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

i had a ridiculous haircut (black/white striped) at the time, which loads of people seem to remember when i mention it ("ohmygodyouwerethatfreakonuniveristychallengewiththeweirdhair!!" etc).

She had an Italian name, but I have forgotten it, so no stalking for me.

-- toby (toby_ge...), January 8th, 2002.

My mate David was on it the year Durham won it - he was UCL, who were you with toby?

As part of the Lancaster team we made it to the final round of auditions two years ago. They actually interview you as if you're going onto an actual game show ("What books have you been reading recently?"), which I found vaguely disconcerting, but answers to the questions on the test we sat included "Tony Hawkes" and "Sixpence None The Richer". So that's alright then.

OK, that may be just me.

1. Stream of Consciousness

2. Greil Marcus's Mystery Train

3. something else interesting - what was it?

I thought he did well.

1970s video games? paxman was aghast that people knew all these, i thought they were piss-easy. (pong, tetris, asteroids, snake)

Perhaps we should not be surprised that you thought they were easy?

I'd like to see how many questions he was actually asked as compared to the others.

Uni Chal Mastermind and Buzzocks makes Monday night the best BBC2 line up all week.

"what's 'amped' mean then?"

I found it strange that they didn't know what COBOL or SQL were yet got the (IMO) more obscure Ada question right.

University Challenge makes me realise how much stuff there is that I don't know. I'm usually chuffed to bits if I get a run of Starter + 3 Bonuses correct.

Discovered a fairly good quiz show called Eggheads yesterday while I was off work. A team of "boffins" (I think most of them are former champions of 15-to-1 or similar) is challenged by a different team of plebs every episode. Plebs can win £20000, boffins just get to be smug about being clever. Plebs won yesterday for the first time in umpteen episodes.

UC was good, I knew more answers than usual (ie, about 5). The Greil Marcus question reminded me of RJG. I liked the set of questions where they had to say who ruled in a X-ocracy, and one of the words sounded very much like phallocracy, and they dithered and snickered and then it was something not rude at all.

I like Eggheads too.

That was because it's named after Ada Lovelace innit. I didn't know the others but I know who the daughter of George Gordon, Lord Byron was. Hung out with Babbage, nice one.

(still, not as bad as the cow-orker who pronounces "spamhaus" "spamhorse")

My old drama teacher got to the semis on MM in '86 or so.

Didn't he get a wee bit more time than the others - Humphrys explained something by way of explanation about the lipreading thing but I was in the other room so missed most of what he was saying.

I wondered about the cane too.

Was the other interesting thing the karaoke backing tracks of cheesy ballads (all of which I recognised, much to the amusement of my husband and parents)? Wasn't there a Smiths lyrics question too, or was that last week?

Ah, I was appalled to see tetris in there. It was written in 1985-86! And not really commercially available until a while after that. It's hardly retro!

not a patch on "frottage" though :)

I bet Paxo LOVED this.

(not that i disagree necessarily ;))

One of the posh girls seemed awkward and silly. Yet she knew things that I don't.

It was hard: I scored only about 60 points.

I like the thought that we are the only ones who take it seriously enough to have this technical discussion.

*I must say the answer aloud, otherwise it doesn't count - do you have this rule too?

Madchen, it is an interesting question -- need one say the answer aloud? I think it does help. Also I have wee Isobel to say the answers to.

what you're saying is "youngsters these days, cuh? bunch of thickies" isn't it?

I say this about half a dozen times a week. They are though.

Does this explain his transformation into The Bellefox?

In a way I hope not, because it would affect my impression of his constancy towards Hillary.

it is insufferable.

RJG - I don't believe you!

Mooro: I can't believe how dirty you came to be, there.

Yes, it is Isobel, in my room, in a way. But Hillary is on the wall and on the filing cabinet. I see her more than twice a day.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v133/cathyleech/mariani.jpg

I see I was called to thread last year. I'll never live down 'frottage'.

Enough speculating about who'll be the next James Bond. Mariani for next villain!

Frottage: correct answer to a question about an artistic technique favoured by Max Ernst. Paxo hoist an eyebrow. I may have blushed slightly.

Is Oakley the odd ginger one on the Corpus team?

we are thinking of founding a university, next week, so we can qualify for the series, next year.

Paxman: Spell 'cemetery'
Speccy girl: C-E-M-E-T-R-Y

Apparently they win the series.

Come back Emily Wotsit.

http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/~oakley/ucreport.html

Will Mariani win it?

No wonder there was a dreadful traffic jam on Gowwer Street this morning. I imagine the students were demonstrating.

I'm so glad Lauren nearly always agrees with my bizarre crushes.

crosspost

What a great final, though.

I love the fact that this thread exists because I can't imagine anywhere else I could justifiably get exited about things like that.

I liked how Alex obviously thought he was a maths and science expert yet really wasn't at all.

Jeremy: "Which series of numbers..."
BEEP
Alex: "Is it an infinity?"

Er, you what?

(xpost, yes, that one too)

xpost

Stefano Mariani has a full time job now!

lol @ Robinson, however. :-D

That kind of thing happens to me a lot, Ailsa, so perhaps it happens to you and that's why it pisses you off. It pisses me off, but only when it happens to me.

