University Challenge (also featuring Only Connect and other BBC quiz shows)

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That captain of Wadham was really really annoying. Like, really punchably annoying. Whenever blokey next to him knew something (which was quite a lot), told him the answer, he kept going "are you sure?" to him then turning to his team-mates who hadn't ventured an answer to ask their opinion who all looked blankly back at him, he turned back to bloke who initially told him the answer, asked if he was sure again, then answered. This is the sort of thing that really pisses me off, and makes me wonder what sort of loser I actually am that this bothers me so much.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 23 October 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.ucd.ie/zoology/mariani/

Stefano Mariani has a full time job now!

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Monday, 23 October 2006 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

I saw that weirdy brainy Eastern European woman that was on once on something else recently. Again, I sort of hate myself for this sort of stuff.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 23 October 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

I was in the college team that entered last year. We didn't make it past the prelims. :-(

lol @ Robinson, however. :-D

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Monday, 23 October 2006 23:10 (nineteen years ago)

I used to go to school with Stefano Mariani. didn't really know him, he was a few years below me. He always seemed oddly smug in a sort of Tom Bosley-esque manner.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Monday, 23 October 2006 23:54 (nineteen years ago)

That team was pish. But what can you do?

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

Hahahaha, if I went on it would say "SWEET SHEFFIELD" :P

― JTS (JTS), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 02:55 (nineteen years ago)

Which is a contradiction in terms.

― JTS (JTS), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 02:55 (nineteen years ago)

"Wadham & Gomorrah" is a ~~terrible~~ great name for a pub quiz team though!

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 06:46 (nineteen years ago)

How is Sheffield, JTS? You're not wishing you went to Cardiff are you?

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 07:08 (nineteen years ago)

come on u wadham!!!!!!!

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 07:24 (nineteen years ago)

Sidies Boy got The Pixies right though. I wanted to say it's not "the" Pixies, but I wasn't sure.

That kind of thing happens to me a lot, Ailsa, so perhaps it happens to you and that's why it pisses you off. It pisses me off, but only when it happens to me.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 07:56 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, PJM, you could hardly expect them not to say 'the', Pixies.

Robinson failed to get the answer which was: Robinson Crusoe.

Later, Paxman talked to the Iraqi deputy PM on Newsnight.

― the pinefox (the pinefox), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:42 (nineteen years ago)

sure it is 'the' pixies. their best of was called 'death to the pixies'.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:45 (nineteen years ago)

Wikipedia goes with "Pixies" rather than "The Pixies", apparently "Death to.." was the only time "the" was ever used before it.

― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40750000/jpg/_40750095_paxman203.jpg

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:46 (nineteen years ago)

an important question, brought back rjg.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:47 (nineteen years ago)

I'll probably be on the team again for the next series, incidentally. Wish me luck, guys!

It's one of the great injustices that Robinson were allowed onto the show in the first place. They probably just put a pretty girl in the team, good for the cameras &c &c...

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

you were on university challege?

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

Our team entered the preliminary rounds and took an aural test. Our score, as we worked out was marginal, but evidently the coin fell against us as we weren't invited onto the programme proper. This next series, however, will hopefully be a different story. I'll be swotting up on my literary history (yeah, right)... :-)

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

ah ok.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:54 (nineteen years ago)

ha, the main injustice is that all the ox and cam colleges get to enter seperate teams, there should just be 1 ox and 1 cam, then everyone else would get to play :)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 10:59 (nineteen years ago)

ooooooh, very contentious!

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:01 (nineteen years ago)

london gets more than one team too, it should be said.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:01 (nineteen years ago)

xxpost: I wouldn't. ;-)

And we wouldn't get to watch those Robinson slackers embarrassing themselves on national telly! Great stuff!

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:02 (nineteen years ago)

i grew up in cambridge and don't even know what robinson is. postgrad presumably.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:03 (nineteen years ago)

But Onionversity Challenge is there to reinforce the class system, innit? (Hence multiple Oxbridge colleges.) (It is still my favourite programme.)

