As you’ve probably heard, Stephen Fry is stepping down as the erudite presenter of the long running comedy panel show QI. The newest series, which has already been recorded and begins airing on BBC Two this weekend, will be Fry’s thirteenth and final attempt to impart obscure knowledge and relieve us of the misconceptions and old wives’ tales we’ve held to be true all these years.
So as Mr. Fry bids adieu to QI viewers, I thought it was the perfect time to focus on some of the more amusing, dare I say even silly, moments from series past.
Cockney Rhyming Slang – A lover of words, dialects and language in general, Fry’s attempt at Cockney rhyming slang comes across a little too middle class. Taking the piss out of their esteemed presenter for his posh background is a favorite pastime of Alan Davies and his guest colleagues Bill Bailey and Phill Jupitus.
The “Acropolis where the Parthenon is” tongue twister- Stephen’s normally nimble tongue fails him on a question about the Acropolis. Alan Davies, Bill Bailey, Jimmy Carr and Rob Brydon take advantage of this usual moment of speechlessness from their host to behave like naughty school boys taunting a substitute (or for my UK friends, supply) teacher.
A Bewildering Array of Scottish Accents- Stephen puts his ear for accents to the test in this clip. From Billy Connolly and Mrs. Doubtfire to something approaching David Tennant, Fry impressed and possibly confused his panelists by producing at least four distinctly different Scottish dialects.
Sampling Snuff- Surely encouraging the likes of Ross Noble, Noel Fielding and Alan Davies to experiment with flavored varieties of snuff was never going to be a good idea. Despite the risk, host and babysitter Stephen Fry passes it out anyhow which results in nastily stained handkerchiefs and temporary blindness.
Alan and Stephen, a Complicated Relationship- From the very beginning, week in and week out, it’s been Stephen Fry and Alan Davies together on QI. They have a playfully antagonistic rapport on screen that is highlighted by exchanges like this one. Seeing as how Fry called his co-star a “wonder of nature” in his leaving announcement, I have to think all the ribbing is mostly for show…
In the end, I feel a bit melancholy about the news of Fry’s departure. I wish the best of luck to his successor, Sandi Toksvig, but I can’t help thinking that QI without Fry at the helm will never be quite as interesting.
You probably won’t know of this but Sandi Toksvig successfully hosted the Radio 4 topical comedy panel show The News Quiz for a long time. So she’s got form. She just recently quit this to form her own political party… which was a bit odd. I don’t know what’s happened to that now.
I have in fact read her CV and seen several of her appearances on TV including QI. I have no doubt Toksvig is qualified. Maybe it’ll be like when the Doctor regenerates and it takes time to accept the new actor. It’s just this time we had the same presenter for 13 years, not 3 or 4.
Or we might find Stephen Fry was the essential element of QI and without him it just doesn’t work. Time will tell.