QI

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QI
Image:QI Logo.png
The QI logo
Also known as Quite Interesting
QI XL (extended repeats)
Format Comedy panel game
Created by John Lloyd
Directed by Ian Lorimer
Presented by Stephen Fry
Starring Alan Davies
Guest panellists
Theme music composer Howard Goodall
Country of origin  United Kingdom
No. of series 6
No. of episodes 74 + 1 unbroadcast pilot (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) John Lloyd
Piers Fletcher
Running time 30 minutes (45 minutes for QI XL)
Production company(s) talkbackThames
Quite Interesting Limited
Broadcast
Original channel BBC Two
(between 2003-2008)
BBC One
(from 2009)
Original run 11 September 2003 – present
Chronology
Related shows The Museum of Curiosity
External links
Official website
Production website

QI (Quite Interesting) is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. To date, 56 guest panellists have appeared on QI. Until late 2008 it was first shown on BBC Two and repeated on BBC Four, with syndicated episodes of previous series shown on Dave. QI has the highest viewing figures for any show on BBC Four and Dave.[1][2] From series "F" in late 2008, the show moved to BBC One with extended repeats on BBC Two (entitled QI XL) first being shown in 2009.[3] Series "G" will extend the number of episodes from 12 to 16 (which was the amount originally proposed for the series, but cut to 12 due to budget restraints).[citation needed]

Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given. As a result, points are given not only for right answers, but also for interesting ones, regardless whether they are right or even relevant to the original question. Conversely, points are deducted from a panellist who gives, "answers which are not only wrong, but pathetically obvious":[4] typically one that is generally accepted as true but is, in fact, false.

Contents

[edit] Format and conception

The panel consists of four participants: three rotating and one regular, Alan Davies, who has the seat to Stephen Fry's immediate right. Davies has appeared in every episode, except for one that was themed on "Divination": he was present at the beginning, but he "teleported" away during the buzzer demonstration. He was at a football match instead but was still able to play as communicated "from beyond."[5] He has only won seven times: since he generally offers up most of the "obvious but wrong" answers, he usually finishes last; however, his seven victories place him joint first with the show's most regular winning guest, Rich Hall. The show's other panellists mainly come from a stand-up comedy background, although there have also been guests from other fields, including Richard E. Grant, Hugh Laurie, Jeremy Clarkson, Gyles Brandreth and Roger McGough.[6][7][8]


This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It may be deleted after Wednesday, 22 April 2009.

Questions are sometimes misleading or very difficult. Providing an "obvious but wrong" answer results in a sequence of klaxons. In the first and second series, Fry produced the answer on a card to show the panellists, while it also flashed on the large screens behind them (except in the pilot episode and the first show of the first series, when only the cards were used).[9] In the third series and onward, Fry's answer cards were dispensed with altogether, leaving only the screens as proof that the answers given had been predicted.

Because of the show's expectation that hardly anyone would be able to give a correct answer without significant prompting, it instead encourages sheer interestingness, which is how points are mainly scored.[10] As such, tangential discussions are encouraged, for panellists are apt to branch off into frivolous conversations, give voice to train of thought, and share humorous anecdotes from their own lives.[10] The number of points given and taken away are normally decided by Fry or beforehand by the researchers, especially if the points given or taken are very large. For example, one episode asked, "What is the main ingredient of air?" If someone answered, "Carbon dioxide" then 3,000 points would have been deducted, but no-one gave this answer. However, Davies was deducted 10 points for saying "Oxygen".[11] Fry once said (namely in Episode 10 of the first series):

Now, the rules are simple. Scoring is my business. Points are given and points are taken away. They are taken away for answers which are both obvious and wrong, and they're given not so much for being correct, as for being interesting. Their level of interestingness is impartially determined by a demographically-selected customer service focus consultancy, broken down by age and sex — i.e. me. Because there is no-one more broken down by age and sex than me.[12]

John Lloyd, QI's creator, has admitted that not even he has any idea on how the scoring system works, but there is someone who is paid to check on the scores. Guests are allowed the right of appeal if they believe their score is wrong, but no one has done this so far.[10]

[edit] Buzzers

Each panellist has a buzzer, with the sounds of all four often being based on a theme. They are demonstrated at the beginning of the programme, but are sometimes changed in some way for repeated use. Davies's buzzer is usually more humorous than the others, and has been revealed last in every episode except for the unbroadcast pilot, in which he went first and Eddie Izzard was fourth.[13] In one instance in Series A, rather than a comical buzzer, Davies set off the forfeit alarm, meaning he started the show on -10 points before a question was asked.

