CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Good evening and welcome to QI,
where tonight we are testing, testing, testing.
Now, let's meet our troop of truants.
The smar-test - Maisie Adam.
APPLAUSE
Me? Smartest?
The brigh-test - Susan Calman.
APPLAUSE Shut up. No. Come on. Come on.
The swee-test - Josh Widdicombe.
APPLAUSE
And sitting a bad exam-ple - Alan Davies.
APPLAUSE
So let's get straight back to school. Maisie goes...
# Remember the days of the old school yard?
# We used to laugh a lot. # That is the best thing.
I think that's my internal monologue. Did you enjoy that?
Susan goes...
# Up in the morning and out to school
# The teacher is teachin' the golden rule. #
Josh goes...
# School's out for summer! #
It's pretty on-brand. Alan goes...
PLASTIC RULER TWANGS
"I suppose you think that's funny, Davies."
LAUGHTER
Now let's test the waters with question one.
What does Fat Kathy use her muscles for?
It's a provocative question, and I would suggest that Fat Kathy
probably uses her muscles as I do, cos I've started deadlifting.
What is deadlifting? Picking up dead people.
I very much enjoy World's Strongest Man, which I'm sure many people do.
In what way do you enjoy him?
LAUGHTER
I like watching World's Strongest Man because it's full of very
masculine men. I know I'm a lesbian,
I can still appreciate.
So I decided to start deadlifting
so that I have the strength for fighting the patriarchy.
So that's what I'm doing.
And if Fat Kathy, which I'm assuming that is not a person...?
I mean, it was a long way round to get there.
LAUGHTER
I think it's very important I say at this stage, Sandi,
and I'm going to apologise... Yeah.
..I have entered a special stage in a woman's life
that's called perimenopausal.
Isn't peri some kind of chicken preparation?
Yeah, that's peri-peri. Oh, peri-peri. It's not on the scale.
It isn't lemon and herb, perimenopause... Mango and lime.
Do you know, I wish to God it was peri-perimenopausal,
that'd be a lot more fun... You'd be like,
"Am I getting hot flushes or is it spicy? I can't tell."
So you're guessing it's not a person? You're quite correct.
It is a machine? It is a kind of machine. Machine? Yes.
Fat machine. Well, so it's a waterworks in Warsaw
and they use eight mussels hooked up to a computer
to detect toxic pollution in the water supply.
It's a type of bio monitoring. It's like... I guess it's like
a modern version of the canary in the coal mine. Right.
So mussels are filter feeders, right?
They let water pass through their open mouths and they filter out,
you know, the plankton and the tiny plants that they want to eat.
Each one of the mussels in Warsaw has a coil...
A mussel?! A mussel. Yeah, mussel... Oh, I'm so sorry...!
To be honest, it took me a while. I thought you meant a muscle-muscle.
No. Yes. Mussel! No, mussel! Mussel!
Oh, Sandy, you have got your thickest panel ever.
That is saying something.
Honestly, like being present at the birth of speech.
It's an ocean creature, OK?
I would've been better off with three clams going, "Is it a mussel?"
So what's the bit on top?
Like, the Walnut Whip bit?
That's glue. And when you say glue, you mean glue,
it's not going to turn out to be a sea creature called glue...?
It has a coil and a magnet glued to its shell.
So they close down, basically, if there's any pollutants detected, OK?
So if half of them close down,
they stop the water supply in order to stop any potential contamination.
Fat Kathy, it's named, actually,
after a rather rotund 18th-century well
in the Polish capital, has been in operation since 1994.
So have I.
LAUGHTER
Let's glue a spring to her head.
Is that when you were born, 1994? Yeah. When? '94.
Sorry, I couldn't hear you, I'm so old. When?!
1994?! Yeah.
'90...? Yes, darling. '94. 94?!
Are you all right, Susan?
So you don't remember...1993.
LAUGHTER
What a Cup Final.
So do you ever remember not having, like, mobile phones
and stuff like that? Yeah, it was the '90s.
