QI - discussion about the perception of accents 

“They’ve sent up someone with no manners at all”. That was brilliant.

Sandi Toksvig is awesome. I laughed so hard when she said: (Posh British) - 'Did the Germans know we were sending up the lower classes?' (German Accent) - 'Look, here comes someone who has got no manners whatsoever!' That cracked me up. I love that!

Oh man, I miss these old QI lineups. David Mitchell AND Sandy Toksvig AND Rob Brydon... all at once? Yes please...

"Did the Germans know we were sending up the lower classes?!" My favourite Toksvig quote

Holy shiiiit. Stephen Fry is the only non-Australian I know who could do that accent in Australia without anyone suspecting anything.

2:30 "Did the Germans know we were sending up the lower classes?" XD Oh Sandy Toksvig, this is why you're one of my favourite QI guests,

I'm not one to get annoyed when people can't do it perfectly, but I have to say Stephen's Australian accent is just gorgeous! haha

I still like to think of those pilots as the stereotypical type simply because it's more fun that way. They were all poshos with pencil moustaches going "Dash it all, let's give Jerry a damn good thrashing" and so on.

Stephen (and Hugh Laurie) is one of the few non-Australian actors I've seen do a very passable Aussie accent. He is a fantastic mimic!

I think Sandy's german pilot is my all time fave QI bit. This whole segment is well rounded off in general with great anecdotes, facts and accents. Love.

0:18 David Mitchell looks like private baldrick's long lost brother

Wow im Australian and no one ever gets it right but Stephen got it exactly right!

As a Canadian, I do find the variety of British accents to be so much fun to listen to. Well, most of them...

Fry's got a great aussie accent

"Did the Germans know we were sending the lower class men?" I'm not sure why but I'm in stitches!

"If Adelaide is not your final destination, now would be an ideal time to deplane."

Delivery by David Mitchell at 07:00 is perfect.

That was a brilliant Ausie accent by Stephen Fry

Sandi Toksvig's laugh warms my heart.

love that line about the Ausi pilot " enough yacht yak from me, time to push some service down the aisle and some scenery past the windows"

5:27 his Australian (Melbourne) accent is PERFECT. Absolutely perfect.

Sandi Toksvij is a very good replacement for Stephen Fry - who is still missed, of course. Sandi has a wit and a take all of her own.

I'm australian and at the end of one internal flight I remember the pilot taking the piss a little. As we were docking he said, "It has been an exceptionally smooth flight if I do say so myself. It's certainly been your pleasure to have me on board and I'm sure you all wish to see me again soon."

Toksvig's German joke stole the show for me.

Stephen nailed the Aussie accent perfectly.

7:09 - "The posh voice: he could be an idiot but he lucked his way through life." Well, that explains Boris Johnson then...

Stephen sounds more Aussie than me. Legend

QI just cheers me up. Not sure why it just does.

I refuse to let go of the stereotypical RAF pilot image and accent. It's just too brilliant.

This entire segment is bloody brilliant !

Stephen and his Australian Accent. Yes.

Love the way Rob Brydon needs to shove a Ronnie Corbett impression in at every opportunity, even when there isn't one.

Best flight announcement I've ever heard, from the head flight attendant just after she'd closed the door to start the pre-flight spiel: "Okay everyone, put your tush on the cush, 'cause we're ready to push!"

I love Sandy Toksvig in QI, one of my favourite panelists :-)

I once had the great pleasure of meeting and speaking with an Austrian guy who had learned his English working for an Australian winery. So, to my "American ears", he had an Aussie accent on top of an Austrian one. It was even more pleasantly mind-blowing than hearing someone speak French with a Texas accent (which I have also heard). :-)

I didn't understand the references or the talk about the different accents, but I still enjoyed this.

Always loved how the British actually 'get' Aussie accents. It isn't like the American "OYYY GIDAY MAYT HOW AGHHH YAHHH?" It's actually quite realistic. I remember watching High Laurie and Stephen Fry mock an Australian Soap TV show (Neighbours) and my god was it a fantastic impression.

Stephen Fry doing an Australian accent is the most amazing thing I've ever heard.

One of the best group of guests.

