How To Conceive A Girl Or A Boy | QI

[@Leron...]

I love the chemistry between Sandi and Stephen, I'd love to see a new episode where he comes on as a contestant.

[@brydon5721]

Seconded. If nothing else he had to come back or the last episode of the Z Series.

[@meesdeby6663]

Lets make a petition for this. Let the internet do its work

[@dogcarman]

Fourthed. Definitely worth watching. But I bet there’ll be a lot of klaxons. 😂

[@TrevorCopter]

I was about to say that this is the birth of Sandi and Alan’s chemistry 🤣🤣 But totally agree about S+S!

[@metalmadsen]

Agree

[@ronburgundy9771]

Now that Sandi is host, Stephen needs to return as a guest on the panel.

[@clivecosta-correa2102]

Echo that!

[@danquaylesitsspeltpotatoe8307]

Now that Sandi is host they need to get a host they are not ashamed to use on the adverts!

[@gregorydillon9167]

Such a nice clip. You can see the hints of what is to come with Sandi and Alan

[@StrangeDuck]

"theres a problem with your argument"... omg, i died.

[@Tinker1950]

Oops... misread your name in this context Richard - thought it was 'Strange Dick'.

[@Outspoken.Humanist]

"We've all heard the rustle of a magazine from the other end". Hilarious!

[@praalgraf]

sandi and stephen are always a treat together

[@davidfmelbourne3473]

Hilarious. So glad this show continues to be produced. So much fun

[@milanakik1539]

One might also say the show is quite interesting

[@sharks3010]

1:56 "Well there was probably a secret agent around the corner!" 🤣🤣🤣

[@honorguard88]

Only guys will understand this one! LOL great timing from Stephen

[@eoghanclark165]

It's so true 🤣

[@jsowau]

That last interaction between Sandi and Alan was priceless😂

[@Gormathius]

I always love it when they use their buzzer as the answer.

[@DrZaius3141]

If it were about caloric intake, there would be a vast difference in the ratio of the sexes between now and a few centuries ago, yet there isn't, so this seems like a bad study. Temperature (which I often hear as well) is also ludicruos because that would imply that different climates have different ratios.

[@Gogoglovitch]

It's easy for a single study to fall prey to any number of possible errors -- bad design, non-random sample selection, or just a streak of coincidences. That's why it's so important for science to be peer-reviewed, and for anything important to be examined in multiple independent studies.

[@alimanski7941]

Your argument implies all other conditions remain constant, however over generations physiology would adjust to, say, higher caloric intake or a different climate (perhaps even genetically), and it could be argued then that the ratio tends towards 50%.

[@jordivermeulen2519]

I'm not familiar with the study in question, but it's possible that the effect was observed when increasing caloric intake compared to normal levels.

[@fearghal10]

Right now sea turtle populations are pretty fucked as their gestation really does seem to be temperature sensitive: over a certain threshold makes females more likely and vise versa. Thanks to climate change, turtles are now being born with a wildly disproportionate number of females, which is likely to have a serious impact on their population... Luckily, they do survive a long time, they they might outlive humanity long enough to bounce back

[@TheTuttle99]

The study found 56 out of 100. So roughly half of an extremely small sample size.

[@MarcelHuguenin]

For a non native English speaker it would be very helpful to have auto captions on, it's sometime very difficult to understand what is being said and the punchline is missed. Can this function be enabled please?

[@JohnyG29]

Just learn English.

[@MarcelHuguenin]

@@JohnyG29 That's quite a rude comment. I am perfectly capable of understanding English. It's the nature of a show like this where people often speak fast and simultaneously that makes it sometimes difficult to just hear wat is being said. The AI trained on the language and providing the captions might just provide the missing word(s) for me to understand what was said. It has nothing to do with learning the language. I take it that you are not able to read and understand my native language Dutch?

[@andrewklang809]

I'm a native English speaker (but American) and I still missed what I have to assume is the key word in Sandi's anecdote about her son. "If one of them is [something], you've still got one to do for you." Some English dialects often throw me (Cockney, Geordie, and some from the far North), but Posh and RP are usually the easiest to understand, but no matter how many times I listen to that joke, I cannot understand it. Something about the way she mumbles when doing an impression of her young son. It sounds like she's saying "poorly", which would make logical sense, but be a very different dialectical way of phrasing a sentence than I'm used to, especially as children aren't known for speaking in complicated ways.

