QI Series F, Episode 3 Recording Review

Sorry to be so disgracefully late with this review, but both qifanatic and I are absolutely overwhelmed with coursework and exam revision. His review for the fourth episode will come imminently, he promises. Since I'm supposed to be doing physics now, I thought a review would be the proper thing to get started on. If you're the kind of person who understands this logic, what are you doing reading this review? Don't you have exams to revise for?

Anyhow. This is the review for the episode that was recorded on 12 May 2008.

The warm-up for this episode was conspicuously Stephen Grant-less, as the busy bee is working hard on his Edinburgh show. Instead, the audience was prepped by comedian Rufus Hound, a newbie to the QI scene, who nevertheless performed admirably. Since my friend had flown in from the States to be there for the week's recordings, I willingly submitted us to get picked on as part of the obligatory "oo-er, who's from overseas?" bit. Mr Hound did his best to cut us down, but I think we scored the last laugh by refuting his contention that we would have backstage passes were we that impressive (which we did, so I think it can be said that we are).

Is this the part where we make the text unreadable for the spoilery bits?
[Ed: Yes, you clod.]
[Ed 2: Only joking. That wasn't really Ed.]

The theme of the show was "Fakes and Frauds", or something along those lines. The guests were Sean Lock, Jimmy Carr, and newcomer Marcus Brigstocke. Each of the panellists had a mask of a different panellist to hold up (in a fraudulent way, you see? You see?) while they were being introduced, but this caused some problems when they were called upon to demonstrate their buzzers; they all kept their masks up and didn't know whether to be themselves or the person they were impersonating. The first 15 minutes of the show were one hilarious disaster after another: The viewscreens started displaying weirdly, and then the buzzers refused to light. Marcus suggested to Jimmy that he "hit it with the flat of the hand!", so Jimmy slammed his palm into his mushroomoid . . . which accomplished nothing. They got a man in from backstage, and finally, everything worked properly until the end.

There were close to 20 questions and activities over the course of the night, and it's a real shame that they all won't make it into the final cut. Topics discussed included freak shows, snake oil (which, someone should inform Stephen, is not made of wank), sword swallowing, false memories, rhubarb jam, Archimedes, margarine, and Cock Lane. I know, you just can't wait. Tangents included the origins of Fanta ("Nazi Coke", according to Jimmy), and deliberate slagging-off of the channel Dave simply because it would be hilarious if they had to air it (Alan). There was a running joke concerning the "pig-faced lady", a topic from the first question. A lot of great banter from the guests made it an excellent recording, and although Marcus came behind the rest of them in points (was I not supposed to say that? [Ed: *facepalm*]), he did very well for a first-timer.

Looking forward to the rest of this series; it's shaping up to be a good 'un.