by John Lloyd
Neil Mullarkey (Winner with –5 points) 1st and only appearance
Liza Tarbuck (–8 points) 1st and only appearance
Episode 4 ‘Dictionaries’
Alan Davies (–7 points)
Ronni Ancona (Winner with 13 points) 1st appearance
Rory Bremner (–7 points) 1st and only appearance
Phill Jupitus (–7 points) 8th appearance
Episode 5 ‘Death’ (Halloween Special)
Alan Davies (–15 points)
Clive Anderson (–24 points) 8th appearance
Sen Lock (–8 points) 10th appearance
Andy Parsons (Technical Winner with 0 points) 1st and only appearance
The Audience (Winner with 2 points) First victory
Episode 6 ‘Drinks’
Alan Davies (Winner with 10 points!) 2nd win
Jimmy Carr (2 points) 5th appearance
Phill Jupitus (–15 points) 9th appearance
John Sessions (–3 points) 7th appearance
Episode 7 ‘Differences’
Alan Davies (–144 points)
Jo Brand (–16 points) 12th appearance
Julian Clary (–8 points) 1st and only appearance
Dara Ó Briain (Winner with 3 points) 3rd appearance
Episode 8 ‘Descendants’ (Children in Need Special)
Alan Davies (–29,000,000 points)
Rich Hall (2,000,000 points) 13th appearance
Phill Jupitus (1,000,000 points) 10th appearance
Jonathan Ross (winner with 3,000,000 points) 1st and only
appearance
Episode 9 ‘Doves’
Alan Davies (Winner with 54 points!) 3rd win
Andy Hamilton (–8 points) 3rd appearance
David Mitchell (–9 points) 2nd appearance
John Sessions (–4 points) 8th appearance
Episode 10 ‘Divination’
Alan Davies (–70 points)
Graeme Garden (Winner with 7 points) 1st and only appearance
Phill Jupitus (6 points) 11th appearance
Johnny Vaughan (–19 points) 1st and only appearance
Episode 11 ‘Denial & Deprivation’
Alan Davies (–39 points)
Roger McGough (Joint Winner with 1 point) 1st and only
appearance
Vic Reeves (Joint Winner with 1 point) 2nd appearance
Mark Steel (–6 points) 3rd appearance
Episode 12 ‘Domesticity’
Alan Davies (–64 points)
Jo Brand (–18 points) 13th appearance
Phill Jupitus (–4 points) 12th appearance
Jessica Stevenson (Winner with –3 points) 1st and only appearance
Episode 13 ‘December’ (Christmas Special)
Alan Davies (–53 points)
Jo Brand (–17 points) 14th appearance
Rich Hall (–9 points) 14th appearance
Dara Ó Briain (Winner with 2 points) 4th appearance
SERIES E
Episode 1 ‘Engineering’
Alan Davies (4 points)
Bill Bailey (–18 points) 12th appearance
Rob Brydon (Winner with 11 points) 3rd appearance
Jimmy Carr (–2 points) 6th appearance
Episode 2 ‘Electricity’
Alan Davies (–21 points)
Jo Brand (Winner with 10 points) 15th appearance
Rich Hall (1 point) 15th appearance
Sean Lock (–12 points) 11th appearance
Episode 3 ‘Eating’
Alan Davies (Winner with –2 points!) 4th win
Jimmy Carr (–6 points) 7th appearance
Phill Jupitus (–21 points) 13th appearance
Johnny Vegas (–3 points) 1st appearance
Episode 4 ‘Exploration’
Alan Davies (–8 points)
Bill Bailey (3 points) 13th appearance
Rich Hall (Winner with 8 points) 16th appearance
Sean Lock (–16 points) 12th appearance
Episode 5 ‘Europe
Alan Davies (–26 points)
Phill Jupitus (Winner with –5 points) 14th appearance
David Mitchell (–7 points) 3rd appearance
Dara Ó Briain (–27 points) 5th appearance
The Audience (–100 points)
Episode 6 ‘Everything, Etc.’