Robinson failed to get the answer which was: Robinson Crusoe.

Later, Paxman talked to the Iraqi deputy PM on Newsnight.

It's one of the great injustices that Robinson were allowed onto the show in the first place. They probably just put a pretty girl in the team, good for the cameras &c &c...

And we wouldn't get to watch those Robinson slackers embarrassing themselves on national telly! Great stuff!

My dad loves it more than I do and he went to Keele, who have never to my knowledge done particularly well on it. They were far better at rioting, so he tells me.

also University CABBAGE, call it by it's name...

(They even had their own passport control! Ah, the 70's, what fun I missed...)

Paxman was very slack last night, allowed the teams to be very leisurely.

My mother tells me he got quite emotional on Who Do You Think You Are, and that you wouldn't expect it, would you.

Well done on staying up that late, PF.

I didn't see it obviously, so he may well have been really annoying in the way he did this, but in principle it's sound quiz captaining, really:

1) Checking how sure the answerer is of the answer, which also makes him/her have a quick second think, in case a mental mixup has occurred (as it often does).
2) Ensuring acceptance of the answer from the whole team.

It goes without saying that the captain should submit his *own* answers to the same procedure, though. From your description I'm guessing this wasn't the case...

Hail to the Paxies?

PJM, for me 10:30 is not very late, whereas, for you, I think, it is.

Robinson did not field a pretty girl, as far as I can remember.

Yeah, 1950s and 1850s.

The captain of the other team had a very odd top on, the sort of thing Sue Barker always wears on Question of Sport with large chunks cut out of the sleeves. Except it was too big and hence looked very stupid indeed.

I never do very well but I did get Pixies and I did know approximately how old the universe is, and some other things.

Did anyone watch Mastermind tonight? The graduate student was unusual with her HP Lovecraft.

*pricks up his ears*

(sorry)

I bet you have been!

*rescans that sentence five times to check for innuendo*

The Professionals

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings/programme.shtml?day=today&service_id=4224&filename=20080331/20080331_2000_4224_9918_30

They're Back

Tonight

they should ban postgrads from the regular show. it's not on.

should they ban graduates from THE PROFESSIONALS?

... no.

they should ban postgrads from the normal show because it's a general knowledge quiz, and you acquire more general knowledge as you get older... and then start to lose it all, but the postgrads in their late 20s and 30s have a clear advantage over the undergrads.

Ban Open University as well then?

God I'm so glad it's back this is my show forever.

Ban mid-30s undergrads too?

harder to call.

I've often thought the same thing myself tho. Maybe they should stick an age limit, say 25, on the regular show. But then you'd get old people doing post-divorce first degrees getting all butthurt.

Or have a "1 oldster per team" limit.

Ban presentable looking people as well, the show really should be competed in by only the pastiest, specciest, greasiest-haired shut-ins, none of yr indie doofuses or New Hall broads.

they should ban postgrads from the normal show because it's a general knowledge quiz, and you acquire more general knowledge as you get older... and then start to lose it all, but the postgrads in their late 20s and 30s have a clear advantage over the undergrads.

Yes, let's solely have a bunch of 20-something idiots on it, why don't we

... it makes me feel really clever!

or New Hall broads

Dom I gotta have something to knock one out to while they're asking the impossible Maths question.

I enjoy how the quiz setter has given up trying to do varied Classical music questions and now they're all just "Who wrote this then?"

Or have a "1 oldster per team" limit.

-- Noodle Vague, Monday, March 31, 2008 2:17 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah this would be fair. sometimes it's a bit much.

The ramp up in question difficulty from the rounds to the final is crazy.

Still the hardest quiz on TV tho, Mastermind is not in the same league.

answers including

Psyche

Echo & Narcissus

1982: year Trivial Pursuit was launched

The Waste Land

Waiting for Godot

and it's back ... tomorrow!!

My uncle was on the professionals once, as part of the Association of Historical Crime Writers. Beat that.

I was on University Challenge a couple of years ago for Glasgow University. I was the token "oldster" on the team (i.e. postgraduate student). We sadly lost to Edinburgh (of all people), but it was a reasonable match. I was happy anyway, because I got some starter questions, so got to hear my name called in the famous UC style.

Now!

was on early

Uh? Just finished, here. Well, I did unusually well - hit 200 (answering all questions, bien sur) to the winners' 195. Exeter University thought that a string piece was 'Yesterday' rather than 'Paranoid Android' by their alumnus. I was surprised to get the meaning of Indian 'Maha' (great) correct.

was on early in scotland for some reason missed it will be on iplayer later

It is always on early in Scotland so that we can watch a dude trying to repopulate the Highlands with wild boar and moose and stuff.

I remain baffled as to how they didn't know Paranoid Android, yet recognised Queens of the Stone Age and Muse quite easily. One of the contestants also thought Carl Barat was in Babyshambles, and none of them even guessed at Dirty Pretty Things, making me wonder exactly what students are doing with themselves these days. Studying, presumably, instead of listening to pish indie like I did when I was a student.