I wasn't born, like, just before the pandemic.
I don't think we should have a go at you.
It's not an evening with Age UK, you're absolutely fine. Yeah.
I know there's a reputation for QI on BBC TWO, but to get Maisie on
and treat her like she's an alien from a different planet
when she was born in the '90s...
No, it's... I'm... I'm really pleased for her.
LAUGHTER
Well done, dear.
So there are about 50 waterworks in Poland,
but the head brewer at Timothy Taylor's,
which is in West Yorkshire, he used to count out exactly 100 grains
of the batch of barley that they were planning to use for the beer
and leave them out on top of a cask in the brewery yard.
And if nearly all of the grains were eaten by pigeons, that meant it must
be a good batch and therefore it was perfectly OK to use.
That is the most Yorkshire thing I've ever heard.
"I'm only counting out 100 cos I'm not made of money."
We deserve the stereotypes we get about us.
I love Yorkshire. Last time I was in Yorkshire, I cried
I was so happy. Are you sure it wasn't the peri-perimenopause?
Why were you so happy? Well, cos it... You know the way people
are really nice and you're suddenly overwhelmed?
I've been menopausal for a while!
LAUGHTER
Why were the Middle Ages such a trying time for animals?
Well, as Susan's just said,
the Middle Ages are a hard time for anybody.
OOHING AND LAUGHTER
APPLAUSE
Susan. Susan, don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.
She's going to cry. Susan's going to cry. I'm sorry, I take it back,
Susan, I take it back. I've only got... The beautiful moors...
Yeah. ..rising up as they do above Sheffield.
Think of the clogs and the Hovis.
LAUGHTER
The famously kind Yorkshire people!
LAUGHTER
Could they be put on trial, Sandi, the animals in the Middle Ages?
That is entirely correct! Oh!
CHEERING
Go on, Alan!
You're a lawyer, or you were a lawyer...
The sad thing is, that's the one thing I did know. Aw!
But there was something that
happened that slightly knocked you off your game, wasn't there?
I was thinking about Halifax!
Yes, I remember learning about this in my law degree. Yes,
this is a question, indeed, about animals being put on trial.
So, in 1545, there was a group of winemakers in a town
near Saint-Julien, so in the southeast of France,
and they brought a prosecution against an infestation of weevils -
which are a kind of very, very small beetle -
ravaging their vineyards, requiring them to be excommunicated.
Oh! Oh! Yeah. The case went to trial.
It was argued that the weevils had as much right as man
to the fruits of God's Earth. And the court found some merit
in this argument, and they decided that they needed
a stringent programme of public prayer and penitence
for the local populace. And that seemed to do the trick
because the weevils went away for 42 years.
But when they returned, the dispute was revived and the mayor
offered a compromise. He said,
"I'll tell you what, we'll give the weevils a plot of land to live on,
"on condition they never return to the vineyards."
The thing is, we don't know what happened in the end
because the last two pages of the court documents... Oh, no.
Had been eaten by weevils? Yes!
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
Oh, my God!
Wow. That's no accident.
"Just eat the conclusion. Just eat the conclusion.
"We'll just eat the conclusion."
But also, weevils only live two to three months. I don't know
how anybody thought they'd see the case through. But basically,
God's creatures, humans and animals,
were held to the same moral standards.
Pigs were frequently tried for killing or maiming,
including one who killed a child, even though it was a Friday.
Oh, what? The picture here is a famous French trial.
It was in 1457. The sow was convicted of murder and hanged.
It's crying! The pig's crying! Yeah, pig's crying.
I think they've got the face of the pig quite well.
But the person on the far left...
LAUGHTER
What's going through that mind?
There's also one at the back on the right, darling.
Seems to have a tongue out and cotton wool in his ears.
What is that about?
Anyway, the sow was convicted of murder and hanged.
The piglets were let off because of lack of evidence.
Just saying. They hung a pig?! They hung a pig, yeah.