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:04 (nineteen years ago)

Robinson is one of the newer undergrad colleges, situated in a disgusting 60's red-brick atrocity on Grange Road, opposite the uni library. You did well to avoid it. :-)

My dad loves it more than I do and he went to Keele, who have never to my knowledge done particularly well on it. They were far better at rioting, so he tells me.

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:05 (nineteen years ago)

I've been to the campus at Keele. There is fuck all else to do but riot.

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:06 (nineteen years ago)

but london university is much less of a thing than ox or cam, it's really just a loose federation (also the team would just be four birkbeck saddoes every year ;))

also University CABBAGE, call it by it's name...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:07 (nineteen years ago)

xpost: Burning down the refectory on his open day. so he says. Well chosen that man...

(They even had their own passport control! Ah, the 70's, what fun I missed...)

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

It's Onionversity Challenge in our house. I think I'll be amalgamating these names now tho.

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

hahahaha i am 1x bbk saddo. but cam/ox are way more federationy than london wtf!!!!

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

It is also, unbelievably, Carpenters, rather than The Carpenters.

Paxman was very slack last night, allowed the teams to be very leisurely.

My mother tells me he got quite emotional on Who Do You Think You Are, and that you wouldn't expect it, would you.

Well done on staying up that late, PF.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

Slackness maybe down to the fact that at no point could Wadham have been said to be playing for time. But the shows are edited so you probly get no sense of how much time a team is taking in any match. I thought Wadham's mics were turned up extra high last night so you could enjoy the hilarity of their shite reasoning.

― James Herbert Dip (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't see it obviously, so he may well have been really annoying in the way he did this, but in principle it's sound quiz captaining, really:

1) Checking how sure the answerer is of the answer, which also makes him/her have a quick second think, in case a mental mixup has occurred (as it often does).
2) Ensuring acceptance of the answer from the whole team.

It goes without saying that the captain should submit his *own* answers to the same procedure, though. From your description I'm guessing this wasn't the case...

― The Vintner's Lipogram (OleM), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 11:26 (nineteen years ago)

It is definitely Pixies, I was not disputing that.

Hail to the Paxies?

PJM, for me 10:30 is not very late, whereas, for you, I think, it is.

Robinson did not field a pretty girl, as far as I can remember.

― the pinefox (the pinefox), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:11 (nineteen years ago)

it definitely is pixies. but if someone said 'i like pixies' it would sound silly or precious.

― benrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

that's a little harsh PF. although the frock the team captain was wearing was, um, interesting...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:16 (nineteen years ago)

Is PJ's house in a different time zone from the PF's?

― ;_; (blueski), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:17 (nineteen years ago)

we suggested she might be a "pagan"

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:17 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

Yeah, 1950s and 1850s.

― You've Had Your Chances (noodle vague), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:20 (nineteen years ago)

Incidentally (and just to confirm what Noodle Vague said) that is the first time I've ever heard "Biology" by Girls Aloud and I could see no reason for the widely held belief that it is a work of genius.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 12:59 (nineteen years ago)

that wasn't the good bit (although i think it's over-rated meself like, they've done like half a dozen better tracks), the beginning where it goes DANK DANK DANK KERDANK KERDANK is the best bit...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 13:02 (nineteen years ago)

OleM, I understand what you are saying, but the guy was just being a bit of a twunt. You would (hopefully) understand if you saw him and his team in "action". I have seen Paxo get irate at less, so have no idea why he let this go on other than, as has been remarked upon upthread, it was quite funny and made them look very stupid.

The captain of the other team had a very odd top on, the sort of thing Sue Barker always wears on Question of Sport with large chunks cut out of the sleeves. Except it was too big and hence looked very stupid indeed.

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 14:32 (nineteen years ago)

In fact I think I preferred the Nolans.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

That guy was really annoying me too, Ailsa.

I never do very well but I did get Pixies and I did know approximately how old the universe is, and some other things.

― Ally C (Ally C), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

What other things?

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 24 October 2006 19:48 (nineteen years ago)

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