1. This programme contains some strong language
Copy !req
2. Good evening, good evening, good evening, good evening,
Copy !req
3. good evening, good evening - and welcome to QI.
Copy !req
4. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate Marriage and Mating.
Copy !req
5. To help me tie the knot, I've brought along a few mates -
Copy !req
6. the ministerial Bill Bailey... APPLAUSE
Copy !req
7. .. the matchmaking Greg Davies... APPLAUSE
Copy !req
8. .. the Maid of Honour, Jo Brand... APPLAUSE
Copy !req
9. Maid of Honour?
Copy !req
10. .. and the Must We Really Invite Him? Alan Davies.
Copy !req
11. So, let's hear your mating calls. Bill goes...
Copy !req
12. TOAD CROAKS
Copy !req
13. You'll recognise that, Bill, being an animal man.
Copy !req
14. Oh, should I? Is that an animal?
Copy !req
15. - It's an amphibian.
- I thought it was a...
Copy !req
16. Oh, it's a frog of some kind?
Copy !req
17. It's a marine toad.
Copy !req
18. And Jo goes...
Copy !req
19. MOOSE CALL
Copy !req
20. I do actually go like that.
Copy !req
21. Well, that was a moose.
Copy !req
22. And Greg goes...
Copy !req
23. MONKEY CHATTERS
Copy !req
24. It's been a few years since I did that.
Copy !req
25. - That is a spider monkey.
- Of course it is.
Copy !req
26. - Two animals for the price of one.
- Wonderful.
Copy !req
27. So, Alan goes...
Copy !req
28. - 'Hello, darling, you all right?'
Copy !req
29. And that's the mating call of... Where do you come from, Alan, again?
Copy !req
30. - Essex.
- Yeah. There we are.
Copy !req
31. And then you have sex, that's how it works.
Copy !req
32. Everybody wins. Fantastic.
Copy !req
33. But what's the recipe for a disastrous marriage?
Copy !req
34. Oh, Jo?
Copy !req
35. Dead vicar?
Copy !req
36. It would be, you're right.
Copy !req
37. Yeah?
Copy !req
38. Live vicar, lovely couple, escaped Bengali tiger.
Copy !req
39. Yeah, that would be tricky.
Copy !req
40. You've painted a word picture, Greg, there.
Copy !req
41. Let's think first about budget.
Copy !req
42. The price of the wedding?
Copy !req
43. The price of the wedding, yeah.
Copy !req
44. Isn't it about 20 grand now? To get...
Copy !req
45. Yeah, is that a good thing?
Copy !req
46. - I mean does that affect the long-term...
- Oh, I see.
Copy !req
47. So the more you spend
Copy !req
48. doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have a happier marriage.
Copy !req
49. It's actually the more you spend, the shorter the marriage.
Copy !req
50. - Oh.
- Yes.
- Oh.
- Really?
Copy !req
51. - Isn't that extraordinary?
- It IS extraordinary.
Copy !req
52. Mine should be over in a couple of weeks.
Copy !req
53. Cost a bloody fortune.
Copy !req
54. It was a columnist at Emory University, Atlanta, who discovered this.
Copy !req
55. They found an inverse correlation between money spent
Copy !req
56. and how long it lasts.
Copy !req
57. Those who spent less than 1,000 - which is what, £700? -
Copy !req
58. had divorce rates 53% below average,
Copy !req
59. while those who spent more than 20,000 -
Copy !req
60. you were talking about that as a sum -
Copy !req
61. had divorce rates 46% above average.
Copy !req
62. What about numbers who attend weddings?
Copy !req
63. Is that a similar inverse correlation?
Copy !req
64. The more who come, the shorter the marriage?
Copy !req
65. - I presume so, because of the cost factor.
- Expense, yeah.
Copy !req
66. Oddly enough, the reverse is true.
Copy !req
67. The more people who witness the wedding, the longer it lasts.
Copy !req
68. So you've got to have a cheap wedding with lots of people.
Copy !req
69. That seems to be the key.
Copy !req
70. This is Randy Olson, a PhD student at Michigan State.
Copy !req
71. He found that couples who marry in front of more than 200 people are
Copy !req
72. 92% less likely to get divorced than those who only have a few witnesses.
Copy !req
73. - So really you want to get married in Selfridges on Christmas Eve.
- Yes!
Copy !req
74. Or maybe, if you want to have it cheap and cheerful,
Copy !req
75. but lots of people, maybe somewhere like McDonald's, you might think.
Copy !req
76. In Hong Kong.
Copy !req
77. For 900, you can get 200 guests at a McDonald's.
Copy !req
78. - McDonald's Happy Marriage.
- It's a Happy Marriage, yes! LAUGHTER
Copy !req
79. You get a two-hour venue rental,
Copy !req
80. you get 50 McDonaldland character gifts.
