QI Wizardry

Here be my sparkling tribute to the greatest comedy panel game ever conceptualised.  I hope you find it quite informative and quite entertaining.  A lot of information has been brazenly stolen from various other sites, such as the official site and the Wikipedia entry, because I'm lazy and because other sites can better express all I have to say about QI.  My sources can be found in the Links Section.  Click away!

Quite Interesting, or QI as its friends like to call it, was created by John Lloyd and originally conceived as a radio series.  When it was decided that the show would do better on television, Michael Palin was offered the job of quizmaster, with Stephen Fry and Alan Davies captains of 'clever' and 'stupid' teams respectively.  Of course this is unthinkable now to QI's rabid following, who would surely agree that the success of the current format is hugely attributable to Stephen as quizmaster and Alan as his loveable studmuffin.  

When the show premiered on 11 September 2003, who could have foreseen that the humble beginnings of Series A would eventually spawn an entire QI culture?  In 2007, with series E due to air in Autumn, we now have a cafe bar, a DVD, a book, an interactive game, a column in The Telegraph and countless websites to ogle and caress.  And there's a long way to go, if the show's intention to do a series for each letter of the alphabet goes ahead as planned.

In case you're new to QI, here are the basics -

+ Each series is based on a letter of the alphabet.  Each episode is themed.
+ Points are rewarded for answers that are merely quite interesting, regardless of whether or not they are correct or even relevant.
+ Forfeits are given for obvious but wrong answers.
+ The buzzers are traditionally related to each episodes theme, with Alan's buzzer contradicting the others in an amusing fashion.
+ Alan Davies is the only permanent panellist.  He has perfected his role as class clown, resident "dummy", and teacher's pet.  He is frequently the target of jokes and usually receives far more forfeits than any other guest.

So unplug the telephone, lock all the doors, recline with your beverage of choice, and dive into some fascinating factoids and amusing anectodes, accompanied by pretty pictures to drool over.