"WOLF HOWLS" "MOURNFUL BELL TOLLS" "WIND WHISTLES" "A WOMAN SCREAMS" "CHEERING AND APPLAUSE" "hello." "Good evening and welcome." "Welcome to the QI Gothic special." "It is a dark and stormy night and four contestants are sat in my cave." "The ghostly Jimmy Carr!" "APPLAUSE" "The gruesome Jack Dee!" "APPLAUSE" "The ghoulish Sue Perkins." "APPLAUSE" "And the gibbering Alan Davies!" "APPLAUSE" "your bloodcurdling buzzers." "So Jack goes..." "SHARP "PSYCHO" MUSIC Jimmy goes..." "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" "Here's Jimmy!" A WOMAN SCREAMS" "Sue goes..." ""Aaaaow!" "And Alan goes..." "Arsenal 0 Norwich City 4" "I can dream!" "Wake up!" "Here's something Gothic that starts with a G. What would you call it?" "Gargoyle." "I'll go." "I think you were first!" "HOOTER it is." "particular thing." "It's not a gargoyle because you can't pour milk out of it." "but..." "Isn't that what the little jugs are?" "yes." "But it's a water spout." "That's a gargoyle." "It's a draining implement for guttering." "meaning throat." "Same root as our word gargle." "So what was the thing before?" "Grotesque!" "A grotesque!" "Help yourself to a handful of points." "Thank you." "not a gargoyle." "It's useful to know..." "It would have been useful to know two minutes ago." "Now it will never come up again." "You'll be walking your best girl along the park near the cathedral..." "My best girl!" "And your second-best girl's at home!" "the point is gargoyles spout water." "Ones that don't are grotesques." "What is Gothic about the Goths?" "Aaaaow!" "the Goths were an ancient German tribe who wore crushed velvet and very thin drainpipe trousers." "And spat in shopping centres." "And Goths carry on that tradition to this day." "A rampaging army of horny-headed warriors? but they were originally Scandiwegian." "Glaswegian Scandinavians?" "!" "Norwegian Scandinavians." "They sound dangerous." "They came from Scandinavia and defeated the Vandals..." "Who hung around bus shelters." "Exactly." "the most Gothic of the Goths." "Gothic has been used to mean all kind of things." "What kind of things?" "it was an insult." "they called them Gothic to mean barbarian." "They were conceived to be the people who destroyed Rome and civilisation." "Gothic was a huge insult." "What else was called Gothic?" "Literature." "That's where you get Gothic as the macabre." "maybe." "Yeah." "Bad monks and women who always fainted and slightly lezzed it up." "Yes." "They did a bit!" "Bad monks is a great idea for a book." "They've done that." "The Da Vinci Code." "They should have called it Bad Monks." "It's a film about some BAD monks!" "These monks have turned nasty!" "This is now stuck to my head." "Do take it off." "Thank you." "What other forms of Gothic are there?" "Carpenter Gothic?" "Carpenter?" "An interesting phase in their recording career." "She was quite skinny and had the mascara." "It looked good." "No." "Carpenter Gothic?" "Was it a death-obsessed Geppetto?" "that's American Gothic!" "That's right." "By?" "I thought it was Norman Rockwell." "Grant somebody." "Grant Wood." "Grant Wood." "Sounds like a porn star." "It does rather. "I grant wood!" "LAUGHTER" "Thank you!" "really." "Dilapidated." "How have they got Gothic from that?" "From that pointed ecclesiastical star window." "It's a Gothic arch." "It's a bit of a lame effort." "Considering the trouble we went to over here." "Americans think they can put a window like that in and call it Gothic." "Lazy Gothic." "Half-arsed Gothic." "Couldn't be bothered Gothic." "isn't it?" "Yes." "APPLAUSE" "What are we gonna do with the window?" "I don't know." "We'll tell them it's Gothic." "Wasn't the guy in that painting his dentist?" "Absolutely right." "It was Grant Wood's dentist." "Points for Sue Perkins." "APPLAUSE" "And the woman...?" "Is it Gail from Corrie?" "I'm sure that's her." "Gail from Corrie." "Helen Worth." "Nice woman." "She looks exactly like the character she plays." "Very talented." "There is an incredible similarity." "So there are lots of things we call Gothic." "And the young people who go about in black eyeliner and stuff." "I like the fact that the Goths sacked Rome do we have to?" "It's rubbish." "I like Goths." "They're emotional and soulful." "they're..." "Emos." "Aren't they?" "I love an Emo." "I was a Goth for a while." "Were you?" "I was asked to leave." "I was just too miserable." "You're a bit