[@antalkarolyi]

@@andrewklang809 ‘if one of them is poorly’ I believe

[@MarcelHuguenin]

@@andrewklang809 Right. And all of this dialect stuff makes it even harder for a non native speaker to hear what is being said, no matter who says it. I've learned quite a lot over the last couple of years, listening to hours of English spoken video, both from the UK and from the US. Learned a lot of slang and dialect but cannot compare to a native speaker.

[@rossmurray6849]

At 1:35 Sandi says, "And those people who had Coco Pops had chimpanzees." It's a fantastical idea but also a logical and rational conclusion from the statements which preceded it.

[@NewMessage]

That's why I always shout "Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!" when I finish.

[@lancer525]

Don't get much, do you?

[@Zraknul]

Doesn't football regularly end nil - nil?

[@TheMansbro]

It would have been nice to hear him do an East Anglian accent which he can. I believe he has a place in Southwold and the accent is very difficult to do if you’ve never lived there. Actors get it wrong all the time and mistake it for the West Country accent.

[@emilybarclay8831]

I studied something similar to this in uni. Maybe it’s possible that having a higher number of boys during periods of scarcity would be an advantage because generally males would be hunters and would leave the group upon puberty whereas girls tended to stay with their matrilineal families. So sons are a shorter-term investment than girls, which is ideal for periods of scarcity. A woman eating a diet lower in fat and sugars and higher in grains and similar foods may be getting interpreted by her body as a period of low quality food availability, and therefore producing a daughter who may compete with her mother in the near future lowers the mother’s reproductive fitness. Also girls reach fertile age far earlier than boys, so if you have a girl you’ll be having grandkids earlier which is not ideal during a famine

[@strangelic4234]

Can anybody tell me what Sandi says at 2:23 after "marvellous. If one of them ..."?

[@nayrecitsuj7426]

If one of them is poorly you've still got another one to do for you.😁

[@fifinoir]

‘If one of them is poorly, you’ve still got one to do for you’ as in one still able to take care of you I’m guessing.

[@Farweasel]

I cannot recall Bloodhound Gang's specific song/track (its on the 'Hooray for Boobies' album) but am mindful they commend 'Do it doggy style so we can both watch X-Files'. I don't recall the probabilty differential this might induce with regarding the sex of any resulting offspring.

[@Lord_Skeptic]

The bad touch

[@sheerluckholmes5468]

Many years ago the Royal Navy did some studies with their divers and apparently those on active diving duties were more likely to have daughters than those not on diving duties.

[@viktor187]

Oddly enough, maritime navigators and airline pilots are also more likely to have daughters. I believe this is due to the (slightly) increased levels of radiation. At sea from the radar scanner above the bridge and for pilots the radiation from space. Thus male-coded sperm being more fragile that female-coded sperm.

[@simonatford1]

What if it is women's football?

[@AmyWinehouse.914]

What if it's women's football that's on?

[@finaoo1167]

People who think that correlation implies causation usually wind up dead.

[@justforthis3208]

How so dead?

[@finaoo1167]

@justforthis3208 - What do you mean? They die.

[@justforthis3208]

@@finaoo1167 ah

[@bjornsan]

I don't know how true this is but I read a long time ago that fighterpilots are more likely to get daughters. They never expained why.

[@peterjf7723]

Right after a war: more boys tend to be born than girls. It's been documented for decades in many nations, especially during long conflicts with many troops deployed. The cause is not known.

[@lilymarinovic1644]

I heard the same - and that deep sea divers are more likely to have girls...perhaps related to being subject to unusual forces of air/water pressure?

[@FixYourGameplay]

Adoption? Try enough times?

[@noeldown1952]

What is Sandi saying at 2:25?

[@JDog88]

"It's marvelous. If one of them's poorly you've still got one to do for you" Edit: typo.

[@noeldown1952]

@@JDog88 thanks! I still have no idea what it means though. 🤣

[@AndrewTBP]

@@noeldown1952 It means that when one of you mothers is unwell, the other will look after you properly.