I got 220! Perhaps they are dumbing down. There did seem to be quite a few exceedingly easy questions. And some painfully stupid answers.

There are always painfully stupid answers. They often, in my mind, do not coincide with what Paxman claims to be stupid.

the lady who knew too much

like, seriously, i kinda wanna give up *life* right now

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=51660053364&topic=7572

^^^77 invites for these guys

good christ

this ain't no unrequited telly-crush thing that's weighing on my mind, it's purely and simply a furious and uncontrollable envy that someone can know so much stuff

mind you, i'm well acquainted with (and sometimes meet) the winning captain from last year's series, and it'll at least be good to point out to him that he is no longer british studenthood's #1 repository of knowledge

basically, the year I was in the Peterhouse team, we narrowly failed to qualify

still hurts, man

My failure to qualify for University Challenge, now somewhat over ten years ago, still niggles at me too.

I felt sorry for Manchester last night - they seemed to have hit on a fairly good anti-Corpus Christi strategy and it worked for most of the match.

rah rah rah

Beeb pretty much gave away the result by having the brainy girl on the evening news

Bitches I like 'em brainless
Guns I like 'em stainless

... that Jeremy Paxman goes too far at times

they should ban postgrads from the regular show. it's not on.

― banriquit, Monday, March 31, 2008 3:01 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^ still how i basically break it down. one of the teams last week was ALL phd candidates, which is bullshit. that or i should get on next season's show, ccoz tbh id rock the shit.

Of course, the DailyMail has it "how come brainy girl gets villified, and Jade, um, you know"

(See, they can't even bring themselves to criticise Jade at the moment)

.. because The Sun asked Brainygirl 10 question of the "Who won celeb Big brother/Name of the lad who fathered/Chelsea's manager" and 7 others, and she got none right...

In the interests of fairneess, should really have asked Jade 10 questions from UnivChallenge, see how she got on

Jade in "that's the freezing point of Liquid Nitrogen, innit?" Slumdog Millionaire follow-up!

Did a double-take when I saw the 'Trimble turns down Nuts magazine' headline in the Guardian this morning before I realised what it was about.

.. because The Sun asked Brainygirl 10 question of the "Who won celeb Big brother/Name of the lad who fathered/Chelsea's manager" and 7 others, and she got none right...

Sometimes I wish I didn't know any of these things too.

Name of the lad who fathered Chelsea's manager

Don't know this one

You could probably have a guess.

lol call me tuomas but idk who won celeb big brother.

Ulrika.

Yes, what now, Archimedes?

i thought/hoped i didn't before i realised i actually did.

but i also got the one question they played from last night's final on the radio this morning.

so colour me... y'know, something.

"What Now, Archimedes?" - this has a pleasing ring to it

^^^ Sitcom set in ancient Greece starring Dean Gaffney as overworked manservant

A bit Up Pompeii?

Reason for victory was the weight of classics and literature questions towards the end. MANCHESTER WOZ ROBBED!!!

she didn't know thomas love peacock though, i trumped on that in front of my family and everything

*trumped her

you the man

Trimble Trumped Claims Frogman

She came through like a train at the end - in the last 5 minutes I don't think anyone else answered a question.

I don't see why anyone would object to her, for doing her best on a quiz show.

I don't really see why anyone would be erotically excited about her either, unless they find her knowledge and intelligence attractive.

Not objecting to her, just saying that the questions fell nicely towards the end there.

but at the start... they didn't

The order of the questions is random and is not produced to favour one team or another.

Not saying it was, nor am I suggesting any kind of conspiracy. On another day Manchester might have won is all.

Reason for victory was the weight of classics and literature questions towards the end.

Not enough classics and literature in the rest of the show!

Yeah probably. Sour grapes from a Manchester fan!

Manchester, so much to, errrrr, answer, errrrr...

I don't see why anyone would object to her, for doing her best on a quiz show.

Because of the air of smugness which hung around her like a thick cloud throughout the competition, particularly after she was promoted to captain.

We were amused when she ignored a team-member's suggestion on one question and went with her own, which was wrong. Although to be honest I can't remember whether her team-member was right or not.

some say she's arrogant/can yall blame her?

Are there always this many Classics questions or have I only noticed this year because of Trimble? It's not just the straight-up Classics ones - it's the questions about prefixes, scientific terms, etymology, etc, where a knowledge of Greek and Latin is bound to give you an advantage. But then this series has also had a disproportionate number of questions about US politics, state capitals, etc, which suits me fine so maybe every series bends somewhat to the pet subjects of the question-setters.

Also, slight annoyance that when the final stages loom the pop questions always get shelved for classical ones as if they're too frivolous for the serious rounds, when, on the contrary, they would probably be more challenging to the kind of people who know their violin concertos and Greek tragedies by rote but have only a glancing interest in popular culture. And by popular culture I don't mean Celebrity Big Brother.

You're an original Big Brother purist then.

I guess at some level there's going to be a bias towards "questions the production team find hard" at the later stages, which isn't going to be the same thing as "questions a Latin Literature DPhil student is going to find hard"

x-post And lame zings aside, I agree. There did seem to be fewer science questions this series (though this could just be my perception), the kind of ones about the spins of electrons for example, which could only be answered by a specialist. It's that balance between questions that could be considered general knowledge and those that definitely aren't that make it so interesting I think.