of a downer." Bringing them down?" "Bringing the Goths down." "I was an emu for a while." "Aww." "When did the hand come out?" "What is the difference between an Emo and a Goth?" "One's a flightless bird." "And one's..." "The other one is a horny-headed vandal. then My Bloody Valentine and Death Cab For Cutie?" "It's different." "LAUGHTER" "It's like being on a show with your dad." ""You don't get it." "I hate you." "they say that Emos want to kill themselves and Goths want to kill everyone else." "I think Goths have just decided to bring together all the things parents hate and fear most punk clothing and rubbish music..." "Ohhh(!" ")" "..and too much cider." "Ohhh(!" ")" "I wanted to paint my bedroom black." "What's the urge there?" "That seems to be very common." "What colour is it? "Black." "All of it." "Ceiling's black." "Were you allowed to do that?" "No." "I was quite pleased with it." "I think." "flirting." "And I realised he had exactly the same wallpaper as me." "Ahh!" "And I felt really unwell then." "I've got the same taste as Mike Baldwin!" "A very lowering thought." "Then I settled on that as a role model." "In my bedroom - Hyacinth Bucket...my bedroom." "Hyacinth Bucket...my bedroom." "Identical." "Goths are a little like vampires." "They're sort of the same - they can't go out in the day or summer." "was he...?" "It's almost a Goth look." "Looks pretty Gothy to me." "Goth-ish." "Robert Smith of The Cure?" "He defines it." "Siouxsie Sioux." "Indeed." "You look like her." "But we both know I've got ridiculous glasses on top." "That is quite Goth." "That is..." "librarian Goth." "It's a new movement!" "Maybe a supply teacher." "Just over the glasses." "Slightly licking the pencil." "that's coquettish." "I'm too old for that." "The point is there are many things we call Gothic." "Just about the only thing they have in common is no connection to Goths." "But who painted this picture?" "Aaaaow!" Yes?" "Van "Goff"." "HOOTER" "We're after..." "I'm going to go Van Goth." "HOOTER" "Wha...?" "!" "Van "Go"!" "Van Go?" "HOOTER" "Here's Jimmy!" "Cezanne." "LAUGHTER" "At least you don't lose points for that." "Van Ho." "Closer..." "Van Heugh." "What?" "listen." "We can help you out with that name." "Jack." "Were you aware there's a Dutch version of QI?" "Yes." "Would you like to see the presenter?" "Not really." "He will tell us how the name is pronounced." "Pretty good." "Sho shexy." "Come on!" "The correct Dutch pronunciation is Vincent Van "Hoch"." "don't try this at home." "Stephen!" "You ought to be polite." "He's in the audience." "there he is!" "Hello!" "Thank you." "THEY SPEAK IN DUTCH" "Excellent to see you." "Very good." "How is QI?" "Is it a success in Dutchland?" "people love it." "Good." "Do you have a regular person ever week?" "I do." "He's called Thomas van Luyn." "Is he a bit...?" "Is he...?" "What's he like?" "LAUGHTER" "How can we put this delicately?" "He is a bit like Alan." "clever..." "We have to be kind to them." "Yes." "See that behind Van Gogh?" "It's very similar to Mike Baldwin's wallpaper." "It's really uncanny." "You had taste after all." "very brilliant novelist." "ladies and gentlemen." "Thank you very much." "Are we talking about Van Hoch now?" "yes." "I was wondering if that was a very primitive bugging device." "I'll leave that." "Like that John Sayles film Brother From Another Planet." "Really good film." "A guy lands - he's an alien - but he just looks like a black guy from Harlem." "So he goes and lives there and gets a job fixing fruit machines." "He can take his eye out and leave it and still see." "Much as I have done there." "I don't know why I've shut my eye!" "You think Van Hoch was eavesdropping using his own ear?" "Almost certainly." "There is now a theory that it was cut off by Gauguin in a fight." "It's not pronounced Gauguin." "Hoo-hon!" "There we are." "I'll have you know." "in his reactions to things." "There was a girl he was in love with." "The parents denied him access." ""She can see me for as long as I keep my hand there." "Go away!" "we were able to give you the correct pronunciation. you're now a zombie." "You bite Jack." "Jack bites Mel and so on." "Sue." "What?" "Sue." "LAUGHTER" "Gosh." "10 points now if you know her name." "personal touch that you get on this show." "I am so..." "Get the conveyor belt!" "Come on!" "Hugh." "Oh..." "So I've just been bitten and been called the wrong