Tag: qi

QUOCKERWODGER

Posted on

The infamous QI Elves shared this on Twitter over the weekend:

I think it was conveniently timed to coincide with the upcoming Trump inauguration, but to be fair, we had our own quockerwodger long before DT came onto the political scene.

It seems like it is a borrowed definition:

The term quockerwodger, although originally referring to a wooden toy figure which jerks its limbs about when pulled by a string, has been supplemented with a political meaning. A pseudo-politician, one whose strings of action are pulled by somebody else, is now often termed a quockerwodger.

But it’s a highly accurate one for our President. And – if the “fake news” are to be believed – theirs as well.

Of Penguins and Landmines

Posted on

This comes from the QI website, so I’m fairly convinced of its veracity.

There are thousands of landmines in the Falkland Islands, laid in the 1980s by the Argentinians, which have been a boon to the Islands’ penguin populations, who are too light to set them off (sadly, more modern landmines can be set off by the change in temperature caused by a shadow falling on them, so any penguins in Afghanistan wouldn’t get away with it). The consequent lack of humans in the Falklands means that their populations have rebounded after the decline caused by whaling ventures.

When they did stay on the Falklands, whalers needed fire to turn the whales’ blubber into whale oil. As there aren’t many trees there, whalers would simply burn the penguins, which have highly flammable fat beneath their skin.

Now we know. And now we’re off to Boulders Beach to see if you can actually use a penguin as a firelighter.

Penguin facts, eh? You can never have too many of them.

I was watching an old episode of QI last night and it struck me that I should probably watch a whole lot more episodes of it. While the comedy doesn’t always work, the facts are… well… Quite Interesting.

Trevor Noah on QI

Posted on

A nice preview of SA comedian Trevor Noah on popular BBC programme, QI:

It’s an admittedly small sample (n=4), but the scientist in me noted that homosexual individuals seem rather susceptible to isiXhosa click singing. I’m not homosexual, nor am I particularly good at click singing, but this fact may be of interest should you be “on the pull” for a same sex partner at some pub or club this evening.

It’s good to see a bit of SA culture (yes, I’m aware that it’s Trevor Noah and I’m stretching it a bit here, but…) on entertaining, quality, prime-time UK TV.

Shut up with your Latin. Eat them. They’re brilliant!

Posted on

I was watching “Brand New” QI last night (actually turns out to be over 3 years old, but still) and this section had me in tears of laughter.

David Mitchell and Sean Lock are a recipe for success anyway, but the images conjured up in answering this question were just brilliant.