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

<i>We had to pause the telly for about five minutes because they were conferring on what the correct answer was</i>

what does this mean

yes yes it means I didn't do the formatting thing properly

We had to pause the telly because while they were conferring I said something amusing and we couldn't stop giggling. I forgot to say that was *why* we had to pause it. It was a shit anecdote anyway.

Or a piss one, whatever.

Was a couple episodes ago, but one of the team captains gave a "funny" answer of Paul O'Grady, and Paxman's expression of complete, galactic contempt was incredible.

Ha yeah, that was WITHERING

Was it as good as the (not very) suppressed giggles on Pointless yesterday when someone thought Bob Dylan was the Scottish artist who recorded My Old Man's A Dustman? Or that Turner-Prize-nominated artist Richard Hamilton had a wee sideline presenting Top Gear?

Richard Hamilton was a bit tragic.

I wd've been 19 grand better off if i'd played tonight's.

Me too (McManus, Dailly and Malpas would've been my three guesses). And I'd have given Richard major grief over 'Paul McStay of Chelsea' an'all.

Dune seemed obvious to me but on the other hand I'd never heard of Ursula Le Guin.

"named after a toy, which word refers to someone who logs onto a message board under an assumed name?"

That's the second time i've heard Paxman butcher the pronunciation of Cúchulainn. Thinking of writing a letter

Coquelin

Coughcoughlan

Is the correct pronunciation (or Anglo approximation thereof) "coo-cullen"? That's how I learned to say it from the second Pogues LP, and surely there can be no more reliable guide? Not that I can remember ever saying the word out loud.

Setanta

coo-cullen or coo-hullen, depending where you're from. Paxo opts for coosha-lane

paxman is a retard tho

FFS nakh.

See, I hear coohoolen from the Pogues, so that's what I'd go with.

coo-ch-ullen where the ch is hard

smh at Durham thinking Kate Bush was Bjork.

Found it heartwarming that indie students today can't identify the Futureheads.

(and guessed Razorlight, cos that's some other shit old indie band whose name they've seen on half-torn posters in venues)

Booo. The Futureheads should never be lumped in with that sort of fucking landfill.

Music & language rounds, though, meant I did a lot better than I have done for a while.

I impressed my wife by guessing The Futureheads would be the answer to the third question before it was asked.

That's the second time i've heard Paxman butcher the pronunciation of Cúchulainn. Thinking of writing a letter

― Number None, Monday, 21 January 2013

lol the second time in two weeks. no one corrected him last time? we're a laid-back lot

xpost yeah, and I also guessed KateBush before the song too.

anyway..

smh at Durham thinking Kate Bush was Bjork.

― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Monday, 28 January 2013 20:17 (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

To be fair, he knew it was wrong, but Kate Bush had escaped him...

I impressed my wife by guessing The Futureheads would be the answer to the third question before it was asked.

I did this too (not to Billy's wife though).

strongly disagree w/ jeremy that La Jetee is cinema verite

q) Which romantic character has been played by Orson Welles, Timothy Dalton (etc) and written by Charlotte Bronte
a) Inspector Clouseau

(Even our Alice was agog.. yeah we can all laugh.. but what train of thought leads here? I mean, back whenever, Les Dennis asked a bloke to name a famous Arthur, and the guy answered "Shakespear", because in his accent, author is pronounced "Arthur".

So, any ideas?)

The guy did answer immediately after the words "Charlotte Bronte", so maybe he didn't hear the last bit. Still doesn't explain an awful lot.

Orson Welles was in "Casino Royale", playing opposite Peter Sellers.

That's all I got.

Yeah, they've started wrong and taken at least two right-angle turns imo

Timothy Dalton was a spy, Inspector Clouseau is a detective, William Holden in Citizen Kane is kind of a detective... ergo Inspector Clouseau.

TBF Aronica would probably scoff loudly at my inability to answer basic questions about neutron star quantum degeneracy pressure.

English not the guy's first language but even so that came right out of leftfield!

Paxo reacted pretty badly IMO, fair enough to raise an eyebrow but the scoffing was NAGL.

I imagine it was difficult not to laugh, slap knee and point let alone scoff

I see that, but being "har har stoopid" overplayed it I thought.

William Holden isn't in Citizen Kane, you lose five points

Similar drinks bill at the end of the shoot though I'd wager

Duh Joseph Cotten n'er mind.

Paxo should pull out all the stops and ritually abuse anyone who dares to answer a question wrongly.

Otm

He should do impressions of them in a stupid voice.

did you guys see the one where the answer was rimbaud and the contestant got it right and paxman was LEGITIMATELY CONFUSED because he thought they were saying "rambo" EVEN THOUGH HE HAD THE ANSWER WRITTEN ON HIS CARD, what a dumbass

he mispronounces everything, too

smdh at anyone over 15 who is impressed by paxman's intercolleegiate debating society hardman shtick

It's such a fun shtick though!

Ongoing debate in our household about when's being smug because he knows the answer, or when he's just bluffing smugness because he's read the answer beforehand. I mean, when he gets uppity with a contestant about some of the crazy impossible science questions, you have to be like, COME ON. But that is part of the fun.

Jeremy Clarkson would do it exactly the same way

He is much less annoying than John Humphrys' take on Mastermind presenting though.