Sandi has the most infectious laugh!

People do not realise one of the reasons for posh accents in the old films was class propaganda ! The upper classes, establishment at the time were very concerned about the lower classes / working class forgeting their station in life, because of the interclass mingling during the war ! If you watch all of the old WW2 films you will notice that any heroes spoke with an upper class accent, anyone with a lower class accent was portrayed as a coward, or looking to the posh guy for advice in a combat situation, or extremely panicky !

5:32 Wow! As an Australian, I can assure you that that is the most convincing impression of our accent that I have ever heard from non-Australian

This is the best panel ever

QI was simply the one of the best shows ever made, and of course it is british ... wonderfull

Sandi is hilarious in this one.

Here in the States, our war movies emphasize how not fancy the whole ordeal was so if I imagine a WW2 fighter piolet I think Brooklyn accent and lots of cursing.

Sandy was on fire, here! QI's just great!

He does a spot on Aussie accent :)

We need a title for that war film starring Stephen, David, Alan, Sandy and Rob :)

Part of feeling safe is feeling there is someone competent and confident in charge of the fragile box of metal hurtling at near super sonic speeds above the clouds. As someone who feels uneasy on planes, I can tell you that certain accents do make you feel more comfortable, even knowing full well that there's no link between accent and piloting skill.

love the classest approach of this show, its hilarious!

Rob Brydon was on fire here. Beautiful to witness.

As soon as WW II the UK and Poland are mentioned in a discussion it needs to be said: "The Allied nations utterly and completely betrayed Poland and abandoned them to Sovjet oppression." Perhaps it was immensely difficult to do anything different, perhaps the UK hardly had a choice in a matter. But in history we mustn't forget the things we did wrong. And the Allied betrayal of Poland is something we don't properly acknowledge and seemingly try to hide.

Fry's Australian accent is absolutely spot on. Everybody I know who attempts an Australian accent somehow ends up with a Cockney British accent.

I can't stop watching it. Help me.

Richard Todd was in the Parachute Regiment and was involved in the capture of Pegasus Bridge on D-Day. He later played another person in the film The Longest Day, about the action. How weird must that have been, less than 20 years after the event, playing a character in a film about something in which you played an important part. As an aside, in the 1970's, one of the daily newspapers released a selection of reprints of newspapers of the War years. I recall seeing an advertisement in one of them for pilots in the RAF. It basically said that one of the entrance requirements was a Grammar School education. I was at Grammar School at the time and found it hard to believe that men, not much older than I were defending the Country and being killed doing so. A sobering thought. Especially as at the time, on a daily basis we convened in the hall facing the stage for assembly. On the back wall of the stage was the list of 'Old Boys' that had given their lives during the First and Second World Wars. At the time, I never really gave it a second glance, as nobody spoke about it.

Let a Brummie fly a plane?!! I wouldn't trust anyone north of the M25 to boil an egg.

I just realized David was talking about brummie accent, which is John Oliver's. And I agree with his description.

7:02 - 7:44 - that is so true! What a great insight.

There were French pilots in the Royal Air Force also, such as Pierre Clostermann , an ace with 33 aerial victories, best known for his memoirs which most history buffs have probably read.

Love Sandy's laughter!

On the subject of accents, I think often about how native speakers of other languages perceive accents. As an Australian, I notice different types of accents when those people speak English, and can pick a Dutch, French, Russian or whatever accent. I can't pick a Swedish accent vs. a Native Russian accent when they're speaking Russian, for example.

i love Stephen's "Oh dear" at the start

I don't think there ever was a more QI QI-panel.

I don't know where in Canada you've been, but it has several different accents. You have your West Coast accent (think Seattle-ish), your hippie West Coast accent (very relaxed, almost surfer-ish), prairie accent (closer to the stereotype "Canadian" accent), Toronto accent (they call their city "Trawna"), northern and Inuit accents, generic Ontario accent, Newfoundland accent (which no one else can understand), French-Canadian accent, etc.

Ahhhh, Sandy,you are so awesome!

