Secondly, if you don't know about the BBC program Quite Interesting, you should. Hosted by none other than Stephen Fry, the show is one part interesting facts, one part random facts, one part random made up facts, and five parts hilarity.Add to the mix some of Britain (and occasionally America's) top comedians, some very smart people, and the wit that is that of Stephen Fry and you have yourselves an amusing show. Alan Davies, perhaps most well known as Jonathan Creek, is the only panelist to appear in every episode and is the numbskull of the bunch. The show is best described by watching, so here's a clip.
Enjoyed that? Check out more clips on YouTube. The first episode of season G came out tonight in the UK, so I was thinking about that, especially as I talked to an American friend about her current life in the UK and her US shopping list (rolls - crescent and normal, biscuits, hershey's, popcorn, and Mexican food). In addition the folks over on twitter at qikipedia posted a teaser for tonight's episode, which I showed to my parents and Ben. Then they wanted to see more, so we watched Season A, episode 1 where they talk about Adams, Andrews, and Anteaters.
In some ways QI is like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, but without the need to be time sensitive or (for the most part) culturally relevant. They are also much more crass than they could EVER be on US tv or radio. Unfortunately the DVDs are only sold as region two (western Europe) so you can either watch on YouTube or obtain episodes less than legally. I would LOVE to purchase the DVDs, and have contemplated buying another DVD player for my desktop just to buy and watch British shows...but I haven't done that yet. Anyways, if you're looking for smart and funny entertainment, you might want to check it out.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your break if you have one. Otherwise. I hope you have a most enjoyable Friday.
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6 comments:
The Bryan Adams reference made me burst out laughing. Also I love that he opened with Douglas Adams. (Hey, lots of Adamses.) I still have fond memories of the one time I had tv access in England and caught an episode of this. It made me so happy.
Okay, so of course I had to look up Cruithne and uh, it does not actually orbit the earth. It orbits the sun. So it's definitely not a moon. Thank goodness. I was going to be very upset. First Pluto, now this. That would be been terrible. Nevertheless... quite interesting!
You knew about it in England? Lucky!
Yes. The next year Stephen Fry asked "How many moons does the earth have?" Alan Davies buzzed in and confidently answered "TWO," only to be told that he was wrong and it was either something like seven or it was one. Davies was upset, understandably. Interestingly enough, if you watch this full episode, Pluto is almost the next question. Alan Davies is foiled again by being asked how many planets there are in our solar system. However what is quite interesting is that this was taped in 2003, well before the current debate hit pop culture.
Also, favorite line of the show? "Blue moon I saw you standing alone, not with a small friend."
This combo of characters cracks me up. We watched this tonight and then I made my parents watch episode 1 of black books. Sunday night we may watch Bill Bailey's comedy show. He is hysterical.
I agree - that line cracked me up.
How did it take THAT long for the Pluto debate to reach the mainstream? Weird.
I think it didn't really hit the mainstream until it was officially voted to not be a planet in 2006 or whatever. (I know I could look this up on Wikipedia, but I'm lazy, so...) So before then only the geeks/nerds cared, after then random people on facebook wanted to save pluto.
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