The OLYMPICS On QI! Funny And Interesting Facts!

[@philw6056]

Eric Moussambani didn't stop swimming after Sydney and improved his own national record by almost a minute. In the end his personal best is better than that of two times olympic 100m freestyle champion and Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller.

[@tjp353]

How was Moussambani able to compete in Sydney after the rule change that excluded Eddie Edwards?

[@philw6056]

@@tjp353 Different sports have different rules. I think every country can send an athlete for the 100m sprint(track). For some nations that is their only athlete at all.

[@TonyBongo869]

Eddie the Eagle was in first place, temporarily because the worst score in the first round, went first in the second round. So until the second person jumped, he was first.

[@CricketEngland]

Eddie still had to make the GB qualifying distance and then practically beg the GB Winter Olympics-team committee to get to take part

[@davidandrade621]

The pole vault quip is incredibly relevant for 2024

[@MartinEB72]

Stephen just brought an excitement to QI that modern QI just doesn't have. At least the early episodes. The last couple of seasons with Stephen was brought down, by them wanting to film them all in the same week. Once they filmed 3 episodes in 24 hours.

[@EndertheWeek]

It used to be a program that had comedy attached, the quality of the panelists was good. Now it's all about trying to be funny and the panelists are "modern"

[@mycroftsanchez901]

Interesting fact, Eric The Eel actually won his race becaue all the other swimmers got disqualified for a false start. His time was so slow he still didn't qualify for the next round.

[@DaneWater]

The poodle clipping event is not real. Its from an April fools article published before the 2008 Olympics. The name of the women who won in the article is “Avril Lafoule” Avril is French for April. Literally April Lafoules lol. Great prank, not true sadly.

[@annacambron4905]

No😂🌊🌨️☂️ W Ugly c c. Chill my boy. 🧒 link 🔗 now and get we e we c x c c cd deeper I’m. L dbl lel lol ball m l out o L I f red N. Philosophy

[@angelikalindenau943]

❤ thanks for saving it from going to waste

[@Clavers1369]

There should be an Olympic event for April Fool's Day pranks.

[@heidimueller1039]

Alan was great in these clips! He seemed joyous.

[@CricketEngland]

Well a local club side from Somerset are still the current Olympic Cricket champions (France 1900)

[@arthur1670]

4:20 well all the javelins people are all probably plebs like the artists now…. Bring it back 🥳🥳🥳

[@John-me7tx]

Thought he was dead given his UT announcement years ago - hmmm

[@aberamagold7509]

According to the internet, the first modern Olympics were held in Athens 1896. Do I believe QI or _Google/Government?_ I didn't say trust, I said believe 😂

[@BumMcFluff]

I don't come to QI for facts. They've dropped that ball too often. I come here for laughs.

[@NeilLewis77]

Go on I'll bite.... Which government do you think controls Google?

[@StubbyandShifu]

Did you listen to the explanation? It makes sense.

[@minerat27]

I mean, the key word there is "modern"

[@davep5788]

And now there is break dancing ... 🙄🙄

[@Sam-lr9oi]

There used to be hot air ballooning, poetry, and architecture in the early 20th century. Surely you have a problem with those too?

[@davep5788]

@@Sam-lr9oi If we still had them, then I would. I'm not fond of any of the events which have judges rather than measurable times or distances tbh.

[@br-jj6re]

There are like 3 different dancing sports, how is freestyle any different

[@Sam-lr9oi]

@@davep5788 what's your outer limit on this? A football referee is a subjective judge of a set of seemingly objective rules. I can definitely appreciate your perspective though. And to be fair, ballooning was judged objectively, the pilots had to fly their balloons over a target and drop a weighted ball on a target. And of course before the modern technology we have now, things like fencing would also involve a subjective judge. I'm actually on board with the reasoning for taking out those sorts of creative pursuits originally, I like the idea of Olympic amateurism. And now you have things like skateboarding that can be relatively objectively judged by difficulty level in the same way gymnastics are, but much like gymnastics, individual athletes will have harder maneuvers they're good at and easier maneuvers they may not be. I think the spirit of peaceful international competition is really what we should love about the Olympics, no matter the event.

[@sunderedpsyche4289]

Isn't it on the same level as artistic swimming and gymnastics? Which we've had for decades.