name!" "Sue." "So sorry." "The point is the reciprocation." "You've all been turned into zombies." "How long would it take for the whole planet to be turned into a zombie?" "15 minutes." "6.8 billion people." "I reckon it would take about..." "How are they travelling?" "Just...uugh!" "That is like holding a tea tray on a cruise ship." "years." "I think it's a trick question." "You're a vegetarian." "You wouldn't bite me." "You'd have a salad." "but I would be prepared to kill you and turn you into one of me!" "And we'll all live in windmills and solve crime!" "Well..." "I look like the character." "actually!" "Mel." "You look like the other one!" "I know." "Zombies?" "Yeah." "I don't know how long it would take." "They're all biting...?" "It multiplies out?" "It's exponential growth." "Isn't there that thing that the Chinese emperor did?" "Pay me one grain of rice the first day." "then eight." "No problem." "it's all the rice in the world." "It's WAY more than that." "It's a staggering amount." "64 squares." "I'll have to read it." "It's not a number you can memorise. which is what the whole world could possibly produce in 80 years if all arable land was converted." "So if that's 64...30 days." "Not bad. 38 days. 38 days." "For a full infection rate?" "Do you know what this progression is called?" "A geometrical progression." "As opposed to arithmetic." "you wouldn't care what it was called." "You'd just bloody run." "The zombie thing." "I think zombie is a Haitian word." "isn't it?" "But voodoo originated in...?" "Haiti." "Croydon!" "Whitby." "Haiti is a Caribbean island peopled by..." "Africans." "West African." "So don't zombies actually exist in Haiti?" "I read - probably nonsense - and then they wake up like real zombies and that's where it's from." "You're very right." "Really?" "An ethno-botanist called Wade Davis in the '80s discovered - it's his theory - a death-like trance." "the West African word. it would take just over a month for everyone in the world to be like Alan." "I'd love to see that day." "where's this fish going?" "A massive cat!" "It's got "decoy" written all over it." "LAUGHTER in fact." "Can you see a line along the fish?" "The lid!" "Cockpit." "It's a mini sub." "What?" "Cockpit." "I thought you said coffin." "there's a tradition..." "Buried in a fish with a painted face?" "!" "a Bible is common." "Was he cremated or grilled?" "LAUGHTER" "Could you have a floating one with a domed top?" "You can have an aeroplane." "Or a car." "That's wrong." "Do you think?" "It's just one final chance to be a bloody nuisance to everyone." "do you?" "Great(!" ")" " I like the big shoe!" " "You were a pain when you were alive and now you're even worse." "What about the red hot chilli pepper in the background?" "And a giant shoe!" "mind!" "you know." "A year's wages." "What a waste of money." "you're angry at this." "that." "Shouldn't there be fun in death?" "then you know..." "You might as well forget about it." "It's quite a recent tradition." "I'd imagine it is!" "like food!" "Lord." "Anyway..." "There's a tiny little fish on the back shelf." "Is that to put your cat in or something?" "Rather a sad thought." "Maybe it's just a model." "How quickly does he knock these up?" "That must be quite depressing." "There's good news and bad news." "Bad news is you're not going to make it." "Here's a brochure." ""Pick your favourite." Absolutely." ""I was once in a graveyard"!" "Quite nonchalant." "You know the old gravestones with curly bits?" "Yes." "we have a question about graveyards." "what would it tell you?" "That signifies..." "Yes." "Decapitation?" "No." "He..." "It looks a bit old and derelict and disused and not using it any more..." "No." "When a column is brand-new like that..." "Was it that distressed look that Kirsty Allsopp goes on about?" "it's a symbol of life being cut short." "There's a lot of symbology going on in graveyards." "I bet people have fixed those." "This needs redoing." "It might be true." "That's a horrible thought." "like a lightning strike?" "a life cut short." "that'll do." "There's a broken chain which symbolises...?" "Messy divorce?" "a loss in the family." "Goth?" "isn't it?" "Apples?" "A greengrocer?" "Sin." "They represent sin." "Fallen women." "Fallen women might have an apple." "particularly in graveyards on tombstones?" "all that moss?" "Very good." "Absolutely right." "cadmium." "You've got the dates