[@JDog88]

@@noeldown1952 Haha! No worries. In an outdated stereotypical family setting the mum usually cooks, cleans, washes up, etc, and the dad doesn't. So by having two mums (Sandi is gay in case you didn't know) she's saying that her son thinks it's great because even if one's sick, he's still got one to do everything for him.

[@andrewklang809]

2:52 That's a lower-pitched audience groan than you usually hear.

[@joanneentwistle7653]

As opposed to a higher pitched groan from those who were subjected to the procedure

[@SmashPortal]

Is it just me or did they stretch the video aspect ratio?

[@andrewstamford1988]

Looks like they magnified and cropped the video to fit the modern aspect ratio. Some shots seemed very tight and the video looked like it lost clarity because of that. Just a guess though.

[@fifthhoven]

US audiences never stop yowling and hooting, English audiences never stop howling with generous laughter, German audiences never stop clapping at the slighest incentive.

[@FillipJPhry]

I have been considering and reconsidering which of Sandi and Stephen is my favorite host of qi. I have determined it is more like who's the best late night American talk show host. David Letterman or Conan o'brien. They're both Legends.

[@beastbum]

Conan O' Brien pisses me right off. Have you seen that episode where he goes on a tour of a Guinness factory and won't shut up about how boring it is - 'when will I get to taste the Guinness?', generally making a prat of himself?

[@jbnelson]

@@beastbum It’s better than other hosts who mock others. His comedy makes him the terrible person and directs the laughter at himself

[@troublebreathing8648]

you can have some of mine! I have loads

[@I-Love-Taylor-Swift]

No one mentioned altitude!. It is known that high-altitude climbers (Himalayas etc) have way more girls than boys!! That is a FACT.

[@mickavoidant4780]

All that talk of where sperm comes from is a load of ... ne'mind.

[@MrFuzzyGreen]

Sandi perhaps touches on one possibility and that is that male chromosome sperm take longer to generate thus if you are trying to conceive with lots of regular sex then you will become more likely to have a girl as that's more readily left. This is according to midwives.

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

Midwives, famously known for thinking that they know more than doctors!

[@victoriaderfus4751]

Males have XY chromosomes, women are XX Edit: Spelling

[@MrFuzzyGreen]

@@sierraromeoromeo2444 well that might be the case for all non-ceasarian births however it is fair to say that they take care of all the rest and are reasonably specialised and even expert. Not to say that some aren't atrocious, Lord knows ours was.

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

@@MrFuzzyGreen "Not to say that some aren't atrocious, Lord knows ours was.."

[@MrFuzzyGreen]

@@sierraromeoromeo2444 and?

[@justinsmith4562]

Thats the first time ive seen that lady as a quest.

[@oliviadaly4795]

She's been on the show 16 times, and has hosted it from Series N onwards (123 eps including the new series T which is airing as its been filmed)

[@rayrowley4013]

All of these ways to determine gender rely on very small sample sizes and are not reliable.

[@iggysixx]

Quick to mock Pythagoras, but... has anyone TRIED tying off the left or right testicle..? What if he's right? :P

[@Sneekskier]

Go for it mate!

[@SceneArtisan]

Or left.... Which one, nobody knows! Lol.

[@iggysixx]

@@Sneekskier I'll get on it.. Right after I finish my beer.. And find a 'lab test partner' :P

[@john.premose]

Anaxagoras

[@decodolly1535]

Probably wouldn't need to tie them off specifically. There are medical reasons for men having a testicle removed. There must be many who have then gone on to father children: simple questionnaire on which knacker they still have and what gender children they produced.

[@StevieCooper]

Sandi lost weight

[@Uatu-the-Watcher]

None of this even matters. Offspring sex is determined by the male’s gamete.

[@petejones879]

I could play with Ronnie all day long

[@jclements007]

A word to the wise - never answer the phone while in the act.

[@colinstewart1432]

Yeah. The mother - in - law can really kill the mood 🤣

[@Tao_Tology]

But it might be a call about mis-sold PPI.

