Calm Down, Dear.
I had the opportunity to go to a recording of QI yesterday! The host, as ever, was Stephen Fry; the guests were Andy Hamilton, Jo Brand and Ben Goldacre.
Interesting to note that the audience respected Jo Brand. Female comedians often seem to have trouble breaking through existing audience prejudice against women in comedy and getting laughs, but Brand's jokes were very well received. Of the female comedians I've seen at recordings, I suppose she's the most established, so people go 'oh, good, it's Jo Brand' rather than 'oh, hell, it's a woman'. This is presumably why she accounts for over forty per cent of female guests on QI (QI producers, you bastards, public perception of female comedians is never going to improve if we never see them).
I'm not going to be able to give you a very detailed report, I fear, but here are a few notes:
Fry: Why would you wake up in the morning and take a pill of a poisonous metalloid?
Brand: If you woke up after a heavy night and realised you were next to Michael Winner.
Fry: What is intelligent falling?
Brand: Is it when you're walking along and you see Michael Winner coming towards you, so you deliberately fall over to squash the cunt?
Fry: What do you call someone who eats literally everything?
Brand: Winner.
(klaxon sounds)
Brand: Laughter is the best medicine, isn't it? But I've found it generally doesn't work for impotence.
Hamilton: I wish you wouldn't look at me when you say that.
Fry: Bowel movements become very important to people as they get older. You hear about grateful patients sending nurses stools, don't you?
Brand: I don't know whether they're grateful.
At one point, a picture of Dr Gregory House talking to his original team appeared on the background screens. Stephen Fry said, 'Who the hell is that?' (I had completely forgotten who actually played House until this moment), and then, of Chase, Cameron and Foreman, 'They're all thinking "I would".'
Goldacre was very interesting and intelligent, and I would happily have listened to him talking about the pharmaceutical industry for hours. Apparently the law does not insist the the results of all drug trials be released! Companies can release only the results that make their drug look good and withhold the others! How incredibly worrying.
Fry: Well, when I read 'a study has shown' I just think 'oh, a study has shown'. It takes someone like Ben here to ask: what was the study? How was it conducted? Who was in it?
Goldacre: Yeah, but... this show is probably one of the worst for that.
Eventually, Goldacre wrote 'CITATION NEEDED' on a pad of paper and held it up whenever Fry said something for which he had insufficient evidence. An xkcd fan, presumably.
Fry: (begins asking a question)
Goldacre: (hits his buzzer)
Fry: (cuts off and looks at Goldacre)
(expectant pause)
Goldacre: Can I have a wee?
Incidentally, Goldacre kept fluffing up his hair whenever the cameras weren't on. OH NO, I'M GOING TO BE ON TELEVISION, I'D BETTER MAKE SURE MY HAIR LOOKS SUFFICIENTLY RIDICULOUS.
Thank you so much to chocolatepeach for the ticket!
Interesting to note that the audience respected Jo Brand. Female comedians often seem to have trouble breaking through existing audience prejudice against women in comedy and getting laughs, but Brand's jokes were very well received. Of the female comedians I've seen at recordings, I suppose she's the most established, so people go 'oh, good, it's Jo Brand' rather than 'oh, hell, it's a woman'. This is presumably why she accounts for over forty per cent of female guests on QI (QI producers, you bastards, public perception of female comedians is never going to improve if we never see them).
I'm not going to be able to give you a very detailed report, I fear, but here are a few notes:
Fry: Why would you wake up in the morning and take a pill of a poisonous metalloid?
Brand: If you woke up after a heavy night and realised you were next to Michael Winner.
Fry: What is intelligent falling?
Brand: Is it when you're walking along and you see Michael Winner coming towards you, so you deliberately fall over to squash the cunt?
Fry: What do you call someone who eats literally everything?
Brand: Winner.
(klaxon sounds)
Brand: Laughter is the best medicine, isn't it? But I've found it generally doesn't work for impotence.
Hamilton: I wish you wouldn't look at me when you say that.
Fry: Bowel movements become very important to people as they get older. You hear about grateful patients sending nurses stools, don't you?
Brand: I don't know whether they're grateful.
At one point, a picture of Dr Gregory House talking to his original team appeared on the background screens. Stephen Fry said, 'Who the hell is that?' (I had completely forgotten who actually played House until this moment), and then, of Chase, Cameron and Foreman, 'They're all thinking "I would".'
Goldacre was very interesting and intelligent, and I would happily have listened to him talking about the pharmaceutical industry for hours. Apparently the law does not insist the the results of all drug trials be released! Companies can release only the results that make their drug look good and withhold the others! How incredibly worrying.
Fry: Well, when I read 'a study has shown' I just think 'oh, a study has shown'. It takes someone like Ben here to ask: what was the study? How was it conducted? Who was in it?
Goldacre: Yeah, but... this show is probably one of the worst for that.
Eventually, Goldacre wrote 'CITATION NEEDED' on a pad of paper and held it up whenever Fry said something for which he had insufficient evidence. An xkcd fan, presumably.
Fry: (begins asking a question)
Goldacre: (hits his buzzer)
Fry: (cuts off and looks at Goldacre)
(expectant pause)
Goldacre: Can I have a wee?
Incidentally, Goldacre kept fluffing up his hair whenever the cameras weren't on. OH NO, I'M GOING TO BE ON TELEVISION, I'D BETTER MAKE SURE MY HAIR LOOKS SUFFICIENTLY RIDICULOUS.
Thank you so much to chocolatepeach for the ticket!