on the gravestones." "Very good." "You know how much of it there is." "And also they tend not to spray graveyards with chemicals." "It's considered disrespectful to spray them with pesticides." "everybody." "What's the best way to ensure that your family never forgets you after you're gone?" "Haunting." "Yeah." "If he insists on being buried in an exact replica of your house that they have to pay for and therefore sell the house they live in to... aren't you?" "..finance it." "Yeah." "being stuffed." "Preserved in some way." "There's a very extreme example..." "Leaning on the mantelpiece." "With a pipe." "so they can't see it." "so you just..." "There was an artist called Hananuma Masakichi." "Yeah." "Have you heard of him?" "He's bloody good." "He's excellent. so he made a statue of himself so life-like apparently. then took the hairs from every pore of his body and put them into the other pores." "He pulled out all his own fingernails and put them in like that." "His toenails and his teeth." "this is a replica because it's quite shiny and not anything like a real person." "It doesn't look that much like you." You're left with... no nails." "He pulled his teeth out while he was still alive?" "He wanted it to be real." "Who was it for?" "Gunther von Hagens." "His girlfriend and his family." "Imagine if he'd taken his eyes out at an early stage and realised what a stupid mistake that was." "it was injured in an earthquake in '96 and it's currently awaiting restoration." "There is a replica in London's Odditorium." "I didn't know we had one." "On Piccadilly Circus." "Where did they get this one from?" "This one is from the Odditorium." "You can also be turned into compost." "then vibrated." "Liquid nitrogen makes you so brittle." "Vibrated?" "isn't it?" "if that doesn't kill you..." "They use a magnet to get rid of mercury and other metals which can then go into the making of something so they just make a car or bits of a car." "Then you've got 25 to 30 kilograms left over which is put into a coffin made of maize or potato starch and you're then buried and you rot into the earth and you're biodegraded in six or twelve months." "It's weird how the world has changed." "It used to be people wanted to leave a mark on the world." "people will know I was here." Now just the opposite. "I won't leave a mess!" "You're known as a big grow-bag!" ""You won't know I've been here."" ""That's your Uncle Jimmy there." "That tomato sticking out of him!" "I've done pak choi this year on him." "I'd be very happy." "have a camera...?" "I'm not making it up." "No!" "They have a light and you can watch your loved one basically rot." "There you go." "Can I..." "When you say..." "The only problem I've got with that is "loved one"." "Their slogan..." "Being dead and buried doesn't mean you can't have friends over." "then suddenly it went... wouldn't you?" "They used to bury people and sometimes they would be scratching on the coffin lid because they were in a coma and then they woke up." "they should just give you a mobile." "That does happen." "A lot of people are afraid of being buried alive." "I'm quite afraid of it." "Now you mention it!" "they have a real..." "It doesn't bother me!" "They're obsessed by it." "bring it on!" "but I don't think about it." "There are people who really think about it and plan against it." "I get frustrated enough if I can't get a signal if I'm in a hotel." "you've got no chance!" "the battery's gone! which he constructed entirely out of his own body parts." "But tell me about the vampire squid from hell." "What's scary about it?" "It going through your digestive system and the havoc it wreaks?" "It does look like..." "I had a meal like that in Spain." "so it came back?" "Its name is Vampyroteuthis infernalis." "It has the biggest eyes of any animal relative to its head." "the eyes would be a foot wide." "It would be Natalie Imbruglia." "There one is." "They're rather ugly." "do you?" "that's hideous!" "It sort of looks like an organ of some kind." "It's rather like a baked potato at the moment." "Yeah." "They live in the dark?" "They live really deep." "There are the big eyes." "A tendril comes out." "I bet that's off-putting. it's jets of bioluminescence - countless bright blue orbs that dazzle anyone who attacks them." "they escape." "Their defence is to dazzle?" "Yeah." "Showtime!" "Yeah." "Not..." "Ta-da!" "It's the John Barrowman of