Yes it was obviously planned beforehand just like the JImmy Carr bit with the letter board about cats having tubes on their legs, but very entertaining still for sure!
Actually, he's not. I marathoned the entire WILTY in one go just a few days ago. He can ofter spot a lie easily by finding a logical inconsistency in the other team's story, after which he always goes into a hilarious angry rant. But almost every time he reads some boring fact about himself, that shows him as a posh and repressed geek he is, Lee Mack easily guesses that it's true. And when he reads something interesting, exciting and out of character for him, they easily guess that it's a lie.
xonxt 64 episodes (not including the comic relief show, and the clip shows), run time is about 30 minutes. So you watched 32 hours of Would I Lie To You "in one go", you're taking the piss right?
He had me up until over 5000 provinces of the Holy Roman Empire, a map of the HRE was a clusterfuck at the best of times but never that much of a mess.
It's not theoretical in the sense that on which exact spot you live in Baarle-Hertog does determine which country you pay tax to and which nationality your children have. But yes, freedom of movement does mean there are no checks or fences. It would be a disaster if either country decided to leave the Schengen area (fortunately very unlikely to happen).
@@rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr No not really, the Benelux still offers a similar level between the EU and the Dutch or Belgian goverment. So basicly they would find a sollution within the Benelux framework.
I knew the actual story of Baarle Hertog and he was so convincing that I almost thought "Ooh, well maybe the Baarle Hertog I know of is somehow linked to a treaty in denmark!"
i’ve watched this a hundred times and still cannot forgive Fry for interrupting the applause; he should’ve waited 2 seconds after Mitchell’s closing sentence
From a time when an Oxbridge education was actually that, an education. Rather than an indoctrination into a political ideology that will only result in you making cafe lattes at starbucks.
@@caribstu You sound like the kind of person to have your own WordPress "blog" where you satirically criticise and judge people's political beliefs based solely on cursory glances at third rate news bite articles.
+Paul Thoresen Well, following Napoleon's magnificent victory at Austerlitz and the subsequent capitulation of the Third Coalition with the Treaty of Pressburg, Emperor Francis of the HRE was forced to cede many of his vassals to Imperial France and its allies in Central Europe (although "cede" is a rather strong term, since these lands were already occupied by French troops). Napoleon turned these lands into a sort of quasi-HRE called the Confederation of the Rhine, which was essentially just a buffer state between France and Austria/Prussia. Since most territories of the former HRE besides those aforementioned two now owed allegiance to this new federation (and, by extension, to Imperial France), Francis decided to abdicate his now meaningless title of Holy Roman Emperor, having crowned himself Emperor of Austria two years previously (which, incidentally, makes him the only monarch in world history to have been the ruler of two separate empires at the same time). In doing so, he also dissolved all the oaths of fealty that had previously bound the HRE's constituent states to his throne. So, while Napoleon was the cause of the HRE's dissolution, it was actually Francis himself that dissolved the empire. And now you know.
am pretty sure Helgoland is on the other side of where Holland and Belgium are, so I wasn't. But Geography is one of my weakest subjects, regardless of my being a Dane :P
@@Alberich_Prince_of_Dwarves Well, if you come from Hamburg down the Elbe and then continue for approximately the same distance further, you'll hit what's left of that Island. So it's south of the north end of Germany, and east of the west end of Germany.
When Holland seized Sweden's Colonial assets, starting in the much forgotten Swedish Americas, Denmark sold all their small nascent aspirational colonial interests to Britain, rather than have the Dutch seize them, as they were already in on again off again skirmishes with Germany. Except Britain wouldn't accept that one island, because Germany had territorial claims to it too. The new Battenburg Dynasty that had just come to power in Britain, after the end of Stewart rule, was German, obviously, so didn't want to offend their family back home. So Denmark saw a chance to kiss and make up with the Dutch, who had designs on Danish colonies, and hated they'd been given to Britain, by offering THEM that island. Germany couldn't fight Holland, well they could, but they were allies, Holland had come to Germany's aid in the recent 30 years War, and so Germany now had to reconsider their plans to seize it. However, Belgium had just recently susceded from the Netherlands to become an independent Kingdom, and they were in a similar tense stand off with Holland as Germany was with Denmark. So to stop the Dutch claiming it all, they gave their claim to the island to Belgium. But then everything happened, more religious wars, then revolutions in France, and the US, then Napoleon, then Crimea, then more civil conflicts, finally two world wars....after two centuries, both Holland and Belgium forget about this now half submerged island, that was inaccessible to either easily anyway, as it was straddling Danish and German territorial waters and surrounded by them, so nothing happened.... ....until the EU idea came up, and suddenly this little island was a real problem. So the Belgian and Dutch governments set out to solve the issue, after a 37 point treaty, it was resolved. Except the new EU Courts ruled that since it was partly in Danish territory and partly in German, they too must be party to the treaty. Thus, whilst the Belgians and Dutch are pretty relaxed about rules and regulations...the Danes and Germans are just a teeny tiny bit more in to them.... ....so they added 5000+ amendments to the original 37, simply just governing and defining those original ones.
The greatest trick David Mitchell ever pulled was convincing the world that the 5,732 provisions affecting the enclave of Baarle-Hertog in the Treaty of Maastricht each pertain to the legal right of a specific former state of the Holy Roman Empire to a flooded sandbank between Germany and Denmark on the Heligoland Bight which had previously been farmland before being flooded in the 14th century.
For those curious, the Treaty of Maastricht's 5,732 provisions regard to the 1843 border dispute between The Netherlands and Belgium. The towns of Baarle-Nassau (NED) and Baarle-Hertog (BEL) were divided due to treaties set in place by medieval landowners, agreements, land swaps, and sale of property, which were interpreted by the Lords of Breda and Dukes of Brabant. As such, the territory is surrounded by Dutch land but marked by Flemish areas. There are 23 Flemish enclaves and 8 Dutch enclaves to consider. It was best summarized in the 2009 EU elections, when the BBC reported on the rights and laws for each citizen of the territory. For example, a Dutchman residing in Baarle-Nassau cannot build a house 300 metres away from a pig farm. However, should he have business in Baarle-Hertog, this becomes completely legal. This is perhaps made possible by the Schengen Agreement, which allows citizens to freely enter certain European countries without documented certification, of which Belgium and The Netherlands were two of the original five nations to sign. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Hertog#Border_with_Baarle-Nassau.2C_Netherlands
From memory later on in this episode, it actually goes into detail on it, but in classic QI style with amusing facts. Worth it to go watch the entire episode if anyone watching hasn't already.
Arakash RU-vid scrubbed almost all QI episodes many months ago so that no one outside the UK can access them. They're region blocked. Since the BBC doesn't air this program on BBC America or any other international channel, nor is it available on DVD (or the few that were released on DVD have that region code only), nor can anyone view them online on the official website, it is now impossible for everyone living in the rest of the world to ever watch that episode, or any other (with a few exceptions that remain on RU-vid which I guess they must have missed, and the current series that is airing, series L, but those likely won't remain up for very long), unless they are willing to both break the law AND risk the security of their computer (downloading the episodes illegally or obtaining them via a torrent will likely result in your computer being infected with malware, as will visiting those dodgy sites to watch or download them, which are the only sites where you can find the episodes and view them from North America and elsewhere).
Ia R. I watch QI pretty regularly on Australian state funded television equivalent of the BBC, the ABC. At the moment they are showing reruns of it daily. So lucky for us Aussies i guess.
Ia R. >downloading the episodes illegally or obtaining them via a torrent will likely result in your computer being infected with malware Bullshit. Just download from VIP users on TPB.
Ia R. "RU-vid scrubbed almost all QI episodes many months ago so that no one outside the UK can access them ... it is now impossible for everyone living in the rest of the world to ever watch that episode, or any other" What are you talking about? I can find every single episode on youtube at this very moment (including the DVD extras and the XL episodes from series F onwards), and I don't live in the UK.
Not only can David Mitchell rant and tear people's stories apart so he can get Bob the Builder to confess the WW2 nuclear bombs, he can also make everyone believe that's what actually happened! I envy him his brain...!
Henrik Høyrup you envy his brain? What is so clever about having the ability to look down at a piece of paper in front of him and remember what's on it.
This is a great example on how easy you can get an audience on your side. Pseudoscience thrives on it. I'm not saying it's easy to do that on the spot. But that all it takes is some improvisation skills.
Charm, confidence, eloquence, context-appropriate vocabulary and details, general plausibility, and a dash of pandering... The perfect recipe for demagoguery.
@@rv3427 Ummm... Idiots are not reliable falsehood-sayers, they're unreliable sources. That means that they tend to make arguments that are poor evidence one way or another, not that them making an argument is a sign that "the opposite" (whatever, if anything, it means in context) is right. As one website nicely put it: the existence of UFO cults formed on dodgy bases is completely independent of the secret existence of actual UFOs, which could be the case by complete coincidence. One would hope you don't build your beliefs around perversely inverted statements from questionable sources xD.
In case anyone was wondering about the CORRECT answer to this question, the most important fact is that there are TWO Treaties of Maastricht. One is the 1992 Treaty on European Union, which is one of the two constitutional treaties of the EU and therefore of substantial relevance to contemporary politics (including in Britain). It contains no mention of Baarle-Hertog. The other is the 1843 Treaty between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Belgium concerning the boundary, with regulation on the placement of boundary markers (treaty text in the original French, and Dutch translation, at wetten.overheid.nl/BWBV0006026/1983-04-01). The treaty itself (in Article 14 § 5) only says that it's impossible to establish a continuous border between Baarle-Hertog (Baarle-Duc in French) and Baarle-Nassau and the status quo will be maintained. It refers to Article 90 of an attached document called the descriptive procès-verbal, which describes exactly how the border runs. This article can be found at www.grenspalen.nl/archief/baarle-nassau-in-english.html and finally we have our 5732 provisions. For each of parcel of land in the communities Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau, there is a provision saying which community it belongs to. For example the first provision is that, in the area called Reuth en Strumpten, parcels numbered 1 to 301 inclusive belong to Baarle-Nassau, and thus the Netherlands. Arguably this and many others don't relate to Baarle-Hertog but to Baarle-Nassau, making the question somewhat misleading.
Imagine if everything David Mitchell has ever said is just one huge bluff like this. He might not know what he's talking about most of the time but just seems like he is.
He was under pressure okay! I'm actually from the Netherlands and of course recognized my own flag immediately, but as he was talking so confidently I sort of started to doubt my own judgement. You can't imagine the flood of relief when Stephen said it was wrong!
+Eightfold Way He probably was too busy coming up with a lie to really pay attention to the pictures and flags. I mean, I'm Dutch so I immediately notice but I don't think it's weird that he didn't
I've always loved this clip. But I recently noticed that he appears to be glancing at a piece of paper as he goes along, as if the bluff was prepared in some way. That would make the quickness, fluency and pronunciation all more plausible, but it is still a fantastic piece of showmanship.
Thanks, I love gold stars. :) I looked it up after writing that, learnt more details. Apparently the enclaves/exclaves are mostly on the Dutch side, and are the result of mediaeval land deals between the nobles of Breda and Brabant. But what gets me is they haven't rationalised these things in all the nation/boundary changes since! I'm guessing it's too convenient/interesting to the locals! Probably quite useful for tourism these days, also cheap shopping e.g. the fireworks.
Just to point something out, throughout it's history the Holy Roman Empire has only ever consisted of a few hundred (1,000 would be stretching it) states ranging from simple estates owned by rich land owners to entire Kingdoms like Bohemia.
Man, with a mind like that, David Mitchel should have a show where the panelists have to read a card without having seen it before and the rest must decide if it was a truth or a lie. They should get Lee Mack to do it as well. That'd be great!
Not gonna lie, I would totally buy it if it wasn't for the giant picture of a sign with the Belgian and Dutch flags on it behind him. Really though, that's actually really impressive lying skills. I explain things I'm sure of with more uncertainty in my voice that David explains bullshit he's coming up at the spot with.
I can correctly recognise the flag of every nation on the planet and I was fooled by him because I didn't even notice the flags on the picture behind. I think that may be the case with a lot of other people, they were so enthralled by the amazingly detailed, seemingly factual story coming from David that they hadn't taken the background of the set into consideration.
I'm going to guess this is to do with those enclaved territories in a village either side of the Dutch/Belgian border that even divide some people's houses. I think I've actually seen that episode of QI but I knew about those enclaves before anyway.
I also believe there were never more than some 500 states in the HRE so the fact there are 5,732 were already a dead give-away even if you didnt know about Baarle Hertog Furthermore you could clearly see a Belgian and Dutch flag on the background photo lending even less legitimacy to the fact it was a dispute between German states and Denmark
it wasn't improvising. the island he talks about actually existed(even if it was actually a mining island, not a mere sandbank). He just made the best guess he could.
