzz that I need. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
Here are two batteries. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:19 | |
How can you tell which one is flat, as it were, | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
which one is drained of power | 0:26:22 | 0:26:23 | |
-and which one is still powerful? -Try it on you. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
-Some magnetic thing. -It's nothing to do with magnetism. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
I'm going to slip them through these copper sleeves | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
so that they're both facing the right direction | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
and should both fall at the same time. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
So you can count me down from three, two, one and drop, all right? | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
The whole audience can join in. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
-ALL: -Three, two, one, drop! | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
All right, let's have a look at that. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
In theory, an empty battery should bounce more. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
-AUDIENCE MURMURS -Oh! | 0:26:50 | 0:26:51 | |
And that is the case that this is the one which has been drained. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
It's to do with the gel inside the batteries. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
And when they're drained, it's hardened and so it bounces more. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
Should we do an apology now for people breaking their mobile phones? | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
Presumably someone is at home going, "Is this charged?" | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
-You could try it with that. -Seems all right. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
There you are, isn't that good? | 0:27:08 | 0:27:09 | |
-Couldn't you just buy new batteries? -LAUGHTER | 0:27:09 | 0:27:11 | |
I just didn't think of that. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
Right. Yes, the best time to charge your phone | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
is any time you can find a power socket. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
All of which brings us charging towards a battery | 0:27:27 | 0:27:30 | |
of very extraordinary scores, which will amaze and astonish you. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:35 | |
Not. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:36 | |
So, in first place, what an extraordinary debut, | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
Danny Bhoy on ten points. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
In second place, | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
half as good, but still brilliant, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:53 | |
five points to Jimmy Carr. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:54 | |
I'm happy with that. I'll take that all day. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:56 | |
-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE -Five?! | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
That's good. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
In third place, with -7, | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
it's Aisling Bea. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:04 | |
-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE -Yeah! | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
Who does that leave us, I wonder? | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
Well... | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
-44 for Alan Davies! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
Well, that's all from Aisling, Jimmy, Danny, Alan and me. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
And I leave you with these wise words | 0:28:27 | 0:28:28 | |
from Pulitzer Prize winner, Anna Quindlen. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:32 | |
"Life is not so much about beginnings and endings | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
"as it is about going on and on and on. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
"It's about muddling through the middle," | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
which I hope we've done this evening. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:40 | |
Goodnight. APPLAUSE | 0:28:40 | 0:28:43 |