I forget sometimes that it's about student knowledge rather than general knowledge. Hence teams getting most of the Shakespeare questions right, yet getting stumped by a fairly easy Lolita one last night - I guess Lolita isn't a set text in a lot of places. I just wonder if too many Classics-biased questions excessively favour a certain kind of educational background.

Undoubtedly

I get annoyed by easy questions I know, I like the hard ones

There was one that had a pic of Oscar Wilde and the question was "Who's this?"

Much scratching of heads.

ehhh if you want to win, get 1x rounded team who can do all the science bs as well as the classics. or, you know, go on telly addicts.

who would have thought that a programme called UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE would favour certain eduicational backgrounds, the elitist fucks.

There was one that had a pic of Oscar Wilde and the question was "Who's this?"

It wasn't quite that simple: it was a picture of Oscar Wilde next to a picture of HMP Reading; the question was something like: "on your screens is a picture of someone and the place they lived from (date) to (date), name both".

Still: I was rather amazed that nobody got it.

sorry, question was a bit easier than I made it out to be.

I don't remember anyone not getting that.

I don't remember a Lolita question last night either.

I probably can't concentrate enough to be really good at this programme.

The easiest ones last night were re presidential approval ratings, etc - almost embarrassing.

have to agree with meme economist, on this thread, I think

xpost:

It was still pretty damn easy, I thought. Then again, we did "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" in our GCSE English.

The presidential approval ratings were very easy, too, if you can remember the dates of 20th-C US presidents.

My kids were "Ooh, look there's Reading Gaol"

OK, so we live in Reading. Still..

And they didn't know who Oscar Wilde was? Not-like-in-my-day why-oh-why hell-in-a-handcart etc

Well, either that, or they didn't feel like saying "That's Oscar Wilde and (a randomly-guessed prison)"

Is it Norman Stanley Fletcher?

Johnny Cash, San Quentin.

they were probably trying to remember which prison stephen fry went to.

Whichever team got the next question right did get most of the similar supplementaries, I think, apart from Rudolph Hess (and the Tower of London).

xpost: HMP Ashfield, according to Wikipedia.

the wilde and lolita qs were last week. i think they were given wilde's name, just had to guess the gaol.

An open gaol really, sorry, an open goal

"who would have thought that a programme called UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE would favour certain eduicational backgrounds, the elitist fucks."

I don't mean universities. I mean schools which teach Latin. I don't think the questions should be easier but I did think too many this series favoured a certain area of knowledge. But I guess part of University Challenge's job is to reassure viewers that there are still young people out there who spent their teens revising their Latin declensions rather than hosting Facebook parties.

And yeah, I watched the last three episodes back to back on Sky + so forgot that the Lolita question was in the semis. It asked which book Clare Quilty appeared in and nobody got it.

i reckon it evens out. i got the lolita q, never get any science or classics qs. obviously a 'classical education' is mostly the preserve of the privately educated. one of the most knowledgable classicists i've known was a comp-educated autodidact -- doesn't prove anything, of course, but just sayin. the show is inherently 'elitist' and would be pointless otherwise.

I don't think there is much Latin, in general, on this programme.

Really? OK then. It just seemed that way to me. I suspect Meme is right that it evens out. Perhaps I just took an unusual dislike to Trimble's mannerisms and therefore noticed the Classics questions more than I otherwise would have. That's the problem with trying to square objective analysis with visceral dislike.

i found her steez hilarious, seemingly deliberately overdoing middle-class swot mannerisms, the whole hairflick thing. so grating but i kind of feel, 'own it'.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00492/Gail-Trimble_492179a.jpg http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~tlarson1/mkg2.jpg

I was taught Latin (for a year, but some people did take it to O grade level and beyond) in my high school, which was generally acknowledged to be one the three worst schools in Fife.

I did latin at school- grammar school though so probably usual in the 1970s? It was all about some family living in Pompeii and going to the taverna. It didn't end well.

you were either in horto with Caecilius, or you weren't cool

I did my year of latin in 87/88, left school in 92.

treefell: My university gf, who went to Dunfermline High School and left in '96, did Latin at school too.

I did latin at school- grammar school though so probably usual in the 1970s? It was all about some family living in Pompeii and going to the taverna. It didn't end well.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, February 24, 2009 3:08 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol, they were still doing these books in the 90s. i was in the last year in my private school that did mandatory latin, in '96. got a c at gcse.

still doing them in the 00's

and I did Latin right the way through until university finals, go me

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1154145/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-What-mob-really-hates-Gail-Trimble-glowing-self-confidence.html

never did latin until a mandatory half-unit in first year english degree, state school innit

I've never studied Latin in my life, now never will. I've always liked UC though. There is very little Latin on it. Like Meme thingy I find the science just as hard as the Latin, harder in fact.

Melanie Phillips appears to be insane

No "appears" about it.

Do you think an example of "baying brutishness" might be calling Jade Goody a "stupid gobby chav"?