[@Guitar1nHand]

We're really taking this from 56%? 😂

[@ROBANN88]

if boy sperm swim fast but die quickly, would lenght of the penis play a role? like, with a long one, the starting line is closer to the ovary than with a small one, so the girl sperm has less time to overtake them?

[@Tjalve70]

If the sperm has to swim through the penis, then yes. But MOST men prefer to move their penis back and forth vigorously and then eject the sperm out by force. I'm not dissing your choice of simply inserting the penis and wait for the sperm to swim out on it's own. But I do assume it's less constructive, as well as less popular.

[@se-kmg355]

The semen is released from the penis via ejaculation at a speed of about 40km/h. Since a sperm swims about 5mm a minute, on it´s own, an average penis would take 30 min for it to swim.

[@hbuss12]

Surely not cause the starting line is still the balls, so the same place. Tho in theory if someone had a massive schlong, that would make the starting line further away as they couldnt get as close. Wtf am I going on about, things got weird fast

[@ellademore1506]

If that were the case, the opposite would be true. The starting line is at the testicles, not the urethra.

[@Etamnanki]

@@ellademore1506 Usually, the deposition of the material into the female tends to happen in an accelerated mode, so the race does indeed start at however far the start shot propels it.

[@edwardnedharvey8019]

The sex of a baby is determined by the chromasomes of sperm that reach the ovum. So anything that connects the mother's activity or diet to the sex of the baby is bunk. Sexual position, bunk. MAYBE diet of the man, or something, might affect the ratio of X vs Y sperm the man produces. All the rest of this, bunk. But QI is still a fun show, if not a reliable source of information. 😀

[@colinstewart1432]

Tbf it does only claim to be Quite Interesting.

[@paulmitchell9230]

It probably is all bunk, but since the majority of human fertilization events result in miscarriage, there is at least a potential mechanism for the mother to apply some degree of sex selection, by favouring XY or XX embryos in different circumstances. It's well known that stressed mothers give birth to more girls than boys, for example. One major hypothesis for that is in utero selection.

[@tfoksieloy]

Your comment is bunk. Egg is not fertilized by just one sperm, several need to weaken the membrane. Also, depending on egg, there is a preference to XY or XX sperm. And then mother's uterus can just not allow a XY or XX to implant.

[@paulmitchell9230]

@@tfoksieloy Really? I'm aware of some research that the egg is able to differentially attract sperm from different males, but I've not seen anything about X/Y preference (sperm cells only have one sex chromosome, of course). Got any papers I should read?

[@tfoksieloy]

@@paulmitchell9230 Research has been going on for a while, but most conclusions are derived from statistical analysis, I don't think the exact mechanism has ever been proposed or confirmed. Things like www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3478648/ or academic.oup.com/genetics/article/207/2/369/5930780 show it for many genes, and our look into other species shows it happening (like species that managed to eliminate the males all together). Even the history of the human Y shows it has been "under attack" and attempts to eliminate it from future generations are constantly under way. It is a way more complex field than just "X or Y merge with X 50% of the time, throw dice".

[@SceneArtisan]

Phew, I didn't come first.

[@Gnarlf]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Maya_Pinion]

Oh excuse me,my old gram used to say" want a boy ....woman must initiate.want a girl....man must be the aggressor.... I see it true for all my life.

[@mattdavis9601]

And if it's a tie you get twins?

[@filmfan4]

But the sex is decided by the sperm, so it's what the father does, not the mother!

[@blackeyedsusan727]

No. It's reasonable that he ejects sperm that are both X and Y (if he's normal?). But both the ovum and the uterus select further. We are not just empty vessels, you twat.

[@Kromaatikse]

There's a long-standing traditional method that actually works reasonably well. Let's say your life's ambition is to have a son. So "Mummy and Daddy love each other very much" and you'll *probably* get a boy or a girl. If it's a girl you take it as a bonus and try again. Repeat as required.

[@tygrkhat4087]

My folks tried for two of each, but got one boy and three girls.

[@SimonMoon5]

One of my cousins tried that. Four girls later, they gave up.

[@dandy-lions5788]

tell that to Henry VIII

[@peterjf7723]

My wife has six sisters and one brother.

