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

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.

i've never seen Paxman express disdain at someone getting a science question wrong. It's English literature and history he really gets snobby about

Humphreys 'said 'mitigate against' the other day on the radio, and obv there's nothing wrong with this, but seeing as he's a f'ing a-grade grammar snob of the worst stripe it made me shout 'FUCK YOU HUMPHREYS' at the radio. (What do you call a FUCKING ANNOYING camel with three humps?)

Inspector Clousea?

Never a bad excuse to shout FUCK YOU HUMPHREYS

It's how I wake myself up every morning.

http://www.trp.dundee.ac.uk/images/humphrey/humph3.gif

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.

Paxman failed to get into his college's UC team so I think the smugness is often bluffed.

Phil jupitus' hanging mouth is killing me

Also

British sitcom matt damon
Benoit assou ekotto
Peter cook's lil brother

Phil neville via boyzone
Ed byrne
Prince harry
English deschanel

can't believe he got done by a Frankenstein/Frankenstein's monster mix-up. Ugh

the girl visibly going 'F....' at that makes me think she'd agree.
Also, more knackered Will Young than Matt Damon imo

there's something in that but i think a hybrid of each comes close

Phil jupitus' hanging mouth is killing me

Made it almost unwatchable, was almost glad my mother phoned me in the middle of it. Almost.

Peter cook's lil brother

DM OTM

Ah yes, the guppy in the hoodie was a bit hard to watch. Found myself being surprised every time he got something right (not that infrequently, even) and then hated myself for assuming that he was thick just for having some maybe sinus-issue-related mouthbreathing going on. After all I do so love it when I can tell someone has looked at me and thought "fat woman = stupid"

(I got more than usual this week and had no audience. Week before, Trinity Cam vs Chch Ox, was watching with a friend and got sod all. Typical.)

yeah he was actually on the ball, but even his delivery was pure jupitus, the sideways look and everything

last week's was p impressive showing from both sides i thought

Yeah, good showing from both sides and all contestants last week but that classicist team captain from Trinity could have turned up alone and still won iirc

(not 100% sure these two observations aren't contradictory but with such fast buzzing and high scores all round they both seem to make sense)

I think Trinity captain should switch to whichever Oxford college that was for UNBEATABLE POWER TEAM

Only Connect are looking for contestants for the next series, give me a shout if you want details

I love OC (don't call it that) but I can't think of a pithy off-kilter anecdote to tell about myself

I love it but I'm shit at it.

I'm shit-hot at missing vowels, which when it comes down to it is LLT HTMT TRS

I'm pretty good at the connecting walls and the missing vowels, but there's too many esoteric things in the first two rounds for me. If I could find a scientist and a chess player to come on with me, we'd be OK. Oh, and I could kill my chronic phobia of having my photo taken which surely screws me ever going on the telly.