[@EleanorPeterson]

I'm not in favour of any Olympic event with a result that can be decided by opinion and not by a clock, tape, or other measuring device. To be fair to all, events should be quantitative, not qualitative. I agree that artistic impression is 'a thing', but it's not fair that a competitor's pre-Olympic reputation should give them an advantage over someone less renowned. Judges may not be wilfully biased or crooked, but medals shouldn't be decided by prejudice. This approach would remove rather a lot of sports from the Games, though. The artistic skating, much of the gymnastics, the dancing (?), the diving, the synchronised swimming, the various martial arts and the boxing (and many other events) would all have to go. Disclosure: I trained in old-school jiu-jitsu for 26 years, so to some extent I know whereof I speak. I was taught the original nasty, dirty, GBH, war-grade kind meant for killing people, which was abolished long ago for being "Too violent, too dangerous and too unsporting" and replaced with judo, which is Quite Interesting🤭. Some sports could be revived with a rule change; boxers, for instance, could fight to the 'last man standing' stage to eliminate the need for judges. Before you condemn me for being an idiot (What? You already have? Never mind...), let me stress that I'm not suggesting these events are not sports or that they should be abandoned elsewhere; it's only at Olympic level that I feel they don't give everyone an equal chance. There would still be local, National and World Championships with events decided by judges, but the Olympics ought to be something different and special. Something with a level playing field.

[@BarbaOlof]

I see the problem in sports decided by judges, but I fail to see the difference between the Olympics and the World Championships for example.

[@kentmartin9289]

I am kind of in the same boat, but although I don't know much about these judged sports, I do think things like diving, figure skating, and gymnastics have improved with revised scoring systems. No more "perfect 10" scoring. It seems to be more mathematical now, but obviously still judgement involved. I don't know enough about these events to know if the judging is now closer to sports like Basketball, Football/Soccer, Hockey, etc., where subjective referee calls can have a big impact on the final result of the game. So I think I am less against those judged sports now, but I totally know where you are coming from. I am curious what your thoughts are on the sports I mentioned. The point scoring isn't really judged, but fouls that can impact point scoring is.

[@Comet701]

No, you are not an idiot. As a matter of fact, for this exact reason Finland refused to host artistic events during the Helsinki olympics in 1952. Art, they felt, was not a competition. This, combined with less and less interest from artists to participate, led to the end of art events all together after Helsinki. The argument given by QI, that it was not really an amateur competition, was just one of the many that fueled the discussion. However, bringing art and sports together remains part of the olympic idea. Ever since 1954 until today it is mandatory for every hosting city to combine the sporting events with an art exhibition.

[@aberamagold7509]

Aside from the "sniglets" bit he started doing in the 1980s, what has Rich Hall done to make him _famous/relevant_ enough to get on this show? I realize you don't have to be an Oscar winner to get on QI, but you should be known for doing something people have heard of 😁. I honestly can not remember seeing him in anything, but according to IMDB, he made a bunch of videos with titles like Rich Hall's California, Rich Hall's President, etc. None of which I've watched or even heard of.

[@booperdee2]

says more about your ignorance

[@fastauntie]

Are you American? I am, and like you I hadn't heard of him since the 80s, so was also surprised to see him on QI when I started watching it a few years ago. So I looked into his career and found he's had a lot of steady exposure in the UK since then: standup both touring and televised, about a dozen BBC comedy documentaries (those videos you haven't heard of), and on the basis of those getting famous enough to appear on the whole gamut of UK panel shows and chat shows that other comedians do that get them even better known. When I started watching QI I hadn't heard of more than half the panelists, but never questioned why--I assumed they were famous/relevant enough in UK terms to be on a BBC show. Through watching more I've learned just how famous many of them are. Rich Hall would have been exactly the same for me if I hadn't remembered him from long ago, just someone I hadn't heard of yet but had no reason to question. He may have gone off the US radar, but that doesn't mean he's not well known to QI's core audience.