Oh, my word! They didn't grill it?!
LAUGHTER
How do you hang a pig?
This show has gone downhill when you're asking that question.
"How do you hang a pig?" Well, Maisie, we've all got pigs
under our desks, so if we get them out...
Now, what smells like a cucumber but doesn't look like one?
SUSAN: My feet.
Seriously, you have cucumber-smelling feet? Yes.
I believe my feet are probably, potentially the most attractive part
of me. I mean, they're gorgeous. I'll tell you what...
Hoo-hoo! They are lovely.
Susan, you want to be careful saying this on the show,
people will message you, asking for pictures of your feet?
Do you know something? Here's a real thing.
There's an internet site where people can look at, like, perv over
pictures of celebrities' feet.
Seriously? And my feet are on that. Shut up! What-What's...?
LAUGHTER
And I know that because I've got a tattoo on my foot.
It says "I love Grimsby", so I know that's my feet.
Your feet have a tattoo that says "I love Grimsby"
and you're saying they're the best bit of your body? Yes!
ALAN: You should see her other tattoos.
LAUGHTER
No. They're size four, they're really attractive. Size four?!
What...what font size is this tattoo?!
LAUGHTER
I'll tell you something. I'm actually not a size four, Maisie,
I'm actually a size three.
But if I wear a size three, my trousers go over my shoes
and it looks like I have no feet!
So I wear bigger shoes... Clown shoes.
LAUGHTER Can I just say, I feel...
..I feel the room is going to begin to demand to see Susan's feet.
LAUGHTER
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
ALL: Susan's feet! Susan's feet! Susan's feet! Susan's feet!
CHEERING
I seriously thought you were just talking bollocks. No.
My point was, my feet are beautiful!
I take care of them and I rub cucumber moisturiser in them!
So that's why my feet smell of cucumber! There was a point!
I didn't just come here to show you my feet!
APPLAUSE
They're fabulous. Right, so,
cucumber is one of 16 things
that you do not want your olive oil to smell like.
You shouldn't be having your olive oil like that.
LAUGHTER
They taste-test the virginity of olive oil
against a list of 16 negative flavours or aromas
and three positive ones. So, positive things - it's fruity,
it's pungent, it's bitter. Negative traits - whiny...
You know that thing? Whiny...
LAUGHTER
One of the things you don't want, as well, is if your oil
smells of cucumber, it means it's been stored for too long
in an airtight container.
So, olive oil adulteration, it's a huge issue around the world.
There's an agromafia, an agricultural mafia,
and they push inferior products.
And it is estimated that 80% of Italian olive oil
sold around the world is faked in some way or other. I know!
80%?! 80%. So they mislabel virgin as extra virgin, for example.
What's the best way to avoid buying dodgy olive oil?
Rapeseed oil.
LAUGHTER
From England. Just generally, or to rub on yourself,
or what are we suggesting with it?
Alan could oil himself up and send me a photograph.
LAUGHTER
APPLAUSE
What is happening?! I don't know, Maisie.
And you're so young. I never thought I'd say this,
but the fact Susan's looked right through me is so hurtful.
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
Other plans for you. She's going to deadlift you in a minute.
Right. You've got a little, tiny speaker beside you. Please...
That's a very rude way to refer to Susan, isn't it?
LAUGHTER
Do you know what? I'm just so hurt that you haven't...
I've been working out! Yeah. You know when you're at school
and you ignore the person you fancy the most? Oh!
Have you thought maybe that might be what's happening?
Oh!
This is the most erotic QI...
I feel like I've walked in on, frankly, two sets of parents.
LAUGHTER
Right, so you've got a little speaker beside you.
I want you to hold it up to your ear
and tell me what tune is coming from inside.
So, can you hear anything?
No. No. No, it's a trick test.
What we're looking for in the test is which ear you put the speaker to
because that is your dominant ear.
70% of people are right-eared. So, what were you? I was right.
You were right. Right, right, right, yeah, no, it's very common.
