QI | What Did The Ancient Greeks Use Blackberries For?

18 July: On this day in 1872, the Ballot Act introduced secret voting in elections.
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This clip is from QI Series A, Episode 05, 'Advertising' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Gyles Brandreth, Rob Brydon and Rich Hall.

[@Turlingdromes]

"5 points for being British." A pretty good summary of QI in general.

[@MyLateralThawts]

“Women didn’t have the vote in Ancient Greece.” Flashback to Monty Python’s Life of Brian and imagining a group of women with false beards voting in suspiciously high voices at the forum.

[@insertname1014]

I'm not sure I've even seen Rich Hall in a different seat other than directly left to Stephen

[@hueynapalm]

Damn, good eye. You been binging these too after the algorithm popped them up?

[@carolynworthington8996]

Griffin Reviews maybe he’s deaf in his left ear, like I am.

[@millomweb]

Huh ? I've not seen either Alan or Stephen in a different seat though.

[@jess_5361]

He's sat in the seat next to him

[@andrewcarpenter811]

Haha , I think you are correct

[@vriley2000]

"What did they use Blackberries for?" I'm shocked that Alan didn't chime in with something like, "Phone calls... appointment planning... they didn't text, those keyboards are annoying."

[@PazzoLucas]

this episode was in 2003- back when phones with colour were a new thing haha

[@misinformed222]

Actually, this was in series I which aired in 2011/2012. I also thought of the blackberry joke which means it almost certainly would have been a penalty.

[@sjn6704]

Nope, this was in series A in 2003 - 'Advertising'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_QI_episodes

[@misinformed222]

The description for the video is incorrect. That is where I got the series I.

[@sjn6704]

You're right, it is wrong.

[@csmlyly5736]

Greeks considered overt sexuality as brutish and animalistic. Large genitalia was associated with this animal virility (see the sculptures), and so small genitalia was instead viewed positively as a sign of wisdom, intelligence, and grace.

[@fuchsiafreud]

the greeks certainly went through phases with quite distinct positions on sexuality.

[@markmark5269]

The world hasn't changed has it, small dicked men run the place while real men with real dicks do the real work.

[@r0bw00d]

Wisdom, intelligence, and grace? My understanding is that it had more to do with youth and virility, since women back then were more sexually attracted to young teenagers (and even children).

[@dilekben]

r0bw00d really?

[@Ghorda9]

@@dilekben back then age of maturity was likely 13.

[@TheHutchy01]

There's something just plain wrong about seeing Giles Brandreth with hair.

[@MagnificentFiend]

Areopagus, Stephen! _Areopagitica_ is the tract by John Milton.

[@saxoungrammaticus9132]

Quite right, and the Areopagus was a council comprising ex-archons, and therefore within the context of Athens not a particularly democratic institution. I believe Stephen should here be referring to the citizen law courts (the dikasteria).

[@whatonearth9809]

It’s weird seeing Gyles with hair 👀

[@MilesBellas]

Stephen's jacket looks like a hardware shop overall

[@DavidWillanski]

Checking their email from the road?

[@landerceuppens]

Could somebody please explain Alan's 'pinto' or whatever joke tot me. Thé remarketing he makes when he says 'speaking of crudely'. I don't get it:(

[@PATTHECATMCD]

It's a Latin American term for "small penis", the gag had appeared earlier in the episode IIRC.

[@chaosordeal294]

... sending texts that wouldn't be received for a very long time?

[@UkuleleRoadTrips]

has anyone tried it out ? to see if it is beneficial ?

[@dannyboy12357]

What voting? If it keeps Donald Trump from becoming a president, then yes it will be beneficial.

[@ArielGTAcS]

Well, between him and the sociopath they should just keep electing dogs.

[@nomnomnom55555]

dannyboy12357 That worked out well for you, didn't it?

[@dannyboy12357]

nomnomnomey No I'm still crying.

[@nomnomnom55555]

dannyboy12357 are you one of those who were 'literally shaking'?

[@IceDaemon]

Brilliant :)

[@michaeldukes4108]

Honestly, why is Stephen wearing a light jacket? He did it more than once in the earlier seasons.

[@GozUnlimited]

00:19

[@connorrobertson7257]

Minus 10 points for Stephen. Athenians did not vote for many of their leaders. Of the approximately 700 public offices in Athens, only about 100 were elected. The rest were by lottery, a random person was selected. Very disappointed in Mr. Fry.

[@justincronkright5025]

They fixed that in a later episode, although he didn't come straight out and directly say, ''this is a correction to a previous idea/answer we here on QI had put forward, and are now only correcting''. Yet they did redo this answer in a way.

[@connorrobertson7257]

Justin Cronkright oh. Do you happen to know what episode it was?

[@panda4247]

Perhaps that is even the better way, lol. Sure, an incompetent person might he chosen in the lottery... but people vote for incompetent populists and corrupted a-holes anyway.

