Qi

QI, standing for Quite Interesting, is a comedy panel game shown on BBC Two and BBC Four and hosted by Stephen Fry. It is distinguished by the awarding of points not necessarily for the correct answer, but rather for an interesting one. Many of the questions and answers are extremely obscure. Points are deducted for obvious but wrong answers; this often results in a negative points score at the end of the game.

Format

The format of the show was devised by the writer and former BBC producer, John Lloyd.

Related Topics:
BBC - John Lloyd

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Alan Davies appears as a panellist in all episodes. He is the butt of many jokes throughout the series, and normally gives most of the obvious but wrong answers; thus usually finishing with a negative score.

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The panel each have a buzzer which makes a comedy noise when pressed. The noises produced are usually humorous and have a common theme. Alan Davies' buzzer usually contradicts the other panellists' buzzers in some amusing way. For example, in one episode, the first three panellists had sailing-themed buzzers, and Alan Davies' buzzer had a rather camp-sounding man saying "Ahoy".

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In some episodes, panellists are given an extra task to complete during the game. For example, they have been given magnetic letters and a metal board, and have been asked to spell appropriate words / phrases during the game; in another episode, they were given paper and pens, and were asked to draw a wigwam in the style of a given artist; in fact all contestants incorrectly drew a teepee.

Related Topics:
Wigwam - Teepee

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In a parody of "general knowledge" quizzes, the final round is off-topic and called "General Ignorance". This round focuses on seemingly easy questions which have obvious but wrong answers.

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A potential criticism can be levelled that certain questions are purposely contradictory for entertainment's sake. For instance, to the question "How many planets are there in the solar system?", Alan Davies gave the answer "nine" and lost points for an obvious and wrong answer, the explanation being that by any consistent description Pluto is not a planet. However, the International Astronomical Union still defines Pluto as a planet, therefore "nine" would be a "correct" answer by the IAU definition. This is a technique used by many comedy panel games, since the questions are there mainly to set up jokes or discussions, rather than for any serious competition; in this case, the question was designed to raise the point that most people don't consider Pluto a planet.

Related Topics:
Pluto - International Astronomical Union

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In October 2004 a QI café/bar, eclectic bookshop and private members' club opened in Oxford. For the duration of the series, the bar shows the broadcast episode every Friday.

Related Topics:
Café - Bar - Club - Oxford

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