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

He was also a pushy dick to his teammates and it would not be like me to imagine he was moreso to her

When Maloney gets one right, Howe sarcastically repeats his answer to Tindall.

I got all the file compression questions right. Just saying.

lz is something I associate with the Amiga, was never really popular on Windows (which favoured PKZIP) or Linux (gzip)

Can we talk about why the BBC moved Only Connect to the earlier slot?

I mean, OC is fine (I guess), but it's clearly the optional digestif not the first course

Victoria Coren is also fine (I guess) but her patter is reaching Kaufmanesque levels of punchlinelessness

I kind of enjoy that. I choose to see it as schtick rather than incompetence

it's very much a deliberate production choice

i agree it's wrong bumping UC tho, I'm not that fussed about watching OC nowadays

True - it often feels like a "how far can I push this" joke with herself. I don't mind it, but my partner hates it, I can feel her teeth gnashing every time Coren does a routine.

Oh yeah I mean you could see that

We're always watching OC on catchup anyway so I just fast forward past VC's ramblings. Can you imagine the smugbucket conversations she and Mitchell must have at home?

Find woodland painful

has my brain shrunk or have the questions gotten dead hard?

There were very few gimmes tonight imo

NB doesn't mean yr brain hasn't shrunk ianad

My scoring system is: 2 points for correct, double if you get it and nobody on the show does, and 1 point if you give the same wrong answer as a contestant.

This week, I scored one point (Purcell)

Ah now I'd have been up on double figures at least under yr system

I knew 100 points' worth of questions.

I liked the name Woodland.

Its a leveller, basically (xpost)

I was forced to take a two-term long module on Alice Walker at university, so I finally had some closure on that trauma tonight (although they were all very easy questions).

I liked Woodland, cosplaying as an early 90s indie nerd

Chemistry is bullshit and chemistry questions are bullshit

Lol at the Presbyterian getting mad excited at the old testament tho

Chemistry is bullshit and chemistry questions are bullshit

Here now.

Not like a politics student to have no general knowledge and no leadership skills

Was that Carson?

Because both captains were bad but Carson was a real dick to his team

Mistin i think? the lad from Emmanuel. the other one was probably bad too, i was half asleep.

Both shite

let's just agree they're all bad at this stage

Guys, Carson is a mate of mine, and he's not a dick. And he was always good at saying to his team mates when they got something right, unlike Emmanuel dude. He's a bit intense, I'll give him that.

Got the feeling Stone from Edinburgh didn't really want to be there, there was a lot of eye-rolling whenever anything vaguely academic came up (so, like, all of it)

happy to be corrected by better knowledge

Besides which, that was a curiously cagey lowscoring affair. Is there a theory or study as to when or why this happens

I think nerves may play a part, especially after a few wrong interruptions?

my wife knows carson as well appararently

glasgow's a small world

don't get calling carson an arsehole at all. seemed really supportive... ? like in a remarkable way?

First in to mention there was a reference to ROCKISM in today's University Challenge.

the way that captain talks to the mic is reeeeeeeeeeeally annoying

No, Stairway

Is Carson the nicest captain? He always compliments his teammate for good answers..

I think he's great. There was a bit of name-calling upthread, but I've played quizzes with him a few times and he's super nice and really good at (1) deferring to people who know stuff he doesn't and (2) recognising the contributions of team-mates.

I was on a TV quiz when I was a kid back in 1975. Thank god there wasn't 'social media' back then, I'd be in no doubt what 'the world' thought of me..

The question about the earth being a basketball, how were you meant to work that out quickly?

Reminds me of the binary arithmetic questions a few years ago which meant having to convert two longish binary numbers to decimal and the sum back into binary

Is Carson the nicest captain? He always compliments his teammate for good answers..

I hadn't seen UC for ages, but watched last night and thought this. They really played as a team, and they seemed willing to just say things without making each other feel like crap.

Also I have never seen a team get so many opera questions right before.

damn, that was an annihilation

The winning team look like the villains in an American college comedy.

Paxo was in full "we are not worthy" mode, for sure.

Funnily enough, he was running the "Have I got" show like a man driving an automatic car, badly. But entertaining thanks to the other guests...

Insert a "last night, as well" somewhere in that last sentence, tky.

He was very poor on HIGNFY? !

Watched UC on iPlayer. Managed 115 points' worth.

Tom Jones (novel), The Alchemist, Brazil (country), Independence Day (date), Iris Murdoch, Thomas Gray (elegy), Dave Brubeck, Nocturnes (title), Stein / Pound / Picasso (pictures), et al.

foe Iris Murdoch. I got as far as "alzheimers! black prince!" and lau finished it off. so I guess that's an assist right?

I got 'curmudgeon'

The art styles / cheeses thing was impressive

I take it Newcastle lost? I had to step out..

They did yeah, good game tho.

questions get nearly impossible in the semis, it's not nearly as fun to play along. i did dredge Avogadro out of the depths of my memory though.