Try this other one. OK, look at me.
Keep both your eyes open and reach out your thumb,
that it hides my face, OK, and close your eyes one at a time.
If I stay blocked, then that open eye is your dominant eye.
If you switch and it jumps, that is your non-dominant eye.
Josh just looks like he's trying to encourage everyone,
but he's done it...
But he's absolutely coked up to his eyeballs.
He's like when you go out to the smokers,
you go, "You all right, Josh?" "Yeah, mate, I'm fine."
"Can you stand?" "I can stand."
"Just get us a water, I'll be fine."
How would you test your footedness? Which is your dominant foot?
Pass a football. Yeah. Take a free kick.
Football or a stepladder, any of those things.
Or a stepladder? Which foot you put on first onto a stepladder.
I used to go downstairs one foot, like, one foot, and then,
you know the, like...? Like a bride at a wedding?
LAUGHTER
My parents took me to a chiropractor or something and I had one leg,
like, an inch and a half longer than the other leg.
Oh. Oh. And facing the other way.
LAUGHTER
He'd get stuck in the middle of the stairs for ages.
He'd go down one...
You see, I'm ambidextrous, so I just go two feet at a time,
all the way down. Like a kangaroo. Yeah.
I'm conscious of the fact that as I get older,
you have to be careful that you don't constantly
use your dominant leg, you have to use your non-dominant leg,
otherwise there can be muscle problems.
So I consciously use my non-dominant leg now to do things.
But with stairs you can't use just your non-dominant leg.
That is one of the few tasks where you do have to use both legs.
You can maybe do three steps, Susan, but soon enough you're going to have
to get that other leg up.
LAUGHTER
"I managed to get 'I love Grimsby' on the top step
"but we're just waiting on the other one."
I'm going to move on. Really? Yeah, I am.
There's a creature called a rock ant.
They are right-eyed in general.
Now, how do you think they might use this when they are stuck in a maze?
They put it over the top.
What, just take it out and go...? LAUGHTER
To get out of a maze... Yes? ..you just stick to the same wall
and just turn right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. That is exactly right. What?!
They keep their left eye next to the wall and they use their right eye to look out for danger.
Is that the case for all mazes? Is that all you do? Yeah. Ha-ha!
Well, basically... For all Maisies!
LAUGHTER, SCATTERED APPLAUSE
Don't clap that!
Just stay to that wall, or the left one...
Always turn left or always turn right. Make up your mind which one you're going to do.
Well, that's the problem of a maze, isn't it?
You don't know whether to turn left or right. Just pick one.
Well, I do, but it's often the wrong one.
I was meant to be on season one of QI but I got stuck in a maze!
And you were nine.
LAUGHTER
I love mazes and I go to mazes regularly. We all love Maisie.
LAUGHTER Stop it!
I go specifically to places because there are mazes or model villages,
and I like mazes and I go into them...
You definitely are saying Maisie now, you're not saying maze!
Is it still Wednesday?
LAUGHTER
Right, what's the noticeable effect of giving cocaine to a toddler?
Ten years in prison.
LAUGHTER
I don't have any children, but I have...I have seen children.
LAUGHTER
Oh, well, that'll do!
Mingling with year nine, you are...
Are you sure you were a lawyer?!
My point is... I'm going to posit a suggestion here. Go.
I suspect it's probably illegal to give drugs to children
of that kind. Yep. Although my mum says they used to give us whisky
and brandy to shut us up when we were younger. Oh, that worked!
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
Not now!
Is there no effect? Is there less effect than on the grown-up? No, no.
So the thing is that cocaine eye drops are still in use.
Cocaine eye drops?! Yes. In ophthalmology,
specifically when testing children under the age of two.
There's a condition called anisocoria. So, asymmetrical pupils.
And I've got some here. These are...
What, that's cocaine eye drops? Well, we slightly made this up.
These are Sandi's... Oh, God, I get drug-tested for my work...