[@argimara]

I never got what did they use blackberries for!!! :(

[@BenWKnowles]

As a cure for haemorrhoids :)

[@troubauk]

Actually, women in Greece first voted in the elections held by the National Liberation Front in the unoccupied territories during the German Occupation in WW2

[@JustinShaedo]

Obscure fact. Respect.

[@MegaRazorback]

Yes but that was a situational thing due to WW2, the NLF wanted as many votes as possible so they allowed women to vote as well...Greek women wouldn't be able to actually vote properly until the year Fry mentioned.

[@KlipsenTube]

So, all women and 90 % of men (i.e. 95 % in all) had to wait 2,000 years to vote - but women get 100 % of the sympathy.

[@Aname550]

Well, the men who couldn't vote were children, slaves, or immigrants. You can go ahead and feel sympathy for them now, if you like.

[@keavycat7314]

WHAT THE FUCK IS STEPHEN WEARING AS MUCH AS I LOVE HIM WTF

[@Canad1anMan]

Democracy under everything but the most specific forms used in Athens and so on had been used centuries and millennia earlier in many places around the globe. I mean just because one was a polis and most (but not all) other forms were tribal or more decentralised does not make them fail to be a Democracy. Especially not in the strictest forms of the ''Definition of the Word''. So it was for sure not quite 'Invented' as it were there!

[@handsfree1000]

How come Alan is the only one in every episode

[@markreynolds1436]

He's the Everyman to make the show palatable. Otherwise it's just clever people waffling, and is less broad in its appeal.

[@richardmattocks]

I’d expect they used their blackberrys the same way we did… to send emails and surf the internet until we found a better way 🤣 It’s just that their emails were on parchment 😎

[@saxoungrammaticus9132]

The Macedonians did not stop voting, although they did end the democracy at Athens. An oligarchy was introduced after Athens' defeat in the Lamian war, with a property qualification for citizenship of 2,000 drachmas (but voting continued). A gross oversimplification, QI does talk a load of bollocks sometimes.

[@chadfife3265]

Disappointed... i came for a Giles tale about his relatives in ancient Greece

[@LasVegar]

Text each other

[@Paul_C]

To phone home.

[@mickkennedy1344]

But Rob's Welsh......................so that's 10 points

[@schrodingerszombie2401]

Wales is part of Great Britain, as is England. The Welsh folk are British but not English.

[@mickkennedy1344]

@@schrodingerszombie2401 The English are British but not Welsh...............most of them

[@millomweb]

5 on and 5 off ?

[@faceless1434]

@@mickkennedy1344 I know this is an old comment but how are the Welsh not British? Does British not refer to someone who inhabits Great Britain?

[@0ooTheMAXXoo0]

A pack of wolves will vote on what to do next... Democracy is older than humans...

[@danielbyrne5402]

Whenever there's a question on grease, 9 in 10 chance of the answer being to do with the arse

[@BigyetiTechnologies]

Not Greece... :P

[@psychoctapus8069]

Texting

[@jocabulous]

probably eating

[@discodecepticon]

"women had to wait another 2274 years b/c women got their(right to vote)" men had to wait nearly as long tho. MEN didnt HAVE the right to vote... Wealthy landowners did. Universal male vote didnt happen in the US until 50 or so years before women were given the right to vote.

[@jazwragg]

Eric Mitchell he specified Greek women so I would presume he was also talking about Greek men

[@discodecepticon]

Youre right, but he also quickly mentioned that only %10 of the population had the right to vote... the land owners NOT the men. As I said, Men in the US got the right to vote 50 (or so) years before women did... IDK when men were given the right to vote in Greece... but I doubt it was over 2k years before women. My problem is with the half truths and omissions. Inflating an issue only helps in the short term. Take the "Wage gap" as an example. In comparison to the truth(that there is an earnings gap) the lie of wage gap makes the earnings gap look like a non-issue. AND the actions we would take to correct an earnings gap are vastly different than what we would do to fix a wage gap

[@katiehine2869]

But a flaw in your argument is that, where as yes 'common' men were not given the right to vote, NO woman was. Im not a SJW but it's just fact. There were laws put in place to prevent all women from voting, after there was one year in which a female land owner did vote in the late 1800's if I'm not mistaken. It was put in place because women were see as incapable of making an important decision. 'Common' men were prevented from voting due to the class system and poorer people as a whole (regardless of gender and therefor redundant in your argument) were seen as less important and below the rich.

[@discodecepticon]

wait... so wealthy women(land owners) COULD vote before it was CHANGED in the 1800s? so Im right? but class prevented men (aswell as women) from voting before that makes it redundant, so Im wrong?

[@katiehine2869]

Through a loophole one or possible a couple women were allowed to vote for one year before it was changed to prevent that. If you are are going on semantics then yes I suppose you are right, but over all, due to the basic agenda underlying your argument (not a bad thing), wrong 😃

[@jameshudson169]

blackberry πi! (if one of the panel doesn't use that, SHAME ON THEM!)