deep-sea..." "LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE Of deep-sea survival." "Get back or I'll show you my teeth!" "Aagh!" "the vampire squid from hell is a docile creature." "It releases a firework display from its arms when threatened." "to become a mummy?" "Well..." "I'll take it." "'Here's Jimmy!" "' A WOMAN SCREAMS" "Reverse cowgirl?" "LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE" "They understand that." "You're going to have to explain it to me." "I'll need a volunteer from the audience." "If you were having sex with me..." "Yeah." "Or Mel." "Or Mel." "Say you're having sex with Mel and you're lying down on your back and Mel is..." "I can't use her name." "but looking away - reverse cowgirl." "Oh." "I find they're much happier without looking away from me." "Really?" "Especially if they can see out the window." "It's like a budgie." "she doesn't mind." "That's wonderful." "It's catch-up time for women." "whatever you need to do." "aren't you?" "That sort of mummy I realise now as well." "Can you turn yourself into a mummy?" "Probably." "You could probably wrap yourself up in..." "Haven't you got to take your liver out through your nose?" "They took the organs out through the mouth and nose?" "The brain they would take out through the nose." "so it turned into a liquid mush." "Oh!" "Worse than being buried alive or...?" "they would kill them!" "But the Sokushinbutsu were members of an obscure Buddhist sect used to practise the macabre idea of self-mummification." "it's really interesting." "a priest would eat nuts and seeds so that he had no body fat. causing him to vomit and lose bodily fluids." "Then he'd lock himself into a tiny stone tomb with an air tube and a bell." "he'd ring his bell to show he was alive." "the tube was removed and the tomb was sealed." "then opened the tomb he was considered to have achieved the state of a truly enlightened Buddha." "Who made that up?" "Buddhists." "It's a terrible photo of him." "I'd have a decent photo taken of me." "Buddhists are normal and decent." "I'm afraid." "They don't do it like that any more?" "It's now an illegal form of suicide." "They have a webcam now." "that should be promoted." "it's all over very quickly." "You've not been able to think it through." "you can change your mind." ""You know what?" "I fancy a drink." "a pizza wouldn't go amiss!" "I told you he had a Twix"?" "Members of an obscure Buddhist sect in Japan went through a rigorous process of self-mummification until the practice was stopped in the 19th century. came from one town in Florida." "because that enormous thing dropped on their limbs." "The enormous doughnut from outer space took their legs." "Is it because it cost an arm and a leg to live there?" "there's more." "funnily enough." "I don't think any of them were women." "Is it the town where they put the diabetic clinic next to the doughnut shop?" "my God..." "What?" "It happens." "It does." "Is it the town where the helicopter pad was next to the taxi rank?" "Oh...!" "No." "An unnatural amount of..." "Sharks." "Not sharks." "This is self-harm we're talking about." "amputee wannabes." "I think I've made that sound disrespectful." "# Amputee Wannabes... #" "It's new on ITV-2." "You are going to love it." "I'll present it." "Welcome to Amputee Wannabe!" "it's not that form of dysmorphia." "It's self-harm for another reason." "but it is for gain." "insurance." "Insurance is right." "I thought a cardigan would have been an easier way." "My legs are freezing!" "Hack 'em off!" "then wrap your arms round your neck." "They did." "It's a bit chilly." "They sawed them off." "It just became a fever of it." "More than 50 occurrences in a town of a population of 500." "Most limbs were shot off with hunting rifles." "guns misfiring." "These were the claims." "All the mishaps involved men." "Somehow they'd always shoot off the parts they seemed to need least." "Your left hand." "Yeah. "A foot while protecting chickens." "Lost a hand while trying to shoot a hawk." "A man lost two limbs in an accident involving a rifle and a tractor. please." "What does this tell you?" "RHYTHMIC BEEPING isn't it?" "CONTINUOUS BEEP But this?" "It tells you you're dead." "Jackie baby!" "You've fallen into another trap. you wouldn't get that." "if you tripped on a cable and pulled it out..." "Someone could have died." "They tripped on a cable." "It doesn't tell you that they're dead." "then you would find out..." "The fibrillator is used like that." "What do you use those for?" "To start the heart up again." "I use them for making paninis." "Ah!" "Very good." "They're paddles to get the heart working again." "that's what it's used for." "It's no wonder I failed my finals." "It's probably as well for the world." "it probably means somebody has tripped over the cable." "who was buried in the tomb of the Unknown Soldier?" "We don't know." "All of them were anonymous deliberately." "KLAXON SOUNDS and he wasn't dead." "He wasn't dead." "the Unknown Soldier was actually buried in a replica of a large red chilli." "Was he an unknown soldier when he was still alive as well?" ""How are you doing?" "Who's that?" "I don't know." "He seems keen to join in." ""I don't know who he is." "What happened to that unknown soldier?" "He died." "Let's bury him. but a family thought they heard that the Unknown Soldier had died in a helicopter crash. they persuaded the US government to do a DNA test on the Unknown Soldier so the remains were returned. so they will always be known." "isn't it(?" ")" "do you know the first time it was done?" "After World War One?" "Yes." "It was done in 1920 in France and Britain." "there were four unknown soldiers and a general pointed at one body and that became The Unknown Soldier entombed with a medieval crusader's sword in the presence of a guard made up of 100 VCs." "each of whom had lost her husband and all her sons in the war." "That is sobering." "Wow!" "An amazing ceremony." "isn't it?" "Yes." "wasn't it?" "Yes." "I think you must have points." "I hope so." "To make up for your large collection of negative points." "I think(!" ")" "It'll be interesting to see if we can pick it up from there." "the story of that service." "moving on..." "Where does the saying "saved by the bell" come from?" "SHARP "PSYCHO" MUSIC I know what's going to happen now." "I'm going to get the klaxon for this." "Is it a boxing reference?" "Yes!" "Well done." "APPLAUSE" "We thought..." "It is actually..." "Is this where the bell's going to go off?" "Don't do it." "He's going to lead you..." "It's going back to being buried alive." "No..." "KLAXON SOUNDS" "How can you get it wrong after he's got it right?" "That's extraordinary!" "Only Alan..." "You were saved by the bell." "He got it right." "You couldn't say the stupid thing and went there anyway!" "I find it quite interesting." "I thought that was the true one." "you'd start kicking." "There have been people who have been so afraid of premature burial." "There was an old film of a man who was so afraid of being buried alive it had all rotted and the string for the bell had corroded." "There's an Edgar Allan Poe story called The Premature Burial." "It'll never be that premature." "Maybe five days max." "It's premature enough for most of us." "What can you tell me about Mozart's burial?" "'Here's Jimmy!" "' Did they play Angels by Robbie Williams?" "Was it Bohemian Rhapsody?" "They do have a top ten of the play-off tunes that people choose for going into..." "Do you know what one of the most popular is?" "Countdown." "No!" "As they go in..." "THEY SING "COUNTDOWN" THEME" "There's a quite interesting fact about this." "One of the most popular ones is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen." "is Another One Bites The Dust." "you have." "isn't it?" "Much better." "it was not a pauper's funeral." "Only the aristocracy had tombs and vaults in those days." "His funeral cost quite a lot of money - 8 guilders and 56 kreuzer." "To hire the orchestra." "which was their version of Hello magazine." "They covered it very tastefully." "It was really nicely done." "he had a pet starling whom he buried in 1784." "Its whistling inspired the principal theme of the last movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto K453." "obviously." "ORCHESTRAL MUSIC That's the Piano Concerto." "Mozart wasn't buried in a pauper's grave." "He had the same kind of funeral as everybody else in Vienna." "it's time for the scores." "my goodness me!" "it's Jimmy Carr!" "APPLAUSE" "Sue Perkins!" "APPLAUSE it's Alan and Jack!" "CHEERING AND APPLAUSE" "Sue and Alan." "I leave you with this boo-boo from baseball great Yogi Berra." "they won't come to yours." Good night!" "Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2010" "Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk"