This is my favourite moment ever from QI. David was in tears at the deliciousness of the tortoise and why it never made it back to be categorised. They all cracked up in the end...classic!
Therein lies the brilliance of the show. And the British gameshow phenomenon in general. A snarky intelligent host playing counterpoint to a bunch of ordinary comedians.
I love how David Mitchell talks for the studio audience only, because he is convinced this will be edited out anyway, and the weirdly hilarious moment resulting from it just made it impossible to leave it out.
By the way, if anyone's curious, "chelonoidis nigra." (And also, "pistachia vera.") (And incidentally, it's a bit unfair to say it took three hundred years to give it a scientific name, since although it's three hundred years from its discovery, it was within seventy years of Systema Naturae.)
I'm convinced that a good part of the reason that this show is so brilliant is because it's just a delight to see other people enjoying themselves so much. Top Gear's the same; I've always slightly mistrusted people who say they don't like Top Gear, because I suspect they don't have that simple human capacity to enjoy seeing other people having fun.
If some bright 19th Century explorer had thought to start farming them on the mainland, we could now all be tucking into delicious, non-endangered giant tortoises. It would have been a long-term investment, sure, but his heirs would be raking it in.
Reminds me of a joke: Bloke goes to a funfar, has a go on some rides and get a bit bored so stop by a stall to shoot targets. Pays his money and shoots down the targets. Stall owner says "Congratilations you've won a prize, what would you like?" Man points to a tortoise and goes of happy. An hour later he comes back, pays his money, shoots down the targets. "Congratilations you've won a prize, what would you like?" "I'll have enother one of those crispy sandwiches please!"
When Stephen said "255. He was born before Mozart, before the French Revolution and his death was announced on CNN" I expected someone to say "And it tasted delicious!"
That's exactly the point of satirical panel shows like this... They have separate material for their stand up work, and this sort of comedy only works in a discussion format. That's why these shows exist; to allow this form of comedy to be done.
Dear viewers... Don't try to analyse it, don't try to diss certain people. I've watched all series of QI, and I think this is my favourite moment! Five minutes of brilliant comedy! :D
@Sarandib22 It is called QI, it is a british comedy panel game. More information can be obtained from wikipedia. Incidentally, just about every QI episode is available on youtube.
@artstuX There IS an intensive giant tortoise breeding program in the Galapagos right now. Lots of little tortoises on most populated island. I never did find out how they taste.
There is a huge enclosure in the the local Zoo with quite a few Galapgos Tortoises and up until a few years ago the wall was really low and you could give them a scratch. They loved it but idiots kept feeding them crap and so glass was put up so that no one could get to the cute tortoises. In the Spring. the damn things mated and they moaned, loudly. We started avoiding that area at a certain time of the year.
I did not solicit your attention and purport to challenge you or anyone else directly; I merely made a random observation, as one does. I suppose it was analytical about why the show is so genuinely entertaining. I doubt the professionals in the video need your protection, but if you must, troll away, we're all fascinated.
My friend, i have seen all sorts of folk on these comment sections... I have seen similar posts to yours, responded in a similar way, then been told that they only use comedians who can't do stand up. Seriously. I apologise for assuming that your post was in any way similar to that scenario :)