The point is to be quite interesting. It is all about interesting facts and anecdotes with a generous helping of humorous remarks - or jokes if you like - mixed in. If you haven't watched more than a few clips I'd urge you to give the show a try and start all the way back with series A. Also, from Series D onwards unless I'm mistaken - there is QI XL, a 45 minute version of the show (if 30min just isn't enough for you) that is also well worth it.

Stephen's Australian accent sounds amazingly like Michael Caton... Seriously, watch just the part about the pilot, then watch a bit of The Castle. Flawless.

QI- discussion about the perception of accents Uploaded on 16 Jan 2011 Stephen Fry, David Mitchell, Rob Brydon, Sandy Toksvig and Alan Davies discuss how we perceive accents. This segment from QI was first broadcast on BBC2, 15th January 2011. (c) BBC MMXI Category Education Licence Standard RU-vid Licence JUN 8, 2014

Stephen's Scottish accent sounds like Billy Connolly xD

The dream team QI panel

Simply brilliant Australian pilot skit by Fry there.

"Did the Germans know we were sending up the lower classes??" Hilarious stuff from Sandi. Love her

As an Australian, I have to say that Stephen Fry is the only one I know who does the notoriously hard Australian accent well.

Yes, they vary hugely over very short distances. In the north of England alone: Manchester to Liverpool ("scouse" accent) 35 miles and completely different and distinctive. Another 40 miles to Leeds, distinctive again. 100 more miles to Newcastle ("geordie" accent) and it's like a different language. That's just in the north. Or go 80 miles south to a "brummie" Birmingham accent, and another 120 miles to London- they're all completely different. London has its own accents too.

omg that's the first foreigner I've ever heard able to do a convincing Australian accent. well done mr. fry, well done.

Stephen Fry does a good Australian accent

I don't really think anyone's ever heard the pilot say "Wy aye mon!" and suddenly said "nope, can't go through with it, the pilot sounds like a yobbo."

You were a smashing dominion. Australia too. God, I miss you guys.

@Flipperlikesdipper It’s ‘public’ in the sense that anyone can apply to study there. If you go to a state school, you are only permitted to attend a school within your residential catchment area (with a few exceptions). Public schools are open to anyone from anywhere, provided you can afford the fees!

That was a near-perfect Ronnie Corbett impression.

As an American, I've always been somewhat confused that "public school" denotes privately-educated institutions. Over here, "public schools" *are* the state-run schools (as in...funded by the public). Where did the notion of a public school really being privately-funded come from?

Rob Brydon is brilliant

Now, I find that quite interesting! Thanks for answering!

'Did the German's know we were sending up the lower classes?'

Sandi's going to do great as presenter. :)

Thank you very much, Becca Miles. :)

as an aussie, Stephen does an excellent accent!!

man, that is a spot on aussie accent! hearing that makes me realise i'm starting to lose mine here in england >:C

Search YT for Mitchell and Webb RAF pilots. They do some hilarious accents.

By George, that aussie accent is spot on!!

@Chrisfs59 Because when public schools first opened, they were unusual in that they were open to any member of the public who could pay the fees and passage entrance exam. Most other schools at the time had religious or occupational restrictions.

I think we should all annoy them until they make this hypothetical movie. Rob should talk like he did at 3:20 the whole time.

I knew someone who visited York and said that most people sounded surprisingly 'normal', so you may be on to something when you say that regional dialects will eventually be lost in favour of a common language. But maybe it's just become a 'behind closed doors' sort of thing, because I feel like people who were raised in Yorkshire still talk in the traditional regional way to close friends and family but sort of settle for a commonality in language when they're in public places.

stephen fry's aussie accent is fantastic! effortless!

Mr Fry's Ozzie accent is perfect!

how do RAF pilots talk? In polish of course

He is saying "Brummie" - slang for Birmingham

Perhaps not as many as there are American... but, yes, there are quite a few. Every region has their own... and the more isolated ones sometimes have significantly different ones... much like in America, but on a smaller scale. If you listen, the differences are quite clear and it isn't terribly hard to differentiate general differences... such as northern vs southern. The first time I heard Sean Bean talk I immediately knew he was from the north... specifically Yorkshire, I think.

Haha, Stephen's Australian accent is spot on. I can just hear that voice coming from one of my uni lecturers or voicing a TV advertisement