If we were going to put cocaine eye drops in one of our eyes,
it wouldn't be you, Susan.
Frankly, I think you were in the props room before you came on.
Cocaine is still the gold standard for infant testing
because it is safe, it is cheap, it's less stressful.
It's a great way to dilate the pupils.
Anisocoria is mostly harmless
but it can actually be a symptom of something. David Bowie had it,
anisocoria. Is that why he had two different coloured eyes?
He wasn't born with it. It was a fight. He had a fight,
yeah, absolutely. But the very first person to use cocaine as a sort of
local anaesthetic was an Austrian ophthalmologist called Carl Koller,
and he was a close friend of Sigmund Freud.
They were very big on cocaine.
So there's Sigmund Freud on the left and Carl Koller on the right.
He became so well known for cocaine, he was known as "Coca Koller".
But it was hugely popular. It was marketed for toothache,
you could get cocaine lozenges, it was good for singers,
it was good for their voice.
It became the official remedy of the Hay Fever Association.
They said that, "Oh, cocaine dependency is no different than tea or coffee."
MAISIE GASPS Yeah.
So we're talking about Victorian times, alternative anaesthetics,
like chloroform and ether,
they were problematic in operating theatres because they were lit
by gas or by candlelight or whatever.
And this is the days before electric light, and the flames would interact
with the chloroform to produce gases, and boom!
Either toxic or explosive.
Yeah. Have you ever been chloroformed?
LAUGHTER
That's your gift from this show...
Have you ever been chloroformed?
No. So what brought on that question?!
They used to do it a lot in shows, didn't they? What? The hankie...
Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's not in the script so much
because people don't have hankies any more. No.
It's the hanky that's the problem. The chloroform...
"I've got the chloroform. Now, how am I going to apply it?" Yes.
"Kitchen roll?" "Don't be absurd."
When I was a kid, every old person had a hanky up their sleeve,
and you never see it these days.
I always have a hanky. I always have a hanky.
Yeah, I shouldn't have said it. Yeah.
LAUGHTER
And now it's time for the acid test that we call General Ignorance.
Fingers on buzzers, please.
How many tonsils do you have?
# Up in the morning. #
LAUGHTER
How many tonsils I have? Yeah.
Half. What?!
I had my tonsils out when I was 21.
Mm-hm. One of them grew back.
LAUGHTER
Just a little bit. Let's have a look.
SHE MUMBLES
You're wrong.
Yeah. About her own tonsils? Yes, you are incorrect.
Why might that be? You've got 16. You've got 16?!
Well, you're nearer, you're nearer.
15. The back of Josh's mouth looks like bubble wrap.
If you've had your tonsils out, you've still got five left.
Eh?! Yeah, we have seven in total. Look at all those.
The lingual tonsils. The palatine ones are the most likely
to have been taken out, but they used to use some terrible tools.
So when I was about five, so we are talking...1963, Maisie.
Um... I remember learning about that year in history.
LAUGHTER
Is that when JFK was shot? Yes, it was exactly when JFK was shot.
So, I mean, nothing to do with my tonsils.
The doctor sat me on his lap and he took what looked like a spoon
with a sharpened edge and literally went in and went like that. Guh...!
Sent me home on the back of my mother's bicycle.
Yes. And if I could be so bold,
that's when chloroform might have been used, so...
LAUGHTER
APPLAUSE
They are actually a sort of front-line immune defence,
and pretty much seven out of eight childhood tonsillectomies
are unnecessary.
If they're inflamed, there's a jolly good sign... Is it not just
an indication that you've got some ailment? Yeah, absolutely.
They're producing antibodies and white blood cells
to fight infections.
Now, where's the best place in the UK to get a degree
to be sure of getting a job? I got a job at Waterstones
and everyone had a degree apart from my friend James, who lied and said
he had a degree, and he didn't have a degree.
Yeah, I mean, everyone lies about how many GCSEs they've got
and whether or not they've done the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Have you?
Yes.
