QI | Who First Swam The English Channel?

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This clip is from QI Series C, Episode 2, 'Cummingtonite' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Andy Hamilton, Doon Mackichan and Arthur Smith.

[@Jumpmaster337]

Stephen looks amazing for someone born in 1875!

[@Daniel-ht4wr]

You should have been on the show lol

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

@@Daniel-ht4wr No, we like to see witty people here in the UK, not tedious dullards!

[@John_Smith_60]

@@sierraromeoromeo2444 Then don't look in any mirrors.

[@marycanary86]

im surprised no one made that joke on the show lol

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

@@John_Smith_60 Aww, ain't you a real comedic genius! What a shame that you'll never climb out of the bottom-half of the internet. Oh well, my life carries on regardless! Toodle pip.

[@Baiko]

I didn't even realize this was a new one, I was just happy to notice a QI clip without the red stripe under it on my recommended page.

[@LeornianCyng]

I miss Arthur Smith, Doon Mackichan and Andy Hamilton as panelist’s on QI. I hope they come on again. This was a classic.

[@ludviglagerstedt5726]

and stephen fry

[@Monkey80llx]

Agreed. Proper comedy brains,...not Jimmy Carr 😆

[@commandert5]

There was definitely a noticeable change in Stephen's last couple series towards a newer generation of comedians

[@tobyanderson5382]

The title seemed so normal and harmless, but alas, it's QI, nothing is normal and harmless

[@nicholascrow8133]

THE moon...

[@peterclarke7006]

@@nicholascrow8133 which one? 🤣

[@KissedByFire16]

Mostly Harmless

[@devilsadvocate1597]

And there I was thinking it was Mr Plesiosaur some 200 million years ago. Also interesting that @0:52 Mr Fry has the same birthday, August 24th 1875. I didn't think he was that old!

[@DoABarrelRol1l]

I figured he was about that old given how much he knows and his vocabulary.

[@BlackwingHecate]

I mean, at that point, the Channel wasn't there. The Doggerland was still above water.

[@martinpoole1451]

@@BlackwingHecate You got there before me, Doggerland disappeared approx 6500 BC so the channel is very recent (in geological terms) no dinosaurs would have seen the channel as they would have walked across it when the Britain was a peninsular.

[@Chimera_Photography]

Omg 😂 his tizzy about Stephen is spot on! “For every fact I share, you’ve got an even better one!” Lol I mean, the man has dined with the queen, and Vincent Price (assuming, separate occasions). How can one top anyone who has stories like THAT to tell? 😆

[@creamyonions98]

Well, Gyles Brandreth has a personal anecdote about every single historical figure ever as he's related to all of them.

[@KishoreShenoy1994]

2:05 Arthur, don't you know Stephen Fry? He always has a top fact

[@jerribee1]

Ruuuuude !

[@almostfm]

I can't believe Alan missed the chance to answer "a blue whale".

[@bazza945]

It's part of the fun. He also has a problem with Earth's moons.

[@almostfm]

@@bazza945 Of which there is exactly one. Cruithne is not a moon, the Earth/Moon system is not a double-planet (the barycenter needs to be between the two bodies for that), and a bunch of garbage can-sized pieces of rock are not Moons.

[@MrDeyzel]

I miss Stephen Fry so much.

[@mgutkowski]

I remember thinking how much fun this episode was because they weren't all trying to score 'comedy' points off each other. Arthur Smith: what a legend

[@221b-Maker-Street]

Except Arthur cuts right across Doon when she's already started to answer Stephen's question directed at her: 1:18

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

@@221b-Maker-Street Well, it didn't kill her, so no harm done, snowflake!

[@bradleynoneofyourbizz5341]

I believe it was my pet fish, Eric.

[@Richard_Jones]

Was he annnnn.....halibut?

[@slyhatjones]

first person to swim the channel was probably some paleolithic person just after sea levels rose as the glaciers melted, to the point that the channel existed but was only a few feet across

[@angrytedtalks]

I thought that, but if they needed a name, that would present a problem. Wasn't the channel a combination of the Rhine, Seine and Thames flowing together into the Atlantic?

[@rollin340]

I miss Stephen Fry's wit. Sandy was truly the perfect follow-up.

[@baldrbraa]

Yes, she’s a thunder-stealer too

[@bazza945]

I like the quick quip about Stephen, from the curly headed Hobbit, "...we forget you grew up in an Enid Brighton novel".

[@baldrbraa]

@@bazza945 *Enid Blyton

[@danmar007]

So did David Walliams. And he never let's you forget. :-)

[@bartonseagrave9605]

David who?

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

Link a clip of him saying it! He never mentions it, it's just the sad, pathetic little trolls that live in the bottom-half of the internet that do!

[@XeonTSD]

Happy Birthday Mr Fry! haha KZbin happened to play this just in time.

[@danmar007]

I thought I had seen all QI episodes, but many of these clips are unknown to me. I wonder if they come from the extended versions?

[@221b-Maker-Street]

Stephen: _Do you know what happened to Captain Webb?_ Doon: _He died of---_ Arthur: _YES, I DO, HE---_ 🙄

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

Don't worry, SJW, she didn't suffer from PTSD as a result, unlike you!

[@steviebudden3397]

Yeah, I thought he was a bit rude there as well.

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

@@steviebudden3397 You do know that they talk for 2-3 hours and it's edited down to make 30-45 minutes? You're seriously not that stupid?

[@bipolarminddroppings]

I'm going to assume it was some type of sponge millions of years ago...

[@merlinious01]

Or some phytoplankton carried by a current. Not to mention just normal fish.

[@telectronix1368]

If you go that far back there was no channel.

[@OriginalPiMan]

I was thinking some paleolithic person right when the channel last flooded, and so the swim would have been a matter of metres.

[@bipolarminddroppings]

@@telectronix1368 you know what they are like on QI, they would find some technical way to make it work...

[@bipolarminddroppings]

@@OriginalPiMan thats a really clever thought. Exactly the kind of answer a QI elf wouldnt have thought up to klaxon you.

[@mrav8r]

Happy birthday Stephen Fry!

[@002DrEvil]

If Stephen Fry had been a contestant on this show he would have won every episode.

[@logruszed]

The actual first person to swim the channel was probably just a super unpopular French caveman.

[@markc7440]

Jam!! 😂😂😂😂

[@bingola45]

Araminty Potter was the first woman to swim the channel. Her daughter was the first female jockey to win the Grand National.

[@alalcoolj216]

I was expecting "Blue Whale"

[@richard6440]

Births Sep 1962 (>99%) MACKICHAN Sarah D BOWER Westminster = Doon Mackichan (born 1961/1962) is a British actress = Mackichan swam the English Channel in 1998, as part of a six-person relay team

[@rickrose5377]

Byron mentions his feat in 'Don Juan': "A better Swimmer you could scarce see Ever, He could, perhaps, have passed the Hellespont, As Once (a feat on which ourselves we prided) Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did."

[@CricketEngland]

Who wouldn’t want to cover Doon in peanut butter eh Alan

[@martinpoole1451]

Doon is fit.

[@frankbevan413]

Captain webb was the first person recorded ---- for all you know = 100s could of made that swim before him

[@angrytedtalks]

What? No klaxon? I knew about Captain Webb, so I assumed it was wrong...

[@RJSRdg]

Except I wanted to say Harry Webb, who is someone different entirely.....

[@growlerthedog]

0:00 *raises hand*

[@stephencresswell4760]

What did Byron swim?

[@fuferito]

Byron swam the Hellespont, on the Dardanelles Strait, in Turkey; it separates Europe from Asia.

[@Richard_Jones]

Front crawl

[@TheKeebster1]

The Butterfly.

[@barbarajoseph-adam8337]

My great-great-great-great-grandmother.

[@peterclarke7006]

I have to admit, I got a bit of a Rory McGrath feel from the guy in the blue shirt and glasses... He seemed so desperate to prove that he knew stuff that he talked over someone who'd actually swum the channel and clearly knew their stuff, and then got upset when Stephen kept trumping his facts. Maybe I'm misinterpreting this, but this is supposed to be QI, not University Challenge.

[@johng.1703]

I didn't know Stephen was that old, born in 1875.

[@Clearlight201]

Actually, prior to Captain Webb an Irishman was almost the first to swim the channel. He got within 200 yards of France then thought 'I'll never make it.' So he swam back.

[@JohnyG29]

@ERA CASTE It's a joke...

[@Elitist20]

@@WeaselKing1000 OK, so your girlfriend dumped you for an Irishman, no need to take it out on all of them.

[@sierraromeoromeo2444]

@@Elitist20 Well done, you got that prick to delete his comment. You won the internet yesterday :)

[@magnuswalker7957]

My bet would be a prehistoric fish.

[@d007ization]

No twist surprise about some person who swam across it in pre-stone age times when England was closer to France or somesuch QI-ness, thank goodness.

[@violetskies14]

I think when man first came to Britain we were still connected to Europe by Doggerland which eventually flooded as sea levels rose creating the island of Great Britain as we know it today so there was no channel to cross back then otherwise I'm sure they would have pulled that lol.

[@TimPortantno]

Easy, "Blue Whale"

[@RubyDoobieScoo]

Stephen was born in 1875?

[@jamesbutler6253]

Fish

[@michaeltyrrell3381]

I'm pretty sure it was actually a fish.

[@knightad33]

They asked about the first PERSON. So, unless it was someone named A. Fish...

[@AdamSmith75th]

@@knightad33 How funny would that be though?

[@xandercraw]

I do like the new shortened end card. The only reason I didn’t like the long version, is because it make me feel that I was getting a telling off from Sandy for inconveniencing her and it made me very sad. 🥺 I like Sandy and I certainly wouldn’t want to upset her in real life.

[@msamour]

These people are all lying! Everyone knows it was Asterix and Obelix that swam the English Channel in 50 BC. They were running away from having to eat boar in mint sauce after rescuing the Breton village.

[@MrShs812]

If I was asked that I would have said the Celts or the Romans

[@NewMessage]

I dunno who swam it first... but it probably didn't have a spinal chord.

[@decodolly1535]

Spinal "chord"? A musical backbone?

[@stevehendon4076]

@@decodolly1535 😊🤣🤣🤣🤣😎

[@Psy0psAgent]

Was one of my favourite shows until it disappeared.

[@DrWhoFanJ]

It hasn’t disappeared; it’s just between series atM.

[@omarselim6281]

Umm.. can we know more about the condoms and rubbish? Why did they just gloss over that?

[@lemedico]

Alan, you clot.

[@DrWhoFanJ]

Still here, are you? Absolutely no-one can understand why any rational human being would frequent the comments section of a show they must clearly despise as much as you do, yet here you are, defying the rules of logic and common sense.

[@lemedico]

@@DrWhoFanJ shut up Wyatt.