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

I got Madonna but only because of the voice, I've never heard it before. Didn't get John Zorn so perhaps my lol at their guess of Eno was somewhat hypocritical.

They weren't really paying attention to the "New York" portion of that question, I think. They kept throwing out British names, which is normally a good instinct on UC. It was impressive to watch Hutchinson (I think that's his name) pull things out of his memory, and actually bounce ideas off the rest of the team to come up with the right answer. Good captaining.

Having thought that the series was getting harder and harder and becoming impossible, I knew ... 12 correct answers last night in the SF !!

One was Buck Mulligan.

Also Madonna: I think I shared in others' feeling of "that sounds like Madonna, but I don't think I know the song, maybe it's the very early Madonna that people associate with a cool NYC".

Madonna I got because of the Ciccone Youth cover.

I nearly outguessed myself on the John Zorn question.

Ah, I had the subtitles on and was in the kitchen when "Burning Up" came on, and yeah got that one no bother.

The music round (for me) easier than usual, didn't get John Zorn but the rest.

Had a lol at "Thompson Twins" for Kid Creole & the coconuts, but hey if you don't know then guess by all means...

Apart from that, yeah Reading in the final then. Average age is uh??

38

Hutchinson is good but he's a hard man to warm to

There is a bit of “let us pause while I consult the mind palace” about him. Don’t think I’ve heard a correct answer from the non-Hutchinson or Ounsley members of the team. I wonder if he gets a lot of INXS jokes from people who can’t remember Michael Hutchence’s name properly.

I need to check out this John Zorn fellow. Hadn't heard of him!

16 this week for me...
Dodie, Indo-European, Przewalski's horse, encephelization quotient, Cassini-Huygens, Voyager 2, Chatsworth, Madonna, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Laurie Anderson, hip, hoatzin, ostrich, Samuel Beckett, deuterium*, votes for women in Kuwait.
* answer given & accepted Hydrogen 2, but same thing.
.

Looking forward to the final.

I always find the maths questions impossible by the way!

If you answer 2 to the maths questions usually get them right about 1 in 4 times.

Yeah, I go for 0, 1 or 2

FWIW I agree with Number None and Chuck Tatum about that player. I didn't like him.

Player? I suppose the word is Contestant.

I was quite impressed when he retrieved "anderson" to go with "laurie" when he didn't immediately know it but also agree about his "mind palace" vibe

OTOH I like that Hutchinson is undefensively consultative with his team (or with Ounsley at least). I don't like captains that grandstand at their team's expense.

Hutchinson is good but he's a hard man to warm to

I just can't agree with this. His genuine delight when the picture round about absurdist theatre came up was lovely.

He's quite good value on Twitter as well.

yay

I wasn't sure who I wanted to win tonight.
So good game. Funny last minute developments.
But cool .
Glad it was so close

Well, goodbye UC, it was nice knowing you.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/16/jeremy-paxman-step-hosting-university-challenge/

Amol Rajan - the ultimate "risen without a trace" bbc presenter of this era. Does anyone actually like the odious cunt other than the management?

putting aside all the culture war content and dubious "debates" he's made his bones from, his presenting style is unbearable.

I don't like him, but he's not going to put me off watching it. Not yet, anyway. It'd have to be someone like Michael Portillo or Giles Coren before I would boycott it sight unseen.

"Look at his face, just look at his face"

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/11/07/11/50165641-10174307-image-a-18_1636283276609.jpg

one morning on the Today program he went into some false modesty confessional bs about how he sometimes suffers from imposter syndrome but support from his loving partner helped him get through it... yeah whatever. The insidious mumbling mediocrity should feel very bad!

Just glad it's not Osman tbh

I agree with posters above about how bad Rajan is.

I'd like to agree with poster trishyb that it won't put me off, but ... maybe it will. Sad.

It's a contrast, to my mind, with MASTERMIND's appointment of a new presenter: somehow I've always liked Clive Myrie.

Surprised Romesh Ranganathan hasn't got the job yet.

Or Micah Richards.

Why did editor Amol Rajan suddenly swing his newspaper behind David Cameron two days before the 2015 General Election?

A senior political source has claimed to The Mail on Sunday that Mr Rajan – now a rising star at the BBC – had agreed to support the Conservatives if Mr Cameron agreed to attend the birthday party of his proprietor, the Russian businessman Evgeny Lebedev.

he learned early on that being an obsequious establishment creep is far more important than having ethics or actually being any good at your job, so the bbc was the perfect environment for him to prosper.

All else aside, he’s going to have to work on his mumble, which already jars on Today.

maybe he's become so powerful that nobody dares tell him how his mumble is so bad that it would be fair to say he's not suited to the job.

I feel a bit that the presenter of UC should be someone who gives an impression of erudition, even if it's only an impression.

Bamber Gascoigne surely had that. Paxman was perhaps somewhat fraudulent in this regard, not really knowing much about the questions, but something about his reputation and style made up for it, and made him seem apt.

Who else could bring that? Stephen Fry (no thanks), Mary Beard (who genuinely knows enough to write some academic books, though I don't much like her), maybe one of the media-don historian people like Janina Ramirez, or media-don scientist like Hannah Fry - people who actually have PhDs. Mishal Husain, a good interviewer, I think has the poise for this role. Samira Ahmed too, would probably be ideal.

But Amol Rajan, I don't think qualifies.

Outside of the questions, the tension -- about whether Paxman is going to make a comment, or make a face, or even give a non-backhanded compliment, which is his version of the "Hollywood Handshake" -- is key to the show. We all want to impress the stonefaced teacher or exact revenge on them. I think Samira Ahmed would've been good at this. Rajan seems like a bit of a blank, which takes a key enjoyment away from the show, even if he conquers the mumble. Also his expression seems to be in permanent "resting smug newspaper columnist" mode.

Counterpoint: it'll be fine.

(When I say "key to the show", I mean "key to my enjoyment of the show".)

xpost - Many erudite types would indeed be more suited to the role than Amol Rajan. Pinefox takes a decent stab at running the gamut of them. I would add Alice Roberts to the list.

It would also have been nice to get a former contestant I the hot seat - Bobby Seagull comes to mind.

On the flip side, I heard Amol Rajan give a talk at a publishing conference (oddly he was one of two celebrity speakers, the other being Ken Clarke) and he didn't mumble at all. Maybe he mumbles on the Today programme coz he's not a morning person?

He used to mumble on the afternoon media show as well, although that could have been pre-recorded during the morning. Maybe he really is wracked with anxiety and self-doubt and the smug-face is a mask, mumbling can be a symptom of social anxiety. I do it enough myself and it's usually when I'm in situations where I don't really want to be there and am going through the motions.

Sandi Toksvig another pretty obvious choice.

I like Bobby Seagull but - in common with a lot of these suggestions - he doesn’t have enough of what Chuck Tatum is correctly identifying as that stonefaced teacher vibe.

I suppose it’s moot!

one of the former question writers has posted: "Part of the conceit of the show is the omniscience of the host, but every time Rajan goes on a quiz show he demonstrates the opposite".

It is grimly funny, tbf pic.twitter.com/67oDbzNMuq

— α вєαυтιƒυℓ вυттєяƒℓу (ᴠᴇʀɪꜰɪᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴛᴡɪᴛᴛᴇʀ) (@TypingOfTheRed) August 18, 2022

oh man

A thing I won’t miss about Paxman is his lazy cultural snobbery and the variants on “what a pathetic time wasting saddo” whenever someone correctly answers a basic question about hiphop or Nintendo games or whatever. But in general there is just enough humanity in the sneer to make it bearable and entertaining

I have had Bobby Seagull read a quiz to me and would very much not have him within a million miles of the UC presenter's chair. I expect Rajan to be absolutely dreadful, there is nothing about him which suggests otherwise.

If you don't want sneering at pop culture, then you don't want Sandi Toksvig either, her entire tenure on Fifteen to One was all "gosh why would you ever want to know *that*?" whenever anyone got anything a question on something she felt non-worthy. I think it's a tedious schtick that people who do "worthy" quiz think is endearing but it's really dull and not nearly as endearing as they think it is (I know a ton of these people in real life, and they are boring as can be), though I do feel Paxo does it knowingly and with grudging respect.

Very rarely he shows that he is impressed/ surprised. One time was when the students correctly identified that three or four basic ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs and butter made a Victoria sponge cake, which I found genuinely baffling as it was surely one of the most easy/ easily guessable questions I've ever seen on UC.

"When asked to "identify a recipe taken from the Delia Smith Book of Cakes", Gamble's answer of Victoria Sponge cake, had the usually unflappable quiz host exclaiming: "How did you know that?"."

We all want to impress the stonefaced teacher or exact revenge on them.

I hadn't really thought about this, but it's true. Who cares about impressing Amol Rajan?

lol guy like Jed from I'm Alan Partridge but obsessed with Amol Rajan

I only hope Samira Ahmed didn’t get the gig because they’re keeping her for Any Questions.

Any Questions a v poor quiz show imo, gimmick of audience making up the questions is good but contestants are always tediously long winded and get the answers wrong