Jesus, that Melanie Phillips piece. A classic example of vaguely citing blogs as an indicator of public opinion. After the Observer piece on Sunday I quickly googled for evidence of this "hate mob" and found just a couple of posts, both of which ended up playing pivotal roles in the Observer and Mail pieces. I hate that lazy habit of citing a handful of blogs - or sometimes just comments on blogs - as if they were the tip of an iceberg when in fact they're the whole, rather tiny iceberg.

I notice the Mail have rather unkindly included a poll - would you rather be clever or beautiful? - next to a picture of Trimble. That will make her feel good about herself.

Truly never heard any hype about this Trimble chick, pro or anti, until today. Maybe the hype and bile is mostly imaginary.

oddly I think my limited (and really pretty good) range of blog experience has left me much more favourable to idea of blogs than most people are.

I notice the Mail have rather unkindly included a poll - would you rather be clever or beautiful? - next to a picture of Trimble. That will make her feel good about herself.

The Mail demonstrated clearly where they stood by having the poll read "Would you rather be clever or beautiful? Yes or No" when I looked at it earlier.

Mail frowns on encouraging hatred and lynchmob mentality, everyone knows that

Thing is, to have an opinion on Trimble you have to watch University Challenge, which suggests you're not averse to middle-class swots per se - in fact you may well be a middle-class swot. But there's no joy in picking apart the lunatic logic of Melanie Phillips.

xpost. I like blogs just fine, but they're a flimsy basis for an article unless you're talking about one of the big, influential ones.

at least no other papers vaguely cited the effect of "bloggers" on trimble's state of mind, or indeed suggested that they might have caused her to start the show badly. even though it was all recorded months before anyone knew her name.

oh, wait. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/feb/24/gail-trimble-final-university-challenge

sam wollaston is a right joey.

he's worse than that

he's a hideous scumbag and maybe the worst writer ever employed by the Guardian

Can't comment on the former but the latter is certainly true

Ahem, a different point here.

Nice for the other contestants on her team to know that even though they won, it had nothing to do with them and everything to do with the girl in the papers now.

Truly never heard any hype about this Trimble chick, pro or anti, until today. Maybe the hype and bile is mostly imaginary.

i tend to think this as well, though on the other hand there are people calling her smug in this very thread

Well, they certainly have wouldn't won if she hadn't been in their team, so they should count themselves lucky (xp)

(anag)

he's a hideous scumbag and maybe the worst writer ever employed by the Guardian

That's a big maybe, considering how many people have had stuff printed in the Guardian. It can't be long before someone worse than Wollaston comes to mind.

on the other hand there are people calling her smug in this very thread

I hadn't heard that there was any sort of hype about her until it appeared on the 6 o'clock news last night. I said she has a cloud of smugness around her because I've watched her on University Challenge five times and seen the expression on her face through all of it - apart from the first two-thirds (or so) of the final, when they weren't winning.

I've just worked out who she reminds me of - Tracy Flick from Election. She acted as if it were her birthright to win and looked petulant when she got question wrong. It's no fun watching someone so convinced of victory that the process is almost a technicality.

i love tracy flick!!!

& i disagree, watching someone act like the process and their competitors are beneath them is tremendous fun, esp if they win anyway - not that i think trimble is like this particularly, she just seems normal to me.

I have 'been there' myself (admittedly not on UC), you buzz fast, and when it's "I should know this", "I DO!", it's heaven. Mind you I have also done the "I should know this" "OH NO I DOESN'T" helltime.

or, you know, go on telly addicts

funny that there seems to be now show like this now whereas UC survives in these dumbed down times (along with dumbed-down Mastermind)

Eggheads!

really don't think that Trimble is odd or esp arrogant or anything

it's not like sportsmen show much (false) humility when they win a point, and those guys are getting paid for it. afaict, they lose their shit and start macking on each other. trimble stayed pro at least.

Trimble was nowhere near as Flick-ish as her American teammate. She was properly treating every answer as if failing to get it was indicative of some major character deficiency.

afaict, they lose their shit and start macking on each other

^^^she should have done this, imo

Trimble cover of 'Hallelujah' up now on iTunes

I've just worked out who she reminds me of - Tracy Flick from Election. She acted as if it were her birthright to win and looked petulant when she got question wrong. It's no fun watching someone so convinced of victory that the process is almost a technicality.

You're right there, definitely a bit of resemblance despite the different cultural background.

funny that there seems to be now show like (Telly Addicts) this now

Not on prime time like there used to be - well, the prime time ones are all celeb-based now - but there probably are still some kicking around. And look at the utterly skill-free Deal Or No Deal.

I've just worked out who she reminds me of - Tracy Flick from Election. She acted as if it were her birthright to win and looked petulant when she got question wrong. It's no fun watching someone so convinced of victory that the process is almost a technicality.

I think people can do this without really being aware they're doing it

There _are_ skills involved in DOND, psychology for one, although it really is basically a game of Chicken, except with money rather than trucks.

a lot of this seems like stereotypical British hating winners type shit. didn't see the show tho.

(along with dumbed-down Mastermind)

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Tuesday, February 24, 2009 5:09 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they'll be allowing (c)rap musics as a special subject next...

