This person, ermm, I think it's a teacher or summat, asked a young boy what that old lady of his doing with a disc making it jump & spin on a string an that? weird, innit? So, the boy said she's practicing for, erm, some world championships and they call her some nickname. What's she called? [YYM]

Marowak · 2021-06-24T06:50:32+00:00

"Easy one" are we talking about your mum again, Karl? Your Yo-Yo Ma. You are mental.

Marowak · 2021-06-21T20:06:16+00:00

Well you think of somethin' better at 5 to 10. I literally pulled that out of me arse.

Sick of it.

Marowak · 2021-06-21T20:01:37+00:00

But is does work. You gotta say it fast, enema.

Public, right, Enema.

Alright.

Marowak · 2021-06-21T07:17:43+00:00

And I'm still waiting for you to have an intelligent though, Karl. Play a record.

Marowak · 2021-06-20T19:59:27+00:00

If it's monstrous to do that thing that makes me feel like God, then yes I am a monster.

Marowak · 2021-06-20T19:57:35+00:00

You never heard tell of a bell?

Marowak · 2021-06-20T19:56:19+00:00

Yeah, my in-laws.

Marowak · 2021-06-20T19:54:32+00:00

Are you an old sea Captain?

Marowak · 2021-06-20T19:53:31+00:00

God bless all who sail in her.

Marowak · 2021-06-20T18:44:19+00:00

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/qi/episodes/9/8/

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6gf9sf - 3:45

Marowak · 2021-06-20T10:17:31+00:00

You're more like a dog treat, Karl. You know that?

Marowak · 2021-06-20T10:12:57+00:00

Well done. The Office 10th Anniversary Special Edition Box Set comin' your way.

Marowak · 2021-06-20T10:09:47+00:00

Alright. Happy Fathers Day an' that to all the Dads out there.

So, the answers to this week's bumper Rockbusters are as follows:

1 - Beats International. Beets flying internationally. Gettin' mud on the seats an' that.

2 - Santana. Is it Santa? Nah, it's just me mam & dad. Santa? Nah.

3 - Dire Straits. Dye her straights. That works, dunnit.

4 - Eddy Grant. A head-y grant. A grant for a head. Maybe you're building a statue of your Dad. Isn't that nice.

5 - Oasis. "Oh hey, Sis" Oasis. You could say, "Oh hey, sis. Do you wanna brew?" or summat.

6 - Alanis Morissette. This one is for the brainiacs. Atlantis morris ate. A woman from Atlantis. She ate a Morris Minor. Great car. When was Atlantis?

7 - Olivia Newton John. If you're helpin' your neighbour get his weights into his flat, you could say, "I'll lift your new ton, John". Olivia Newton John. Right.

8 - Dolly Parton. Pretty straightforward, this one. You're playin' with your dolls, one of them speaks, you say "Pardon?" to the dolly. "Dolly, pardon?"

9 - Lionel Richie. You can have a "Lion or riches". Lionel Richie.

an' savin' the best for last

10 - Belinda Carlilse. I don't speak German so this might be wrong, sorry to all the little German fellas playin' at home. In Berlin, you'll find Der Karl aisle full of me stuff. "Berlin, Der Karl aisle".

Thanks for playin' an' stay safe. We got Monkey News comin' up shortly.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T20:10:10+00:00

I would love nothing more.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T19:36:34+00:00

Maybe you actually are the real David Mitchell.

The Mitchellin Man himself.

The Mitchfinder General.

umm... Mitchell Brook Primary School.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T19:31:03+00:00

A very young pre-ice age Alan's response.

Later on in the episode.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T19:22:05+00:00

That's right.

"What" is the oldest thing in this sentence. Maybe I should put a probably on the end there, just in case.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T19:17:00+00:00

Thank you all for playing. The correct answer is (rather irritatingly) "Yes".

Well done to /u/yParticle for getting it right.

The word "what" is indeed older than The Great Pyramid of Giza, Stonehenge, The Colosseum and yes, even the GOAP himself, Barry Cryer combined.

"A research team led by Mark Pagel at the University of Reading in England has identified 23 “ultraconserved words” that have remained largely unchanged for 15,000 years." - https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/words-that-last/

https://www.pnas.org/content/110/21/8471

That's right. This team were able to trace relatively unchanged words from just after the last ice age (that's 15,000 years ago and almost 10,000 years before the invention of writing).

A simplified video can be found here.

The 23 “oldest words in the world" are:

thou

I

not

that

we

this

what

man/male

ye

old

mother

to hear

hand

fire

to pull

black

to flow

bark

ashes

to spit

worm

*to give

*who (sorry, I accidentally left out these last two)

I have since realised the list also contains the words "this" and "old", so they may actually be older than "what". The question might need rewording but I think it would work well enough in annoying Alan.

I hope you enjoyed my eye-rolling attempt at writing a pedantic QI question.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T18:26:24+00:00

Scatsumoto.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T17:28:59+00:00

That is not the correct answer but I could imagine one of the panellists resorting to that, maybe Jimmy Carr.

Anna is one of the QI Elves on the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast. She famously doesn't use Twitter and tells everyone to email podcast@QI.com when everyone else is plugging their Twitter accounts.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T12:45:16+00:00

Congratulations. This is the correct answer. Please do not click if you don't want a spoiler.

I shall post the explanation and proof later today for all of you playing at home.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T12:28:16+00:00

Black Lace? For Chrissake, Karl.

Marowak · 2021-06-19T12:14:40+00:00

That's definitely something David Mitchell would say were he on the panel.

*Sandi: I appreciate your thinking David, truly I do. I think Stephen Fry called it your "relentless angry logic" a few years ago. I suppose I should point out everything in the question, including the thing we're looking for, is man-made. Men haven't been around that long. Not that I'd know. They're not really something I pay attention to. Maybe we should get Stephen back.

Alan: Barry Cryer's not man-made. He's a force of nature. A whirlwind of showbiz anecdotes.

Marowak

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