[@FriedRiceINC]

Mr. Bennett would disagree with you

[@tamielizabethallaway2413]

Here's an interesting fact for Mummies.... When a lady gives birth to a son...part of his DNA stays in your brain forever. It doesn't happen with girls. I think it's something to do with the fact our eggs are all female, if we could reproduce without men all of our eggs would produce girls. So a female sex sperm fertilising an egg seals the deal. But a male sperm fertilising an egg has to change the development of the blastocyst. (very early pregnancy conception.... Still just cells diving and multiplying) The two gonads grow inside the female to keep warm and her belly encloses them as ovaries. The two gonads in the boy push down lower and the belly closes off with them outside, as testicles to be kept cooler separate from the body. A basic egg has all of the information to structurally form a female shape...but a male sperm has to reorganise that blueprint, make things grow inside out. I'm sure that's the stage where sexuality is determined also, depending on which of the parent's orientations wins out. Anyhoo, somewhere in that male forming process, the mother's body has to adapt to be able to grow this baby boy, and that adjustment stays within that mother forever. It's why statistically, more miscarriages are of male babies, than girls. I guess a bit like a recipient's body rejecting a donor organ as it doesn't recognise it. More male babies are miscarried where the mother's female body doesn't recognise the male growing inside of her. With organ transplants they give drugs to the recipient to prevent the risk of rejection. Growing a baby boy demands that her body make a similar "drug" or chemical change within to prevent rejection. And to do that it has to take on an analysis of this male, in order to incorporate it onto her body's "OK" list. It's that anti rejection recognition that stays in the mum forever after. Clearly I'm no scientist and don't know the correct terminology to explain, so it's in layman's terms, but the scientific conclusions made a very interesting read. I think our body's are so clever, complex, bizarre, surreal, wondrous and surprising all at once! Like mind-blowingly-incredible! Did you know that if your heart develops blockages, that the heart will attempt to grow new extra tubes for blood flow to bypass the blocked piece! They reach out like skinny tentacles, getting longer, curling outside of the blocked area until it plugs itself into healthy tissue of the heart on the other side. Isn't that incredible??? Did you know that people with one blue eye and one green have two different DNAs??! One DNA is theirs...the other is their twin's! The twin that THEY absorbed whilst in the womb together! 😳 Just past the blastocyst stage where skin is starting to enclose the the developing foetus, it can often grow around their twin as well...so not just conjoined, but one actually growing around the other to incorporate both blastocysts into one person. Just simple cysts are fascinating! How the body finds an excess pile of "gunk" and wraps it up into it's own little ball to contain it, and stop it spreading. Things like that just blow my mind! 😊

[@rileyvilla6276]

My wife had Bran Flakes and bananas at least twice a day and we had a girl

[@mortenu.5606]

Sadly, she wanted a monkey

[@petesmith9472]

Who IS that brunette… hmmmm

[@AndrewTBP]

Your answer is in the description of the video.

[@ann-margretparke9525]

Never got why women had to diet when it is the men who determin the baby sex. Guys should be the dieting ones.

[@AndrewTBP]

These are superstitions.

[@MrHappyFabian]

​@@AndrewTBPactually, what Stephen is saying about the calories is the results of a study, which has more merits but as with anything related to science, our knowledge may change about it. So it's not a superstition, but not a set in stone fact either. Just a quite interesting factoid.

[@joyl7842]

Statistical oddities, not actual reliable facts.

[@TheRealMirCat]

This all is a severe case of 'correlation does not = causation' yet it's up being scientific superstition.

[@notthemessiah9243]

Apparently a lot of athletes have only girls and I thought perhaps steroids could affect which spermicide are produced by shutting down the endocrine system

[@CharlieQuartz]

I will never understand the appeal of Ronni's "dumb" routine.

[@andrewstamford1988]

Maybe it's not a routine. Have you thought of that? Entertainers aren't generally known for being scholars.

[@sstills951]

Meh, she's harmless. I kind of like her and I'm not even sure why she's famous or what she does. I'm not in the UK.

[@andrewstamford1988]

@@sstills951 Apparently a comedian, actor and some other things. But as with yourself, she kinda flies under my radar as I haven't seen her outside of QI.

[@bazzakrak]

And this is the episode where the brilliant line about women comedians just talk to much from Jack

[@oscargr_]

It's probably the most memorable joke in QI history. It is the one I always remember anyways.

[@bazzakrak]

One of my favs as well@@oscargr_ The timing on it is just so excellent and Jack just delivers it in a nice cold manner of fact way

[@haeuptlingaberja4927]

Fookin' legend. A scientific explanation of why we short-sighted, short-lived, violent men generate more medals and massacres, but can't last long enough to satisfy anyone.

[@nayrecitsuj7426]

This was an excellent clip. However, I'm very surprised that they would upload such common sense remarks in this current climate. I'm not even being snarky. I'm actually shocked.

[@ShannonJacobs0]

Why do complaints about the increase in annoying KZbin ads get more reactions than substantive comments? Theory 1: Paid trolls? But why? Theory 2: Commissions for AdBlockers? Naw, too weird, but also unethical and ineffective. Theory 3: KZbin wants profits! ROFLMAO. No theory: KZbin is more and more annoying. Please tell me about a better video website.

[@dabidibup]

I read somewhere that whoever the dominant partner is, that’s the sex of the baby. I guess with the cereal bit, if the man is working the woman can stay at home and eat all the cereal she wants, but a working woman might not have time to eat as much early before work

[@oliviadaly4795]

How would that work in a same sex partnership where the sperm or egg is donated? I know of a lesbuan couple who used one partner's egg & the other partner's brother's sperm (so the kid would be genetically related to both of them) - who'd be the more dominant partner in a situation like that, where they aren't partner's?

[@simon-rl6wd]

boy sperm. girl sperm.. taste the same to me. thinks stephen.

[@PowerMadLabRat]

I feel sorry for Sandy's son. It sounds like she thought the idea was to avoid giving birth to boys at all... "So you don't want to have cream cakes just before?" I do hope I'm wrong about that.

[@willg9106]

Idk I took it as her saying to avoid favouring either sex at all because obviously imbalance is a bad thing

[@Tao_Tology]

No dear, the question put was 'How do you get (concieve) a girl?'.

[@BathersonMote]

"How to conceive a girl or a boy"? Well yeah, there's not a lot of other options.

[@scottgordon7754]

This is the, women aren't funny episode, a much better clip...

[@Dim4323]

How DNA Test so you can see if their boy or girl

[@adedow1333]

There are a few different ways the OBs can run a test on a fetus, but they're mostly invasive and if you wait a few months you can have the ultrasound anyway. If you want a test run on the sperm itself you'll need a fertility clinic and lots of specialized equipment

[@bek17x]

@@adedow1333 or you can just have a NIPT, a simple blood test. That’s hardly invasive.

[@andrewstamford1988]

@@bek17x Or they can wait 9 months, that usually works well.

[@dorkarama3135]

"So you don't want to have cream and cakes just before". says Sandi, obviously thinking: why would anyone want a son? Stephen had to say: "if you want a girl", but it's so transparent that Sandi meant that sentence just in general; as is evidenced by her disparaging comments about her son.

[@john.premose]

The question Stephen asked was “how do you get a girl”. You love to be wrong don’t you?

[@dorkarama3135]

@@john.premose I stand corrected, I misheard the start of the video.

[@john.premose]

@@dorkarama3135 because you were only too eager to mishear it

[@jaymercer4692]

Sandi obviously loves her son. She often tells loving anecdotes about her son and her son was actually on a QI episode once. You had a theory and decided to fix the facts around that but fair enough you admitted your mistake.

[@dorkarama3135]

@@john.premose Not really. I'd imbibed, so my senses were dulled so I missed the start of the video. I accept the initial criticism, though.

[@theurbancrystalhealer6952]

All of these Theories are wrong. There is only one way a sex can be determined

[@Exocartonic]

Please we all know the kindergarten teacher decides what gender your kids are.😐

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

Oh dear, someone is triggered!

[@diedampfbrasse98]

isnt it hilarious that its no longer the minorities, SJWs and feminists who cry and whine the loudest as they are triggered by the tiniest farts, but the mass of cavemen who fail to cope with the modern world and its laughable small challenges?!

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

@@diedampfbrasse98 Just a small correction, those cave dwellers are in no way "men", they are just trolls!