[@-Gorbi-]

Giles “My schtick is being a bloviating twat” Brandreth

[@solank7620]

Athenian democracy had a very terrible reputation though. It was a tyranny of the majority type situation.

[@TheBaconWizard]

Utter bollox.

[@onemercilessming1342]

Direct debit?? NO NO NO. My son, in preparation for going overseas to a US Navy duty station, put his cell phone (VERIZON!!!) on direct debit. The phone company proceeded to deduct three payments, one after the other. He contacted the company to get two of those payments' funds put back into his account. VERIZON refused and only agreed to CREDIT his account with them. I got a frantic phone call from Sicily...he had almost NO money left in his account. I contacted my Congressman about the practice (it happened to MORE than just my son) and I sent my boy a check to cover his lack of funds until his next payday. I also instructed him to rescind VERIZON's ability to access his account (he actually had to end one checking account and start another) or go with another cell phone company if he could. DO NOT GIVE COMPANIES THE RIGHT TO ACCESS YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT FUNDS. YOU pay THEM after you receive a bill.

[@hobowithashotgun48]

Rob Brydon is painfully unfunny.

[@MrAudienceMember2662015]

The GOP are Macedonians?

[@jonahs92]

Hardy-har. Orange Man Bad!

[@cmennare]

Apparently the downfall of the British Empire started in 1952.

[@ArsX21X]

The greek men also did men, until Macedonians put stop to it... and showed them they can do it with women :))

[@forestcuriousity]

Macedonians were Greek though? Just like Spartans, Athenians etc

[@miguelthealpaca8971]

Macedonia is a separate country.

[@raulpetrascu2696]

Miguel Aveiro nowadays yes Macedonia has a similar name but we're talking about Macedon which was part of Greece at the time and not located in modern day Macedonia (hence the contemporary issue of Greece wanting Macedonia to change it's name because they believe that it's cultural appropriation)

[@1Phaedra1]

The Macedonians totally "did men," as you say, too. For instance, one possible explanation, proposed by Cleitarchus, for the assassination of Phillip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) was that his bodyguard-turned-assassin Pausanias had been his lover but murdered him out of jealousy (and a few other complicated events) after Phillip abandoned him for a younger lover who was also naned Pausanias. Kind of a dick move ;)

[@LoneKharnivore]

So before the Macedonians there were no babies born in Greece?

[@rodneyquinn2528]

I cannot lie I dont like rich hall at all, theres something about him that screams wrong wrongun

[@jess_5361]

😂 I kinda agree but dont

[@rodneyquinn2528]

You know it's like theres no evidence to support my hypothesis and I also believe you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but something about him generally worries me 😥😥😂

[@jess_5361]

@@rodneyquinn2528 that's what I'm like dude. I can't unsee it with rich now 😂

[@rodneyquinn2528]

@Bluewolfe96 no wayyyyy 😶😶

[@FluffyFishy69]

But Athenians didn't invent democracy, it was first seen as part of the Lycurgan reforms in Sparta.

[@PoshBenjamin]

Not sure you can call Spartan society post-Lycurgus as democratic. Who could vote was restricted to the Apella, formed of male Spartiates above 30 who had served in war. Add to that the fact that there was relatively little to vote on as the dual kingship was hereditary and inclusion in the Ephorate/Gerousia was by appointment not election. Athens is credited at the first demoncracy because after 508BCE literally all positions of power were decided by popular vote, the voting system was anonymous and by self-representation, and steps were taken to break up power bases and the influence of wealth and aristocracy by the reforms of Kleisthenes,

[@FluffyFishy69]

+PoshBenjamin not luck and drawing from pots? there were plenty of things that could be voted for, if there eas nothing to vote in there wouldnt have been such frquent meetings. To be eligible Spartans didn't have to go through war, it was eligible for anyone above 30, having it just for war veterans would be silly, you would have to create wars to uphold the political system, other than the ceramonial helot wars it just makes for crazy.

[@saxoungrammaticus9132]

Sparta was not a democracy by Athens' standards. As PoshBenjamin rightly points out, at Sparta, the two kings, and the gerousia were a powerful counter-balance to the assembly, besides to qualify as as Spartan citizen one had to contribute a certain amount of produce to one's common mess (syssitia), which meant all Spartan citizens were landholders, whose estates were farmed by the helots. Furthermore, both Aristotle and Polybius describe the Spartan constitution as a mixed constitution.

[@razvaz]

Why mention Greek women couldn't vote if only 10% of the population could and 80% of men couldn't?

[@thunderball11111]

TheBaconWizard Universal advice

[@Yp3ri0n]

You were jumping from branch to branch by that time FFS !!! You couldn't distinguish humans from animals!

[@TheBaconWizard]

No.

[@markmark5269]

Yuh, the once greatest power on the planet Greeks finally gave women the vote, and now look at them.

[@what6563]

still sexy af

[@grillbaked]

Idiot.

[@GreatWhiteGT]

SHAME SHAME SHAME QI.... Bad grammar AGAIN! It SHOULD be... "For What Did Ancient Greeks Use Blackberries?"