Alan Davies (–24 points)
Clive Anderson (–25 points) 9th appearance
Jeremy Clarkson (–30 points) 5th appearance
Vic Reeves (Winner with –6 points) 3rd appearance
Episode 7 ‘Espionage’
Alan Davies (–8 points)
Clive Anderson (Joint winner with 5 points) 10th appearance
Jo Brand (4 points) 16th appearance
Vic Reeves (Joint winner with 5 points) 4th appearance
Episode 8 ‘Eyes & Ears’
Alan Davies (Winner with 13 points!) 5th win
Jimmy Carr (–10 points) 8th appearance
Phill Jupitus (3 points) 15th appearance
David Mitchell (–11 points) 4th appearance
Episode 9 ‘Entertainment’ (Children in Need Special)
Alan Davies (–6 points)
Bill Bailey (–6 points) 14th appearance
Jo Brand (2 points) 17th appearance
Jeremy Clarkson (Winner with 4 points) 6th appearance
Episode 10 ‘England’
Alan Davies (–59 points)
Charlie Higson (–15 points) 1st appearance
Phill Jupitus (Technical winner with –8 points) 16th appearance
Sean Lock (–29 points) 13th appearance
The Audience (Winners with 10 points) Second victory
Episode 11 ‘Endings’
Alan Davies (–17 points)
Jimmy Carr (Joint winner with 5 points) 9th appearance
Doon Mackichan (–17 points) 2nd appearance
Dara Ó Briain (Joint winner with 5 points) 6th appearance
Episode 12 ‘Empire’ (Christmas Special)
Alan Davies (Winner with 10 points!) 6th win
Bill Bailey (8 points) 15th appearance
Jo Brand (–33 points) 18th appearance
Sean Lock (–8 points) 14th appearance
Episode 13 ‘Elephants’
Compilation.
SERIES F
Episode 1 ‘Fingers & Fumbs’
Alan Davies
Dara Ó Briain 7th appearance
Phill Jupitus 17th appearance
Jo Brand 19th appearance
Episode 2 ‘The Future’
Alan Davies
Sean Lock 15th appearance
Rob Brydon 4th appearance
Ben Miller 1st appearance
Episode 3 ‘Fakes, Frauds & Fakirs’
Alan Davies
Jimmy Carr 10th appearance
Sean Lock 16th appearance
Marcus Brigstocke 1st appearance
Episode 4 ‘France’
Alan Davies
Hugh Dennis 1st appearance
Phill Jupitus 18th appearance
Jo Brand 20th appearance
Episode 5 ‘Fight or Flight’
Alan Davies
Johnny Vegas 2nd appearance
Sean Lock 17th appearance
Pam Ayres 1st appearance
Episode 6 ‘Flora & Fauna’
Alan Davies
Jimmy Carr 11th appearance
Jo Brand 21st appearance
John Sergeant 1st appearance
Episode 7 ‘Food’
Alan Davies
Rich Hall 17th appearance
Jimmy Carr 12th appearance
David Mitchell 5th appearance
Episode 8 ‘Fire & Freezing’
Alan Davies
Dom Joly 1st appearance
Clive Anderson 11th appearance
Rob Brydon 5th appearance
Episode 9 ‘Fashion’
Alan Davies
Reginald D. Hunter 1st appearance
Rich Hall 18th appearanc
e
Clive Anderson 12th appearance
Episode 10 ‘Family’ (Children in Need Special)
Alan Davies
Terry Wogan 1st appearance
David Mitchell 6th appearance
Ronni Ancona 2nd appearance
Episode 11 ‘Films & Fame’
Alan Davies
David Mitchell 7th appearance
John Sessions 9th appearance
Emma Thompson 1st appearance
Episode 12 ‘Flotsam’ (Christmas Special)
Alan Davies
Andy Hamilton 4th appearance
Rob Brydon 5th appearance
Charlie Higson 2nd appearance
WHAT IS QUITE INTERESTING?
Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom has gone.
OSCAR WILDE
QI stands for Quite Interesting. We do not claim to be Quite Right.
If you have better answers to any of these questions, or if you have new questions of your own, we’d love to hear from you. Join us online at www.qi.com.
The book is the distillation of many people’s attempts to understand the world around them, but owes most of all to the QI research team, a collection of people with high curiosity levels, low boredom thresholds and a knack for asking difficult questions. Special thanks are due to Piers Fletcher, Justin Gayner, Chris Gray, James Harkin, Mat Coward, Justin Pollard, Garrick Alder, Molly Oldfield and Dan Schreiber. They’d make the world’s best pub quiz team.
We also doff our caps to the professionalism and taste of our publishers Julian Loose, Stephen Page and their colleagues at Faber & Faber; to our production partners, Sarah Chaloner, Beatrice Gay and the team at Talkback Thames; and to Mark Freeland and Peter Fincham at the BBC, for having the courage of their convictions.