[@beth12svist]

​@@fastauntie This. I'm neither British nor American and basically knew none of these people when I started watching British panel shows. Also I feel like the "is he even famous enough for this?" attitude is entirely wrong from the get go - I think the real question when it comes to appearing on British panel shows is "are they funny enough?" Sure, every now and then you get the person who is there because they're famous, but most of them are mainly there because they are - or the producers hope they will be - funny. If the person is funny, they'll become a famous panel show guest soon enough. 😀 Rich Hall tends to be (at least it seems so to me) the panel show guest who doesn't say much but when he does, he's hilarious. The documentaries are worth checking out - interesting drily humorous takes on the documentary genre. I especially liked _Inventing the Indian_ which he did with Dallas Goldtooth and they really, really play off each other's very deadpan humour. May not be to everyone's taste (probably explains perfectly why Rich Hall basically relocated to the UK) but I love it.

[@McZorr0101]

If the very first Olympic event was just one race they cannot possibly have referred to it as the Olympic Games! That would require more than one and, I would argue,several events. I would not I’d o much if Stephen Fry were not so contemptuous when guests start to apply the same kind of, usually more valid, pedantry to justifying their answers

[@br-jj6re]

They were called the olympiad

[@edddggrondoon97315]

Lighten up, it's not Mastermind

[@stejer211]

Talk about pedantry lol.

[@India.H]

You know the whole point of this game is for pedantic, accurate facts? The QI researchers, otherwise known as the QI Elves, are in his ear to clarify facts that come from guests that may need researching. They have had people write in correcting things they have said, which have been read out, corrected, and apologised for. Jeremy Clarkson once had points taken away from him for an incorrect statement he made several series beforehand, as have other guests. Whether you feel he is acting with contempt, or not, there are a good variety of regular panellists that would easily keep anyone's ego in check, for example, Jimmy Carr, Bill Bailey, and Phill Jupitus, and those who were on only a few times, for example, Victoria Coren Mitchell and Jeremy Clarkson. There was, of course, the memorable time that Jimmy Carr, Bill Bailey, Rob Brydon, and Alan Davies turned a brief stumble from him ("They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is") into musical, and set Stephen Fry into hysterics to the point where he said "I can't breath; my tummy hurts". This got much longer than I expected it to be, but I am a proofreader for two large companies so I can empathise with continuously correcting people on what they have said or written and it not being appreciated! It upsets me that one of my companies do not appreciate the Oxford Comma😢

[@MikeLawrence-i6r]

Skateboarding???!!! That’s an Olympic sport??? It’s gone mad

[@nsmith131]

It's not 'gone' mad, it's less mad than it ever used to be

[@旭球]

Do lots of people do it? Is it a competitive event? Is it performed internationally? Yes to all three.

[@BarbaOlof]

I sort of feel the same, but have come to the conclusion that I’m just an old man that wants things to stay the way they “always were”. The reference point in this case is of course during MY formative years during the eighties.

[@johnposey3870]

Next thing you know they’ll be doing Olympic breakdancing

[@CricketEngland]

@@johnposey3870France 2024

[@HelixRsix]

And nowadays we are ALL on the far right according to many politicians lol 😜

[@koekum2142]

Only the people who call everybody else 'radical left' are to the extreme right.

[@gregbraum7330]

Did you note, the first Olympics was 76 BC. for the Atheists out there. It was BC. History, for the past 2000 years, is measured before or after Christ. The year 2024 exists because the global calendar of humanity has its core reference point, its universal point of departure, on Jesus Christ. Whatever your beliefs, dating your correspondence every day confirms the life of Jesus Christ. History pivots on Jesus Christ. That's truly Olympic Gold!!!

[@gislimar5666]

Okay Gramps, time for your meds and and nap

[@rumse006]

Um, other cultures (e.g., Muslim, Jewish, Thai/Buddhist) measure years from different starting points. BC/AD isn't universal. Scientists use the abbreviations BCE and CE (Before Common Era and Common Era); although these abbreviations use the Christian measuring points, they don't reference Christ and god. Most people in the world aren't Christian, because most people just believe whatever religion their parents tell them is the right one. If you had been born in India you'd probably be Hindu or Muslim.

[@jonathanmormerod]

Uh huh. That's why it's 1446 for a quarter of the world's population, not 2024. Tell me you're not a Christian Nationalist from Pig's Knuckle Arkansas without telling me you're a Christian Nationalist from Pig's Knuckle Arkansas.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@jonathanmormerod]

The fact that Christ is widely recognised as having been born in 34 BC and therefore before himself kind of destroys your flawed logic.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@reignofpie6945]

What a wild ride you went on to make a completely nonsensical point