DOND with trucks = would watch

"Would you like to call Trucker Joe?"

they'll be allowing (c)rap musics as a special subject next...

― meme economist (special guest stars mark bronson), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 16:15 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.trekp.com/posters/gw077-chekhovs_gun.jpg

what IS Uhuru holding there?

A tribble.

true.

No, it's a furry tit.

"I think people can do this without really being aware they're doing it"

True. I just like a touch of humility. Most UC contestants (including Manchester's Yeo, who was no slouch himself) seem to manage it. I don't know. It's hard to explain why certain people you - they just do. It's not like I think she's evil.

I must admit I found last year's winning captain pretty smarmy and pompous.

mind you, i'm well acquainted with (and sometimes meet) the winning captain from last year's series, and it'll at least be good to point out to him that he is no longer british studenthood's #1 repository of knowledge

― I want sprinkles (country matters), Tuesday, 24 February 2009 02:02 (14 hours ago) Bookmark

Oops. That should be "why certain people irritate you."

The logical response to any Jagger post.

Did he mentions he knows a former winning captain of a University Challenge team?

Was it James Corden?

Every time I saw that smuggo who won it last year, he reminded me of LJ. I thought this was gross over-generalisation and classism on my part, but I guess not... (He was pretty damn good, though, nearly as good as Trimble).

Trimble seemed very self-conscious, not arrogant. Manchester did bloody well.
Last week's questions were way more biased towards the literary, I thought. This week's was a better mix and I even got quite a few myself way before they did. So actually, using the transitive property, I'm better than Trimble.

thank you for your ringing endorsement

i do OK on some science esp. astronomy but am hopeless at literature. i liked the 'identify these fonts' bonus that one time also.

If you want some perspective, his dad was ultimately responsible for the admittedly inevitable decision to make a whole slew of workers redundant, including my own dad. There are no hard feelings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7917481.stm

University Challenged. Manchester ftw!

Corpus Christi have been stripped of their title!

Thank God Nuts magazine wasn't conned into having a fraud strip for them.

trimble and fred goodwin for IACGMOOH imo

do they have tasers?

^instameme

wrong thread, but right thread

this is up there with the Omoyimni scandal

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1957/1101570211_400.jpg

can't believe i have never noted up-and-coming commentator ryan shorthouse before:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1158466/RYAN-SHORTHOUSE-Young-people-treat-geeks-respect-deserve.html

byline photo, for full effect:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/site_imagery/ryan_shorthouse_140x140.jpg

Ryan Shortbus, morelike

Intelligence is not a necessity for most of Beyonce’s and Kates’s younger fans. But their intelligence is of course essential for how many Grammys and Oscars they win. Intelligence, not beauty, will ensure greater personal success in the long-term.

slowburner.gif

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4170/dicke.jpg

Ryan Shorthouse, a Conservative policy advisor, Deputy Editor of CrossBow Magazine and qualified Tennis Coach

Fuck the spineless BBC jobsworths.

No one is at all bothered about it except mediocre bureaucrats trying to keep their own worthless "jobs."

And of course, the Meejah, who can spot a Good Story at a hundred paces.

My God, how we hate and envy intelligent, talented people in this country.

the guy was ineligible you fucking moron.

rulez is rulez yo

and, apart from a crystal fruit bowl or whatever, what does anyone really lose or gain from this?

Cheaters are losers. They cheated and now they've lost.

M*** N****, PA, United States

Recommended by 1 person

do they not check these things, um, before people are let on the programme?

They cheated, they got found out, they had their title taken away. The BBC acted quickly and rightly. I really can't see any other way of reading this, unless you are determined to have another crack at the BBC. Once it was found out that he had cheated what else were they supposed to do?

When I auditioned for the show, in '97 I think, they explained the rules very clearly at the audition. Which they need to do: the auditions are held in the summer term, but recording is in the autumn, so most final year students, although still students when the team applies, will be ineligible for the competition. From the news story, it seems that Kay *thought* he was still going to be a student in the autumn when he auditioned; but, regardless of that, I can't believe that noone on the team realised that they were breaking the rules at the recording.

It's a quiz show.

It's light entertainment.

It's not the Olympics (even though we all know about the tedious hypocrisy going on there).

Yet again, no one would have known or been bothered by it had not some hopeless loser of a whinger gone and talked to the Meejah.

Why don't we just get rid of all programmes on the BBC and have 24-hour Songs Of Praise with Aled Jones and Myleene Klass if we want "purity"?

Cheatin' bastards, fuck 'em

Doesn't matter what kind of show it is. How can you say it's fine for people to break the rules and still walk away with the winnings not very attractive trophy?

it is pretty retarded to break the show over the long vac, but them's the rules. silly corpus not to have got in a replacement coz they'd probably have won anyway.

Like the cards aren't stacked enough in favour of Oxbridge teams without allowing them to field cunts who aren't even students!

Like the cards aren't stacked enough in favour of Oxbridge teams

um how exactly? they have a vastly smaller pool of potential team members to draw on. it probably is unfair but otoh they let in loads of polys so...

Here, see this page, it's white

so what marcello is saying (if i'm following correctly), if the meejah didn't exist, would anyone have raised the complaint directly to the Beeb ?

I blame the internet.

but they weren't allowed to field non-students

xps

I know, but Marcello seems to think they should be

Marcello, do us a favour and turn the Carlinbot off next time you go on holiday for two weeks.

It's unfortunate that the taping schedule is what it is, since it really does seem to unfairly preclude third-years from participating. It would be more fair to allow people to be on the programme who are students when they begin the filming and to leave it at that. Note that MCR didn't want the poisoned chalice of winning through a DQ.

FWIW in many areas people retain student status for six months post-graduation.

I gather in years past dozens of past "students" were no longer students by the end of the process - so why disqualify Corpus Christi?

Because of Meejah pressure, of course.

In the war Thompson's BBC would have been on the side of the Nazis for fear of being bullied by the Daily Mail.

I gather in years past dozens of past "students" were no longer students by the end of the process

Was this guy a student when he actually took part in his first show tho?

yes

just

imho they shouldn't allow open university students or indeed any postgrad/mature students at all

I gather in years past dozens of past "students" were no longer students by the end of the process - so why disqualify Corpus Christi?

Because two wrongs don't, etc...

I guess rules is rules either way, but I've heard two different versions of how definite this guy's postgrad acceptance was. Like, get accepted for PhD but unexpectedly have funding withdrawn at short notice right before filming: fairly reasonable in that short period of running round like a headless chicken worrying about yr doctorate not to think things like "oh, now I have to withdraw from the next round of UC"; finalist who is prospective PhD candidate with no word on acceptance: should probably have thought about this earlier.

But, whatever.

Basically the BBC could have let this stand but they are terrified of media criticism so it was never going to be.

In addition, of course, disqualification is a Better Story.

Latter is certainly true, I think you are overstating the former tho

im surprised that

1) the 'story' didn't emerge sooner
2) they keep the final result secret for three-odd months. in this day and age.

Yes. I think the same about The Apprentice.

http://www.penguinslab.com/Pictures/High%20speed/coinsfall.JPG

I don't think I am (Tom xp). As with Ross and Brand and Carol Thatcher, the BBC repeatedly fail to stand by their broadcasters or stand up to the meejah bullies.

Get rid of spineless jellyfish Thompson and install a DG with some guts.

Ross, Brand, Carol Thatcher... yeah, great, let's man the barricades

just install DG

Yet they keep Jeremy "lorry drivers are all rapists" Clarkson on. Conspiracy? I think so.

Well even Clarkson was made to apologise when he had no need to apologise for anything.

Is there any evidence that the BBC bears any responsibility at all for disqualifying Corpus Christi? It's not as if the BBC makes the show.

sadly Jo "dogshit thru BNP letterboxes" Brand is still allowed to do her awful dance routines for charity. did we lose a war??

http://www.oregonlottery.org/projects/responsiblegambling/images/coin_flip.gif

It depends.

What's on the other side?

im surprised that

1) the 'story' didn't emerge sooner
2) they keep the final result secret for three-odd months. in this day and age.

― Judd Nelson (special guest stars mark bronson), Tuesday, 3 March 2009 11:27 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

1) makes sense to wait until the winner is revealed and cause a bigger fuss. nothing wrong with that imo.
2) as with the apprentice, i don't think papers even make an effort to find out - they'd expect a viewer backlash against spoiling a popular series. (a while back the sun got offered a leaked copy of the new harry potter and shopped the guy to the police.)

"Papers" ha. I assume by "day and age" Enrique was talking about web leaks.

lol sorry i'm old media

yea, all those audience members keeping shtum

xp haha now i'm picturing the old style young lad on the street corner shouting "extra extra" with astonishing UC disqualification headline on the front page.

I suppose plenty of rumours are "out" in the sense that not everyone has kept quiet, but aren't contagious enough to really spoil it for a large number of people. If I heard who won University Challenge ahead of air date, I wouldn't be that tempted to pass it on. It's not like a "ooh, Jimmy Savile keeps his mum stuffed in his living room" type rumour.

Next time the Apprentice is on, I'll see if I can dig out the winner from some obscure Digital Spy forum thread or something. Actually, I won't. That would spoil things for myself.

i don't watch the apprentice so might try and do that.

Ah yes, The Apprentice, won last year by someone who was caught lying on his CV.

Double standards? The BBC's got plenty!

So the Paul Weller lookylikey won.

The moral?

The bully wins.

The liar wins.

The cheat wins.

What a great and inspiring message to convey to impressionable young viewers. Don't bother learning to spell; look where it gets you.

Or was this a sort of Closet Socialist Sugar Trojan Horse exercise?

― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, June 12, 2008 12:22 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's a quiz show.

It's light entertainment.

It's not the Olympics (even though we all know about the tedious hypocrisy going on there).

Yet again, no one would have known or been bothered by it had not some hopeless loser of a whinger gone and talked to the Meejah.

Why don't we just get rid of all programmes on the BBC and have 24-hour Songs Of Praise with Aled Jones and Myleene Klass if we want "purity"?

― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Tuesday, March 3, 2009 10:58 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The promotion of morons as role models vs. the demotion of talented, intelligent people for fear of meejah criticism - no conflict of opinion there.

Makes you think.

http://shazam.econ.ubc.ca/flip/

Clever people - do what you like. "Morons" - know your place.

Someone needs to Photoshop Carlos Tevez into that Corpus Christi team...

Marcello being very cynical on this thread or just being honest

Quite agree, Dorian.

I think Dorian's comment was summing up your position.

And I was agreeing with his comment.

Classic thread.

Inimitable

No LJ though : (

Keen to hear his thoughts.

do they have tasers?

― bitch hooligan, pussy ass nobrain dårk (country matters), Monday, 2 March 2009 18:06 (Yesterday) Bookmark

irl lol

hahah

i hope this doesn't mean Trimble now takes the Nuts offer

rules of the game and filming schedule are made pretty clear at the audition stage and teams have a reserve player so these guys have no excuse

oh except they're the master race of course

I am interested in the opinion of Fabio Capello, Pavel Nedved, Fabio Cannavaro and a few members of the Bullingdon Club for good measure.

teams have a reserve player so these guys have no excuse

Do they? That, then.

teams have a reserve player so these guys have no excuse

Do they? That, then.

― Mark G, Tuesday, 3 March 2009 13:02 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah, they do. Believe this rule was introduced when one team had a fundamentalist Christian in the team who wouldn't go to recordings on a Sunday.

This Corpus Christi mob also changed their captain in the course of the series - which I've never seen happen before

and they're all Satanists

I get the impression you're not taking this matter very seriously

i hope this doesn't mean Trimble now takes the Nuts offer

I hope it does - time to put all those morons in their place. Or something.

The Unionist bias on this thread is shocking.

Actually, bowler hats and sash would make good props for a Nuts photoshoot

What I would give for a suggest ban every time someone uses the term 'Meejah'.

You can have one for free if you like.

Buy one get two free

average age 30? fack off.

york's main girl was some kind o' something.

Kinda sorta.

We've thrashed thru the idea of a handicapping system for oldsters before but this wd discriminate against the Open University and presumably there's the odd Oxbridge college for the menopausal and time rich too?

she was hot.

st georges' team leader looked like the bastard offspring of paxo and lady di.

this was average age 30 vs 19.

lol i mean im a 29-y-o postgraduate student, and if i went on (with some science dudes lol) i'd rock the shit. but i wouldn't go on!

so maybe my compromise position is allowing mature students, i.e. doing their first degrees.

xpost

I agree the age ish is a problem but wd allow one post-grad per team so I don't have to give up my dream of killing on this one day.

Unless they do a "The Unprofessionals" special series.

yeah watching this just thinking average of 30 a bit of a swizz and then they had all they anatomical questions and that too. a bit much

Joe Satriani in the music round- nice.

got every one of those questions (possibly first round where that was e'er true)

I only got the Neil Innes one, but was thrown by Paxman saying (or me mishearing) that the rip-off was from 1984.

Does Joe Satriani actually exist? I thought he was an archetype of self-indulgent masturbatory noodling invented by nervous indie fux to justify their lack of instrumental talent.

I thought the Satriani one was ripped off by Dancing in the Moonlight by Toploader. Got the rest of them though.

wasn't that toploader song a cover of an old soul hit though?

Oh probably, I don't pay much attention to the career of Toploader tbh.

doubtless a wise approach!

posh kids struggling w/tube map :D

and pop music.

and barnes wallis

curses. the one tv show I can't seem to download from the US :( well, this and Only Connect.

Only Connect is so good, I love how it makes University Challenge feel like Deal Or No Deal

only connect not as smart as it thinks it is nowhere near as smart as victoria coren's voice is annoying

i wish i could find a youtube of the time they played derrick may "strings of life" and asked the contestant "what genre of music is this seminal track credited with creating?" and this geeky dude was like....."synth?" and an obviously exasperated paxman is like "techno!!!"

(i lied about him being exasperated)

coren would seem marginally less awkward if only connect had a studio audience.

Don't care, WS

she's the thinking man's thinking man's totty

Only Connect isn't as smart as it likes to think it is tho. I auditioned with a friend's team for this series - didn't get on :( but aren't that bothered tbh.

you never liked her anyway

(it was really inconvenient and I probly couldn't have made the recordings but I just mean that much as I enjoy the show it's not a life's ambition to be on it unlike University Challenge.)

ireland needs a UV i feel, but i dunno hve we a presenter with the necessary imposing manner.

http://cms.cbg.ie/imageupload/Article953_Gay%20Byrne.JPG

FTW

http://www.renefiles.com/OK/images/odo9.jpg

Gaybo was terrible doing our 'Millionaire' so I doubt he'd be able to refrain from giving hints at a higher level.

Pat Kenny, though. Maybe.

didn't ireland already have this anyway with kevin myers?

jeez did they? he'd be the right man alright.

yeah pretty sure i remember some 90s version. hard to believe rte didn't copy this.

was trying to think of the shitty name they gave it, it was called CHALLENGING TIMES