John le Carré once complained that having a book made into a movie was ‘like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes’. With that in mind, we should acknowledge the hundreds of scientists, philosophers, historians, inventors, saints and visionaries whose original work we have diced, skimmed, boiled and puréed to make the book you now hold in your hands.
INDEX
aardvarks, colour-blindness of 1
Abel, Frederick 1
Aboriginal peoples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
acorns, taste of 1
Adam 1, 2, 3
Adams, Douglas 1
Adams, John 1
Aethelstan 1
Afghanistan 1
Africa 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
cannibalism in 1
cave painting in 1
concentration camps and 1, 2
flamingos in 1
hailstorms in 1
hares in 1
loofahs in 1
tulips in 1
voodoo in 1
African mammal, most dangerous to humans 1
Agincourt, Battle of 1
agoutis 1
Ainu people 1
air, main ingredient of 1
aircraft carriers, landing on 1
airplane pilots 1
Albania 1, 2
alcohol 1
as diuretic 1
effect on brain cells of 1
hangover cure 1
Irish miracle 1
James Bond ‘s favourite 1
in Milky Way 1
tigers’ aversion to 1
Alcott, Louisa May 1
Alexander the Great 1
Alexandria 1, 2, 3, 4
Alfred the Great 1, 2
algae
and colour of water 1
eliminating 1
growing on sloths 1
and oxygen production 1
see also blue-green algae
Algeria 1
Alkemade, Nicholas 1
alligators 1
etymology of ‘allegation’ 1
Amazonian Indians 1
America, naming of 1
Ameryk, Richard 1
amoebae 1
Andaman islanders 1
Anderson, E. N. 1
Andromeda (M31) 1
Animalens 1
animals
ability to see colour in 1
on the Ark 1
best-endowed 1
bravest 1
first domesticated 1
first in space 1
longest 1
most dangerous 1
number of neck bones in 1
sounds of 1
Anne of Cleves 1, 2
Antarctica 1, 2, 3
Anti-Christ, number of 1
Antigonus of Carystus 1
Antrim, William 1
ants
large brains of 1
nests of 1
strength of 1
Anubis 1
Apicius 1
appendix, uses of 1
apricots, in Jaffa Cakes 1
Arab–Israeli conflict 1
Arabia 1
Archer, Jeffrey 1
archers 1
Archimedes 1
Arctic 1
goose eggs in 1
ice sheet 1
Arens, William 1
Argentina 1, 2
Aristarchus of Samos 1
Aristophanes 1
Aristotle 1, 2, 3, 4
armadillos 1, 2
Armstrong, David G. 1
Armstrong, Lance 1
Armstrong, Neil 1
arsenic 1, 2, 3
Asia 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
bagpipes invented in 1
loofahs in 1
marmots and 1
tulips in 1
Asquith, Herbert 1
‘assassin’, etymology of 1
Assassins 1
Assyria 1
asteroid belts 1
asteroids 1, 2, 3
Atacama Desert 1
Atkinson, Rowan 1
Atlas, burden carried by 1, 2
Atlas, King of Mauretania 1
atoms
composition of 1
number of, in universe 1
attention deficit disorder (ADD) 1
Auer, Karl 1
Australia 1, 2
cannibalism in 1
cave paintings in 1
depression in 1
diamonds in 1
discovery of 1
etymology of ‘pom’ 1
flamingos in 1
separation, consequences of 1
Australian aborigines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Austria 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ayalla, López de 1
Ayers Rock 1
bacteria
anti-bacterial agents 1
as distinct from viruses 1
effect of silver on 1
and penicillin 1
radiation resistance 1
and stomach ulcers 1
stored in the appendix 1
and tooth decay 1
Baffin Island 1
bagpipes
Nero plays 1
origins of 1
Baker, Thomas 1
Balfour, Arthur James 1
Bali, tigers in 1
ball-point pen 1
balsa 1, 2
bananas
Ecuador as largest exporter 1
growth of 1
walking, in Colombia 1
Bangladesh 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
banisters, misidentification of 1
Bannister, Roger 1
barnacles
flight of 1
penises of 1
Barry the Great (dog) 1
Bartley, James 1
baseball 1, 2
basketball 1
Bastille 1, 2
Bayeux tapestry 1
beans 1
Beatles, The 1
bees
buzzing of 1