LAUGHTER
If my former manager at FatFace is watching!
LAUGHTER
Why would you need
a Duke of Edinburgh to work at FatFace?!
Because my mum said it showed resilience.
I said I had the gold one, the gold Duke of Edinburgh.
Yeah, I was like, "Go hard or go home."
But in the interview... Did you lie about having a gold one?! Yeah.
He was like, "Tell me about your gold Duke of Edinburgh."
And I just told him how hard camping was and it was, you know,
a testing time on your body and things like that.
But I was talking about when I went to Leeds Fest.
LAUGHTER
Come on, best place in the UK to get a degree? Cambridge.
KLAXON
No, it's the sweetest answer. OK. Yorkshire!
LAUGHTER
Norland College.
It's a specialist nanny-training university based in Bath.
Do you have to dress like that? Well, yes, you do.
That is the Norland Nanny uniform.
And they describe their graduates as
Mary Poppins mixed with a little bit of James Bond. Oh! I love this.
They teach childcare, they teach self-defence, they teach taekwondo,
paparazzi avoidance techniques...
A mixture of Mary Poppins and James Bond?!
Yeah. Don't let 'em near your brolly!
LAUGHTER
They've got very rich kids that they look after.
They might have to deal with potential kidnappers.
And they boast a 100% guaranteed employment opportunity
if you get a degree. Whoa! I had a baby-sitter as a kid,
but I don't think they went here.
My baby-sitter got in trouble with me mum and dad cos she used
the landline to vote
for Steve Brookstein to win The X Factor.
And they were more fans of Diana Vickers?
G4. Wrong year. Um, and, uh... LAUGHTER
..she ran up the landline bill, and me dad was furious.
"Oh, Brookstein?!"
It was founded by a woman called Emily Ward.
She looks really nice. She was initially ridiculed. Everybody thought that nobody's going to
want to train for childcare, incredibly menial job, and so on.
But really wonderful - no Norland student was ever allowed to use
physical punishment on a child.
She's said to be an affectionate and motherly principal.
So, what, not hitting a child is affectionate and motherly?
It was. I would say it's a base.
130 years ago... Not in those days. No.
..that was considered quite remarkable that she did that.
Really? So, see in the old days...
LAUGHTER
..I remember being at school when teachers
were allowed to hit the children.
Pull the short hairs on the side of your head.
Imagine me in them schools!
LAUGHTER
"Catch me if you can!"
Right. How many species of plant are there in this picture?
Oh, now...now... One.
Yeah, there's one. You're going to say one? Mm-hm.
No, don't say one!
What are you going to say, Maisie?
Two.
Is correct. Come on! Oh, well done.
Well done. Absolutely right.
So, take a look at the picture.
Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts,
kale and cauliflower are all the same species of plant.
They're called Brassica oleracea. They're cultivars, basically,
because they are cultivated through cross-pollination, or grafting,
to bring forward prominent features.
So, for example, kale is bred for very wide leaves,
broccoli for its flower buds,
and Brussels sprouts for their hideous taste.
But the odd one out is Chinese cabbage.
It's really more related to turnips and pak choi, that kind of thing.
All of which pea-brained pedantry brings us
to the small potatoes of the scores. In last place,
he's had quite a testing time, with -24, it's Alan!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Thank you.
Maisie is the most competitive person I've ever met,
and she's leaning forward now cos she really wants to win,
and now she's pretending she doesn't care.
In third place with 8 points, it's Susan!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Yes! Aced it!
In second place... Oh, so it's between me and him? Yeah.
All right, now I am competitive. In second place, with 10 points...
Shall we do a little drum roll from the audience? Ready?
It's Josh!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
And the winner!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Yes!
Maisie! 12 points!
So it's thanks to Josh, Susan, Maisie and Alan,
and as a parting gift, here's an extract from one of Norman Wisdom's
old school reports. "The boy is every inch the fool.
"But luckily for him, he's not very tall." Thank you and goodnight.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE