QI XL Full Episode: Roaming | Series R With Sara Pascoe, Josh Widdicombe and Benjamin Zephaniah

[@urd247]

REST IN PEACE BENJAMIN 😢 Keep composing while decomposing 🕊

[@paulinemably9572]

"when I'm decomposing, I'm still composing". Benjamin Zephaniah is just an incredible man. I never get books signed but I made an exception for him at an event with him because I just wanted an excuse to speak to him and he did not disappoint - so lovely and so utterly charming.

[@vivienneoneill5400]

He seems lovely to see ❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@vivienneoneill5400]

Too.❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@msbluejayway]

I heard of Benjamin Zephaniah's passing today, and I immidiately thought of this episode.

[@al145]

I had to look this up, apparently he had a brain tumor that they must've found way too late because he died only a couple weeks after diagnosed, how sad. I only know about him from watching these various UK panel shows, he seemed like a very interesting person.

[@etrosen1]

Very sad. Such a cool guy, seemed like he would be so easy and interesting to talk to

[@kathrynrobertson2353]

So sad. RIP Benjamin.

[@lukethomas658]

Oh, that's so sad. Didn't make the news in the US. He was charming here.

[@mloxard]

Oh :(

[@roberto8650]

I'm 1/32 Raramuri (and very much 31/32 Spanish). My grandmother used to tell me stories about her more indigenous family members. They're a remarkable people.

[@N.I.R.A.T.I.A.S.]

17:15 Alan shouting at the QI elves is great.

[@brummiejojo]

Benjamin was such an interesting guy. The world needs more people like him. A sad loss.

[@wonky_shoebox7514]

I remember at the back of the Lion King magazines there was stories that always had a moral message, I think they were Anansi stories. I loved that magazine

[@namewithheld129]

such a great episode.

[@Professicchio]

RIP Benjamin Zephaniah ❤‍🩹

[@wasjosh]

Just because you can’t speak ill of the dead doesn’t mean you should be remembering this piece of work.

[@user-lb9xw4xf2q]

@@wasjosh What did he do wrong?

[@RealBradMiller]

26:48 I had a Chihuahua-Daschund mix that was so fast and fierce. There was no playing of the children, or acting out from other dogs. Birds, including vultures, opossum, squirrels, cats, guns, flies, leaves that were too big... Nothing escaped her wraith. Rest in peace, Gaia. You dwell in Sovngarde. 🖖

[@Rjs81187]

Skyrim is great!

[@Rjs81187]

Ur chihuahua sounds great also

[@DarrenEden-ub4vj]

The oldest house in Australia is Captain Cook's cottage. It is the house where Captain James cook was born. It was pulled down in England and rebuilt in Australia stone by stone. It is in Melbourne on park land, and anybody can visit it.

[@fordz1965]

I wish Benjamin was on more often very interesting to listen to ❤

[@babyjeff10]

I'm not an avid QI watcher and not very familiar with British celebrities. I loved Benjamin Zephaniah's quote about composing while decomposing so I googled him to see some of his work and just found out he passed away yesterday. So sad 😢

[@lexigrimhaive]

Rest in Peace, Benjamin. 🖤

[@spadebraithwaite1762]

Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming were very close neighbours in the tiny, Oxfordshire village of Middle Barton. Anyone who has ever been to Middle Barton will tell you, it would have been cheeper just to put a fence around it, rather than send them all to prison.

[@osomorose]

They said that town in Romania started religious tolerance in 1500 or so, but the mongols had tolerated any religion in their empire long before then

[@sottosopravoce]

And the Muslim rule in Spain

[@quokka0.0nraven]

​​@@sottosopravocethis comment was too simplistic. Not sure what it refers to

[@marycanary86]

gotta respect benjamin for trying his best to beat the game LOL

[@lanawright1353]

I liked the point Benjamin made about how a lot of history thst is attributed to Europeans is wrongly attributed and ignores the history of cultures outside of Europe. Perhaps saying "Romans invted welfare in Europe" would be more fitting. Also, cool fact about the spider stories, thanks!

[@al145]

Yeah, one of the things I remember reading about is some palaces in Zimbabwe (I think?) and the europeans refused to believe that the people living there at the time were the actual descendants of those who built the palaces, so they arbitrarily decided that the current residents must've either taken over or driven out the builders of them, even though the people had stories about how their ancestors had built them and how they did it. The issue with oral traditions is that if the people that know them don't speak the same language as the historians that write things down, or if they die off or get killed, you lose massive chunks of history of corners of the world that you can never get back.

[@GingerCC-he8be]

I think the question was what did the Romans contribute to Britain, but it is still a good point of history to mention

[@OrpheoCT]

I'm just learning of the existence of George Eliot. It's quite interesting to me how both France and Britain had women authors that used the pen name "George something" practically contemporaneously. And in the current main images of their English Wikipedia articles they have the same hairdo! It's like discovering about St Michael's Mount in Cornwall all over again

[@AyyZaj]

Nike ACTUALLY makes a sneaker called the "Huarache", so yes, you can get a swoosh on a Huarache

[@donnarouse9432]

I am undereducated . My great grandparents (maternal )! Came from hjorring denmark went to cushing wisconsin. Later when my grandparents my momma's parents. Moved to south east wisconsin. I never got to know them that i know of. So did not learn any danish language. My only troubles were doing genealogy on them. Was the names changed. You really had to know their first names. And i learned that the danes broke dishes on new years. Some of the pieces were embedded in the sidewalk. Love the danish

[@katteebs9980]

Very odd child watching would have been me! Swear I remember watching Stephen Fry when I was 9 or so

[@m.rogers9490]

The screenplay for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was cowritten by acclaimed children's book author Roald Dahl. Producer Albert R. Broccoli, who worked on the original James Bond movies, cast much of the stock company from the Bond films in this big-screen take on Fleming's story . Ian Fleming was born in 1908 and died in 1964. He wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car in 1962. It was published as three books in 1964. Sadly Ian Fleming never saw the finished books as he died of a heart attack a couple of months before publication.

[@pottedferne]

Thank you 👍

[@quokka0.0nraven]

Who hasn't read or seen BFG?👋 outside of me

[@randylucas2458]

I have never heard of it

[@Jonevri]

I would be more concerned about who read or saw it inside of you 😅

[@Jonevri]

I am familiar with the Big Friendly Giant, but I haven't read it.

[@peterleijenbaarn]

In Dutch. 😂 GVR

[@Palmieres]

Whenever someone says BFG I keep waiting for them to add 9,000 to it (if you know, you know).

[@jb888888888]

Jigsaw puzzles virtually never come with the number of pieces printed on the box, for some reason. There aren't "missing" pieces, they just don't label them 100% accurately.

[@leofredette19]

Good job Alan.

[@stephenconnolly3018]

Roald Dahl was also a fighter pilot in the second world war. Was he a polymath ( a word I learn on QI)

[@jb888888888]

In _The Life of Brian_ when they said that the Romans "gave" them those things they didn't mean that the Romans invented them. They meant that the Romans brought those things to Judea.

[@NothingIsKnown00]

Has Benjamin been on the show again? He's amazing in this episode.

[@WiggyWamWam]

15:25 I think the difference of the Romans is that their Welfare was from the government, but surely even that had existed before

[@bobburroughs6241]

Sara a delight as usual.

[@georginemurphy7927]

What does it stand for?

[@Daniel-yy5tx]

37:20 Does anyone know the title of the biography? It sounds interesting, I'd like to read it.

[@JacksonBockus]

I believe they’re referring to The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

[@SkyBlue-cv8qb]

19:28 So you're telling me Romania invented "Not being a bigot"?

[@mikeyb2932]

I'm with you on that. I'm pretty sure there was plenty of religious tolerance before religions became intolerant of other religions.

[@jonlowing7907]

That's ironic; Australia, the driest inhabited continent on Earth, has one of the world's largest rain forests!

[@greymouser8659]

Benjamin...a big loss. R.I.P

[@dirtapple1716]

They know about Kensington in Philadelphia PA in the UK?!?

[@SWJ_]

No the original Kensington is in London. Almost all city/town names in the US are copied. For example Birmingham, Boston, Hampshire, Jersey, York, etc.

[@dirtapple1716]

@@SWJ_ You should lookup Kensington Philadelphia, then you'll get the joke.

[@asincerewoman]

I love the Lister 300% mortality rate story, but it may be fiction. Apparently, there is no documentation of this surgery. Surely it would have been written up if it was the only surgery of its kind? The story is a good way of telling the history of Lister and early surgery though, so who gives a toss!

[@tranquilitybase7860]

Sara Pascoe looks like she is family of David Bowie and Michael Caine.

[@randylucas2458]

21:24+- Michael Jackson

[@onemercilessming1342]

My students read it independently. So, I didn't have to. My daughter did; my son never did.

[@agnesvanya2329]

Romania did not invent religious tolerance. King Janos Zsigmond was the Hungarian King of Hungary and the first Prince of Transylvania. Transylvania stayed part of Hungary for hundreds of years afterwards, until the Treaty of Trianon after WWI. The QI Elves muffed this one.

[@jb888888888]

I have never read the BFG. I don't think I've even heard of it outside of this episode of _QI._

[@ripdbtpoo1441]

Nor I, but it is very famous.

[@AyyZaj]

There's a BFG movie out

[@themeat5053]

Of course....Benjamin.

[@InservioLetum]

I love it when Ms. Pascoe is on, she's a riveting storyteller and a looker to boot!

[@roberto8650]

She's very clever.

[@salimkhd8713]

It was a delight how full of information she was. Her and Benjamin were a lovely pair of stories and facts, and a compelling way of conveying them. I don't recall any other QI episode where there were so many instances of the whole room being quiet while one of the panelists told their tales

[@mikeyb2932]

I don't think Romania gave us religious tolerance. Pretty sure there were plenty of religious tolerance before religions became intolerant of other religions.

[@magster6022]

The Chinese invented pasta.

[@HomoSeal]

My favorite Danish words are "slutspurt" and "fagliteratur"

[@ripdbtpoo1441]

I add myself to the nascent list below.l read Dahl's sadistic ADULT books too young.

[@barryfrench2534]

28:49 "It's so great how they murder this bird"....She should have been gonged by the elves for such a stupid comment. Murder can ONLY be committed by one human being against another human being..

[@wasjosh]

Gross.

[@wpa6781]

Sara in not a smart person

[@nybbleme]

You definitely haven't seen Stacy Solomon or Maya Jama or Joey Essex on anything then

[@ConstantChaos1]

Please tell me that this is ironic

[@grantmcinnes1176]

She's about the smartest comic I see on TV now.

[@wpa6781]

@@grantmcinnes1176 me like talking english many times

[@grantmcinnes1176]

@@wpa6781 much good przyjaciel 👍. Try many time. 💗

[@Zhixalom]

@23:53 - It is not like we actually can do that much for female pianists, in the matter of the physical size of their hands. Although, I really struggle with why this would even be an issue. I mean, it seems like the entire purpose for all kinds of things coming in different sizes, would be to address exactly these kinds of problems. So, simply make piano keyboards or even just the pianos themselves in different sizes. Just to be clear, that would mean the same amount of keys/notes and octaves, only the keys being smaller or at least less wide. - This is just too stupid a thing to even be a thing... I'm worried that Sandy (my fellow Dane) is getting all frustrated, with the world on behalf of female pianists, over absolutely nothing. 🤔 🥸😁

[@salimkhd8713]

You are exactly spot on, and somehow still missing the point. Yes you are right, make pianos of different sizes that would suit women's hands......The thing is though, they don't. Sure if you googled you could probably find one or two amazon links here and there, but by all practical accounts, if you are a woman pianist, you get forced to learn on, compose on, compete against on a piano that is not fit for your size. The solution is so simple, but it gets ignored because women are expected to be the ones to manage while things get made for men's sizes and averages. Which is the issue at hand, sure it may seem that this pianist thing is pretty trivial (unless yk you are a woman wanting to learn the piano) but this mentality of there being such an easy solution to accommodate to women but still not doing so and forcing them to have a handicap their peers don't, is the issue that pops up again and again in all sorts of fields and examples

[@Zhixalom]

​@@salimkhd8713 Am I though? "missing the point". I was under the impression that this was exactly the point I was trying to convey. - This issue may seem more predominant for women. But I have a male friend with hands twice the size of mine and another with hands at least about 1/3 smaller. Not that I have ever given the size of my own hands much thought, I'd reckon them to be about average... and that's my very point. Regardless of who we are, we tend to be obliviously ignorant about issues we don't really have ourselves. That's not a profoundly male or female trait in my experience, but just plain old human nature in general. So, I fail to see this as a topic of gender or a discrimination of body-size. I doubt it has even been a fully conscious thought. As if somewhere in the past a bunch of piano builders at a piano builder convention, would have been sober enough to coherently assemble the fiendishly evil idea of "let's all discriminate against people with small hands"... nope, that sounds more like a Monty Python sketch to me. It is far more likely just an infuriatingly dumb 3¼ of a century old social inheritance. I am sure that even Bartolomeo Cristofori likely just conveniently designed the piano keys after the sizes of his own hands and fingers. The technical level of any mechanical construction of the time being rather microscopically challenged. Then a few hundred years later once technology actually had progressed enough, how a piano-keyboard was sized and looked had just become a socially accepted habit, and nobody with any influence was even remotely aware of it being an issue. But that is not how the world works anymore. You don't have to wait around for anyone to make anything for you. There are many affordable design tools available to us, which we can use right in the comfort of our own homes. We don't even have to make the components we need ourselves. We can for the most part make our designs to use off-the-shelf components and there are plenty of companies out there willing and able to turn any custom component designed by any private person, into smaller batches of something tangible and real, using professional 3D printers, laser cutters, or metal sheet folding machines, etc. Some of these companies will even either partially or completely assemble it for you, without you having to sell a kidney to afford it... and then we also have crowd funding. People have to be shown that things don't have to be the way they are. That is just how adds, commercials, and marketing in general has conditioned us to think on a subconscious level today (scary, I know). But, someone first has to decide to stand up and break the mold. If enough people are frustrated about the one-size-fits-all mentality of piano-keyboards... that is just another way of saying there is a market for several size variations.