[edit] General Ignorance

In a parody of ubiquitous general knowledge quizzes, the final round is off-topic and called "General Ignorance", focusing upon seemingly easy questions which have obvious but wrong answers. Whereas in the main rounds of the show, the panellists' use of buzzers is not usually enforced, the "General Ignorance" questions are introduced by Fry's reminder to keep "fingers on buzzers".

Due to the large number of "obvious but wrong" answers, panellists usually incur the greatest point losses in this round. In the second series' Christmas episode, Davies stated his refusal to participate in General Ignorance, saying that he "will not be humiliated at Christmas". In response, Fry offered to switch places with him, to the delight of the audience. Despite the seeming spontaneity of the swap, it was undoubtedly planned (at least on the part of Davies and the producers), as evidenced by the fact that Davies, in turn, produced his own set of questions on loose-leaf paper (all of which he directed at Fry), and also by the photographs and obvious-answer graphics which accompanied Davies' questions. At the end of the show, Fry announced that the game's loser was, in fact, Fry himself, as a result of his falling into many of Davies' traps.[14]

[edit] Extra tasks

In some episodes, the panellists are given an extra task to complete during the course of the game. Those who do the best are often awarded extra points. Past tasks have included drawing contests (in which John Sessions has shown a particular talent);[15] or looking for a specific hidden thing over the course of the show, such as a squirrel or a cuttlefish.[16][17] Panellists were also once given a card covered with magnetic letters with which to create words over the course of one show. Jimmy Carr successfully used all of his letters to create, "Put Smarties tubes on cats legs, make them walk like a robot."[18] In the fifth series, Series "E", all the episodes have the same extra task — "The Elephant in the Room". In each episode, at least one of the answers is related to elephants, the panellists being required to wave an elephant on a stick when they believe it is the appropriate moment.

[edit] Production

Writer and former BBC producer John Lloyd devised the format of the show, and it is produced by Quite Interesting Limited, an organisation set up by Lloyd. QI was originally seen as being an "Annotated Encyclopedia Britannica... the world's first non-boring encyclopaedia."[10] As a panel game, it was conceived as a radio show, with Lloyd as chairman.[19] While developing the show with Peter Fincham and Alan Yentob, Lloyd decided that it would work better on television. The three pitched it to Lorraine Heggessey, at the time controller of BBC One. Heggessey passed on the format, opting to commission a similar panel game called Class War (which was never made). When Fincham became controller of BBC One, Lloyd pitched it to him, only to be turned down by his former collaborator. Eventually he pitched it to Jane Root, then controller of BBC Two, who agreed to develop it.[20] When it was decided that the show would air on television, Michael Palin was offered the job of chairman with Fry and Davies as captains of "clever" and "stupid" teams respectively. However, when Palin decided not to take the job, the producers opted to change the format; Fry became the host, with Davies as the only regular panellist.[19] Root commissioned a pilot and a further 16 episodes after that, though budget limitations reduced the first series to 12 episodes.[20]

Unlike many similar comedy-quiz programmes, the makers of the show insist that the answers are not given to the panellists beforehand.[21] The panel are given a list of questions set to be asked just about an hour before the show, for preparatory purposes, but the guests are forbidden to ask for preparatory materials or other help.[10] They do however run through a series of "warm up" questions before recording begins, but this is the only assistance the panellists receive. It is known that Davies never does any preparation at all.[10] The show uses a warm-up comedian before recording begins, frequently Stephen Grant credited as the Audience Wrangler.[22]

[edit] Research

The research for the show is mostly carried out by seven people called the "QI Elves", a team which currently includes Justin Pollard and Vitali Vitaliev[23] and previously included Molly Oldfield, daughter of the musician Mike Oldfield. The "elves" devise the questions, and are able to contact Stephen Fry during the show to provide and correct information.[24] Other people involved in researching questions and compiling the scripts are John Mitchinson and Piers Fletcher, known (along with Justin Pollard) as the Question Wranglers,[24] whose research includes both Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia.[25] The QI website also has a large forum that currently has over 3,000 members.[26] The forum contains several sections including the "Quite Interestrings", for general topics, the "Series Talk" section which are dedicated to different series, indicated by a letter of the alphabet, and "The Forum of General Ignorance", dedicated to things that are often misunderstood by most people. Some of the material written in the forums is used in the TV series.

[edit] Theme tune

The theme tune was composed by Howard Goodall, who has twice appeared as a panellist on the show. The music for the unbroadcast pilot was planned to be "Wonderful World" by Herman's Hermits. However, the producers were forbidden the use of the song and the DVD edition of the pilot features Goodall's composition.[10]

Different instrumentation occasionally reflects the topic of a particular programme. For example, the Christmas Specials include sleigh bells and the "France" episode uses accordion music.

[edit] QI HQ

The headquarters of QI used to be the QI Club, which is situated at 16 Turl Street, Oxford, on the corner of Turl Street and Ship Street. Under QI's management the building consisted of a bookshop, a café-bar and a vodka bar, as well as a number of rooms devoted to use by the private members club.[27] The building has since been sold and is no longer associated with the show.

[edit] Episodes

In QI, every series is themed around a different letter of the alphabet, starting with the letter "A". Series are therefore referred to by letter rather than number. The first series started on 11 September 2003, and consisted of topics beginning with A, including a round on people called "Alan".[12] The second series consisted of topics beginning with "B" and also saw the first attempts to pay attention to a particular theme throughout one episode, e.g. "Birds" (the overriding theme did not necessarily begin with "B", although the questions always contained an element that did). The only exceptions to the alphabet system have been the Christmas specials, where the topics are often just of a Yuletide nature and do not necessarily correspond to that season's letter (although greater attempts have been made to do so since series D). Ironically, the only series to date without a Christmas special in its run has been series C.

Series D was the first to see all the episodes focus upon a single topic or theme beginning with the series letter, and for each to be given an official title. This trend has continued with each subsequent series. A video podcast (featuring the best moments with some out-takes) was planned to accompany series E, but this was instead turned into a set of "Quickies" featured on the QI homepage of the BBC's website. As this decision was not reached until after recording though, they are still referred to as "vodcasts" by whoever is introducing them (usually by Stephen but occasionally by a panellist or even the audience).[28] Three episodes have the distinction of being won by the audience: "Death", the 5th episode in series D, "England", the 10th episode in series E, and "Flora & Fauna", the 10th episode in series F.

[edit] Dutch version

In 2008 the QI format was sold to the Dutch broadcaster VARA. Also called QI, the Dutch version of the show aired for the first time on 27 December and is hosted by the writer Arthur Japin with the comedian Thomas van Luyn taking the role of regular panellist.[29][30]

[edit] Corrections, mistakes and retractions

Although most of the answers presented on the show are correct, some have been disputed and shown to be incorrect. For example, in Series A, the show claimed that the longest animal in the world was the lion's mane jellyfish,[31] but this was later corrected in Series C, saying that the longest animal in the world is the bootlace worm.[32]

Members of the public and members of the QI website contact the show to correct information. The error that has attracted the most complaints to date was made in Series B, when it was claimed that the Welsh language has no word for "Blue". In fact it is "Glas".[33] The error was explained on the "Banter" section of the series B DVD as a mistake on the part of John Lloyd himself.

Another episode in Series B claimed that the language spoken by children's TV characters Bill and Ben was called "Flobbadob" and was named after the onomatopoeic phrase that creator Hilda Brabban's younger brothers (who the characters were named after) gave to their bath farts during their early childhood.[15] However, in Series D, Fry read out a letter written by Silas Hawkins, the son of veteran voice-over talent Peter Hawkins, who provided the original voices of the characters:

"The fart-in-the-bath story was trotted out last year in an episode of Stephen Fry's otherwise admirable quiz show QI. It (the story) first appeared some twenty years ago in a newspaper article, to which my father immediately wrote a rebuttal. This was obviously ferreted out by some BBC researcher. It may be quite interesting, but in this case, it simply isn't true."[34]

Fry then apologised and corrected the error, saying, "Their language is called 'Oddle poddle'. 'Flobbadob' means 'Flowerpot' in Oddle poddle." He then convulsed in disbelief at the authoritativeness in which he'd read that statement out.[34]

At the end of the third series, Dara Ó Briain was deducted points for having stated, in the series before, that the triple point of water is zero degrees Celsius, an answer which earned him 2 points at the time.[35] Viewers however, wrote in to say that the triple point of water is in fact 0.01 degrees, and so the 2 points awarded Dara in the previous series were revoked and he received a further deduction of 10 points for "saying a now obvious answer". Dara retorted with, "How many people sat at home watching that and said, 'It's just a comedy show, but I'm not letting that fecker get away with that!?'", before exaggeratedly miming the act of someone angrily typing at a keyboard.[36]

Various other retractions are made by the producers of the show on the special features of the DVD releases. The origin of the error - whether it was an ad-lib by Stephen or whether it was on one of his cards - is also usually explained (as above with Glas). (Information contributed by a panellist during a discussion, but which has since been found to be false, is also corrected here.) One example of why this distinction is important to make would be Stephen's mis-reading of the explanation as to why helium makes your voice higher, in the series B Christmas special. His claim was that the gas only affected the frequency, but not the pitch, despite them being the same thing. The genuine explanation had been written down elsewhere, which is that it is the timbre which is affected, not the pitch.

More recently, the online forum now includes a 'QI Qibbles' blog, which aims to rectify further mistakes in the series.

[edit] Culture

QI has stated it follows its own philosophy, which is that everything in the world, even that which appears to be the most boring, is "quite interesting" if looked at in the right way. The website states that:

"We live, they say, in The Information Age, yet almost none of the information we think we possess is true. Eskimos do not rub noses. The rickshaw was invented by an American. Joan of Arc was not French. Lenin was not Russian. The world is not solid, it is made of empty space and energy, and neither haggis, whisky, porridge, clan tartans or kilts are Scottish. So we stand, silent, on a peak in Darien a vast, rolling, teeming, untrodden territory before us. QI country. Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way. At one extreme, QI is serious, intensely scientific, deeply mystical; at the other it is hilarious, silly and frothy enough to please the most indolent couch-potato."[37]

[edit] Reception

QI was received very positively by its viewers. It is the most popular programme of any kind on BBC Four,[38] and one of its books, The Book of General Ignorance, reached Number 4 on Amazon.com's best-seller list.

QI has been supported by nearly all critics. Peter Chapman said, "When the schedules seem so dumbed-down, it's a delight to encounter the brainy and articulate Stephen Fry. He excels in this format, being both scathing and generous."[39]

Another critic, Laura Barton said, "QI and its canny coupling of Stephen Fry and Alan Davies, which manages to condense tweedy goodness, cockney charm, pub trivia and class war into one half-hour."[40] An American critic, Liesl Schillinger described QI as, "Jeopardy with Stephen Colbert as host, with Steve Martin and Ellen DeGeneres as guests, working off a game board loaded with unanswerable questions."[41]

Critics have questioned the way the show is edited. One critic said, "At one point in tonight's show, Fry (normally urbanity itself) yells an obscenity at Rich Hall, the result of, I guess, a long interchange between the two but, as most of it appears to have been cut out, the outburst comes out of the blue, making Fry look as if he's flipped his lid."[42]

[edit] Awards

In 2006, Fry won the Rose d'Or for "Best Game Show Host".[43] The British Comedy Guide (formerly the British Sitcom Guide) gave QI the British Comedy Guide Award for "Best British TV Panel Show/Satire" of 2006 and 2007.[44][45] In 2008, the series won the Royal Television Society award for "Entertainment". It was also nominated in the "Entertainment Performance" category, but it lost.[46]

QI has been nominated for four BAFTA awards. Fry has been nominated for "Best Entertainment Performance" three times, in 2004, 2005 and 2007.[47][48] John Lloyd and QI's director Ian Lorimer were nominated for the Lew Grade Award in 2005.[47] In 2007, The Book of General Ignorance was nominated by the British Book Awards in the TV and Film Book of the Year Category.[49]

[edit] Media releases

QI has entered a number of different media, and has seen an increasing number of tie-in DVDs, books and newspaper columns released since 2005.

[edit] Books

[edit] UK

The QI "E" Annual 2007
Art by David Stoten

The first QI book was 2006's The Book of General Ignorance, published in hardback on 5 October by Faber and Faber. (ISBN 0-571-23368-6)[50] Written by producer and series-creator John Lloyd and QI's head of research, John Mitchinson, it includes a foreword by Stephen Fry and "Four words" by Alan Davies ("Will this do, Stephen?"). Most of the book's facts and clarifications have appeared on the programme, including its list of 200 popular misconceptions, many of which featured during the "General Ignorance" rounds. On 8 December 2006, the book "became a surprise bestseller over the Christmas period, becoming Amazon's number one Global bestseller for Christmas 2006."[51] By the end of January, 2007, it had sold more than 300,000 copies (and subsequently over half a million[52]), paving the way for subsequent (projected) annual book releases to capitalise on the UK Christmas book market.[51] The Official QI website notes that it will soon be published in 23 countries.[52]

Pocket-sized and audio versions of General Ignorance went on sale the following year. In 2008, a newly revised version was published under the title of The Book of General Ignorance: The Noticeably Stouter Edition. This edition corrected and updated some of the information from the first print, while adding 50 new sections (and extra illustrations) to the original 230. It also substituted classic moments from the show for the philosophical proverbs and added a complete episode listing from Series A–F, plus an index (the lack of which had been one of the few regular complaints in reviews of the original).[citation needed]

A second book, The Book of Animal Ignorance, was released in the UK (in the same hardback format) by Faber & Faber almost exactly a year after General Ignorance, on 4 October 2007. (ISBN 978-0-571-23370-0)[53] It promised to be a "bestiary for the 21st century,"[54] and contains almost completely new quite interesting facts.[55] The book includes "400 diagrams and cartoons by the brilliant Ted Dewan", another Foreword by Stephen Fry and a "Forepaw" by Alan Davies.[55]

QI's first annual, The QI "E" Annual or The QI Annual 2008 was published by Faber and Faber on 1 November 2007 (ISBN 978-0-571-23779-1).[56] It is intended as the first of a series to continue with subsequent letters.[57] The cover was produced by David Stoten (one of Roger Law's Spitting Image team), who also contributed to the annual's contents. The cover is very much in the style of The Beano comic (and The Bash Street Kids strip in particular), and features schoolboy caricatures of (from l to r) regular QI panellists Sean Lock, Vic Reeves, Phill Jupitus, Bill Bailey, Stephen Fry, Arthur Smith, Rob Brydon, Dara Ó Briain, Clive Anderson, Alan Davies (with Jimmy Carr as the worm in his apple), Rich Hall, David Mitchell and Jo Brand, all of whom are credited with contributing content to the annual. Other contributors include fellow QI regulars Jeremy Clarkson and Johnny Vegas, comedian Rowan Atkinson, and cartoonists Newman and Husband from Private Eye, Viz's Chris Donald, Geoff Dunbar, Ted Dewan and The Daily Telegraph's Matt.[58] The following year saw the publication of the "F" Annual. Whether 'prequel' annuals for the letters A, B, C and D will subsequently see print is as-yet unknown.

On the Factoids feature of the Series A DVD, John Lloyd mentioned an idea he'd had for a QI book of quotations, under the working title Quote Interesting. This book was eventually published in 2008 as Advanced Banter.[59]

[edit] US

The American cover for The Book of General Ignorance

On 7 August 2007, The Book of General Ignorance was published in America by Harmony Books. (ISBN 0-307-39491-3) It features a sparser cover necessarily downplaying its links to the TV series, which has yet to be broadcast in the US. The book received glowing reviews from both Publishers Weekly[60] and the New York Times, which recommended it in its "Books Holiday Gift Guide".[61] (It subsequently entered the New York Times' "Hardcover Advice" best-seller charts at #10 on 9 December,[62] falling to #11 two weeks later where it stayed until mid-January, before falling out of the top 15 on 20 January.)[63]

[edit] France

A French edition entitled Les autruches ne mettent pas la tête dans le sable: 200 bonnes raisons de renoncer à nos certitudes was published by Dunod on October 3, 2007. (ISBN 978-2-100-51732-9)[64] It is released as part of Dunod's "Cult.Science"/"Oh, les Sciences!" series, which also includes titles by Robert L. Wolke, Ian Stewart and Raymond Smullyan.[65]

[edit] DVDs

A number of DVDs related to QI have also been released, including interactive quizzes, and complete series releases.

[edit] Interactive quizzes

On 14 November 2005 an interactive QI DVD game, called QI: A Quite Interesting Game, was released by Warner Home Video. A second interactive game, QI: Strictly Come Duncing followed on the 26th November 2007, from Warner's Music division.[66] Both games feature Stephen Fry asking questions, and then explaining the answers in full QI-mode.

[edit] Complete series releases

The Complete Series "A" DVD

A DVD release for the first series was the direct result of an internet petition signed by 1,821 people, which persuaded the BBC of the interest in such a move.[67] Series "A", was therefore released by BBC Worldwide's DVD venture, 2 entertain Ltd. on 6 November 2006 (as "QI: The Complete First Series"). It contains a number of outtakes as well as the unbroadcast pilot, which features the only appearances to date of Eddie Izzard and Kit Hesketh-Harvey as panellists. Sales over the Christmas period, however (in stark contrast to The Book of General Ignorance, which topped the Amazon.co.uk best-seller list), were not as strong as hoped.[51] A lack of adequate advertising is thought to be to blame (and subsequent episodes of QI have since trailed the DVD), and may have factored in the label change for Series "B".[51][68]

Series "B" was released on 17 March 2008,[68] followed by Series "C" on 1 September.

DVD Series Release Date
Series A 6 November 2006
Series B 17 March 2008
Series C 1 September 2008

[edit] Other media

  • Since 10 February 2007, a weekly QI column has run in The Telegraph newspaper. 52 columns were planned, but the feature is ongoing and was recently re-launched in the newspaper's Saturday magazine and online at www.telegraph.co.uk/QI
  • A QI feature has appeared in BBC MindGames magazine since its fifth issue, and revolves around facts and questions in the General Ignorance-mould.
  • QI also has an official website, QI.com, which features facts, forums and other information. It also links to QI's internet show QI News, a parody news show which broadcasts "News" items about things which are "quite interesting". QI News stars Glenn Wrage and Katherine Jakeways as the newsreaders, Bob Squire and Sophie Langton.

[edit] The QI Test

The QI Test is a planned spin off version of QI planned to be broadcast on BBC Two. Created by Lloyd, Talkback Thames' Dave Morely and former QI Commercial Director Justin Gayner, The QI Test differs from QI in that it features members of the public as contestants instead of celebrities. It will also be broadcast during the daytime schedules. The series will not be hosted by Fry. A studio pilot was recorded in November 2008.[69]

[edit] References

  1. ^ QI.com Audience figures. Accessed 21 June 2007.
  2. ^ Armstrong, Stephen (2007-12-17). "Have you got your daily male?". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/17/digitaltvradio. Retrieved on 2007-12-17. 
  3. ^ "QI moves to BBC One". 2008-10-02. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/10_october/02/qi.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-10-02. 
  4. ^ "Atoms". QI. 2003-10-02.
  5. ^ "Divination". QI. 2006-11-24. No. 10, season D.
  6. ^ "Series A, Episode 11". QI. 2003-11-20. No. 11, season A.
  7. ^ "Series B, Episode 4". QI. 2004-10-29. No. 4, season B.
  8. ^ "Series D, Episode 11". QI. 2006-12-01. No. 11, season D.
  9. ^ "Series A, Episode 1". QI. 2003-09-11. No. 1, season A.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g QI Series 1 DVD Factoids
  11. ^ "Series A, Episode 4". QI. 2003-10-02. No. 4, season A.
  12. ^ a b "Series A, Episode 10". QI. 2003-11-13. No. 10, season A.
  13. ^ "Pilot". QI.
  14. ^ "B Christmas Special". QI. 2004-12-26. No. 12, season B.
  15. ^ a b "Series B, Episode 10". QI. 2004-12-10. No. 10, season B.
  16. ^ "Series C, Episode 11". QI. 2005-12-09. No. 11, season C.
  17. ^ "Series C, Episode 9". QI. 2005-11-25. No. 9, season C.
  18. ^ "Series 2, Episode 5". QI. 2004-10-05. No. 5, season B.
  19. ^ a b Chortle.co.uk "Last among eQIals" Written 21 December 2006. Accessed 21 June 2007.
  20. ^ a b Lloyd, John (20 August 2008). "QI creator says BBC1 is 'our natural home'", Broadcast Now, EMAP. Retrieved on 20 August 2008.
  21. ^ QI.com QI: The BBC Television Series. Accessed 27 July 2007.
  22. ^ IMDB Audience Wrangler Accessed 18 December 2008.
  23. ^ www.qi.com The QI Elves, accessed 24 September 2007
  24. ^ a b QI.com The QI Elves, accessed 17 January 2007
  25. ^ Whittell, Giles (2007-11-03). "Thinking buddies". The Times. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article2765200.ece. Retrieved on 2007-11-03. 
  26. ^ QI.com, Talk forum Accessed 15 June 2007.
  27. ^ The QI Building
  28. ^ "Comedy — QI". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/qi/. Retrieved on 2007-09-22. 
  29. ^ "Q.I." (in Dutch). VARA. http://omroep.vara.nl/Q-I.1643.0.html. Retrieved on 2008-12-18. 
  30. ^ "QI goes Dutch". Chortle.co.uk. http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2008/12/19/8018/qi_goes_dutch. Retrieved on 2008-12-19. 
  31. ^ "Series A, Episode 3". QI. 2003-09-25. No. 3, season A.
  32. ^ "Series C, Episode 10". QI. 2005-12-02. No. 10, season C.
  33. ^ QI Series 2 DVD Banter, with John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and Piers Fletcher.
  34. ^ a b "Descendants". QI. 2006-11-10. No. 8, season D.
  35. ^ "Series B, Episode 7". QI. 2004-11-19. No. 7, season B.
  36. ^ "Series C, Episode 12". QI. 2005-12-16. No. 12, season C.
  37. ^ QI.com, Philosophy. Accessed 15 June 2007.
  38. ^ QI.com Audience figures. Accessed 15 June 2007.
  39. ^ Chapman, Peter (2005-11-18). "QI: Quite Interesting". QI News, originally The Independent. http://www.qi.com/news/item.php?id=119. Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 
  40. ^ Barton, Laura (2006-04-26). "QI: The last bastion of good television". QI News, originally The Guardian. http://www.qi.com/news/item.php?id=97. Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 
  41. ^ Schillinger, Liesl (2007-09-02). "QI gets The New York Times treatment". QI News, originally The New York Times. http://www.qi.com/news/item.php?id=489. Retrieved on 2007-09-13. 
  42. ^ "QI in full swing". QI News, originally The Hull Daily Mail. 2003-12-30. http://www.qi.com/news/item.php?id=149. Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 
  43. ^ talkbackThames, "Three Rose D'or wins for talkbackThames Written 1 May 2006. Accessed 25 July 2007.
  44. ^ "British Comedy Guide Awards 2006". British Comedy Guide. http://www.comedy.org.uk/features/bcg_awards/2006/. Retrieved on 2009-03-07. 
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