Copy !req
81. You get two McDonald balloon wedding rings.
Copy !req
82. Yeah, but how many burgers do you get?
Copy !req
83. Come on, give us that info,
Copy !req
84. I'm thinking about getting remarried there.
Copy !req
85. It's a very simple ceremony, isn't it?
Copy !req
86. You point to the bride, "Do you love it?"I'm loving it."
Copy !req
87. - "All right..."
Copy !req
88. It's all over in five minutes.
Copy !req
89. Yeah. Put a ring on it.
Copy !req
90. Yeah, that's right. Oh, onions, lovely, put a ring on it.
Copy !req
91. Onion rings.
Copy !req
92. If you love it, put an onion ring on it.
Copy !req
93. Randy Olson from Michigan State, who discovered that we should be...
Copy !req
94. I can't get a picture of an erection
Copy !req
95. - with an onion ring on it out of my head.
- Oh!
Copy !req
96. - I get that.
- How do you get a thought out of your head?
Copy !req
97. What, like onion ring quoits?
Copy !req
98. I used to do a bit of stand-up about this thing that I found...
Copy !req
99. - About onion rings?
- That sounds great.
- That sounds brilliant.
Copy !req
100. What it was, we were doing a secret Santa, right,
Copy !req
101. and it was a £10 limit.
Copy !req
102. And I went in... There was quite a good adult shop on the Essex Road,
Copy !req
103. and for under £10 the only thing they offered was anal hoopla.
Copy !req
104. Anal hoopla consists of a stick,
Copy !req
105. - which goes, guess where...
- Oh, yeah.
Copy !req
106. - And three hoops.
Copy !req
107. That's... that's the actual game.
Copy !req
108. It's an ice breaker. It's an ice breaker.
Copy !req
109. - If things have gone a bit flat, you know, in the bedroom area.
- Come on!
Copy !req
110. - I mean, the tone of this show is SO difficult to get right.
- I'm sorry!
Copy !req
111. I'm just, I'm recalibrating.
Copy !req
112. - All this anal hoopla.
- Who would have predicted anal hoopla?
Copy !req
113. On the front of it, on the front of the packet is a cartoon drawing,
Copy !req
114. a bit like a saucy postcard.
Copy !req
115. Two people playing,
Copy !req
116. as if they couldn't get anyone to actually demo it.
Copy !req
117. - Oh, my goodness, yeah.
- I dare say it doesn't work.
Copy !req
118. Where was this for sale? At the ARSE-nal football ground?
Copy !req
119. Wahey!
Copy !req
120. - Thank you.
- That's Klingon for, "Anal hoopla?"
Copy !req
121. "No, thanks."
Copy !req
122. "Let's play Scrabble."
Copy !req
123. Now, who's still having sex?
Copy !req
124. - Not me.
- Not me.
Copy !req
125. - I'll tell you what, these toads.
- TOAD CROAKS
Copy !req
126. - They're begging for it.
- Begging for it.
Copy !req
127. - But are they having it?
- Are they having it?
Copy !req
128. Who's still having sex?
Copy !req
129. What, long-term? Some animals lock together for ages, don't they?
Copy !req
130. Are we still... are we in the animal kingdom?
Copy !req
131. Well, Alan, you're in absolutely the right area,
Copy !req
132. in as much as you've spotted our phrase,
Copy !req
133. "Still having sex," as being having sex in a still position.
Copy !req
134. Ah!
Copy !req
135. So it is the species that most has to be utterly motionless
Copy !req
136. when having sex that we could discover.
Copy !req
137. Is it nuns?
Copy !req
138. It's not nuns.
Copy !req
139. - It's a moth.
- A moth?
- It's a moth. It's a moth.
Copy !req
140. - And so...
- There it is.
- Oh, right.
Copy !req
141. There it is, beautiful, beautiful moth. It's the gold swift moth.
Copy !req
142. And it's at its most vulnerable when mating.
Copy !req
143. Because it might move and exhibit ecstasy.
Copy !req
144. So what it does instead is keep incredibly still,
Copy !req
145. so that the bat doesn't spot the twitch, any movement.
Copy !req
146. But it has a wonderful repertoire of positions...
Copy !req
147. - (Why are we whispering?)
- Unique amongst...
Copy !req
148. - Because we don't want to disturb it. Look, there they are.
- OK.
Copy !req
149. Do you know what, you went all David Attenborough then.
Copy !req
150. As though we were sort of... (just about to watch it.)
Copy !req
151. - I think Stephen's worried about being attacked by a bat.
- I was.
Copy !req
152. "On the left there is the standard, facing position.
Copy !req
153. "And in the middle, an extraordinary upside down..."
Copy !req
154. "See the tiny moth cock."
Copy !req
155. "Mr Moth and Kate Moth..."
Copy !req
156. - Wahey!
- Thank you.
Copy !req
157. But they are a marvellous species, I think you'll agree.
Copy !req
158. Yeah, the gold swift moth,
Copy !req
159. it has to remain completely still when having sex.
Copy !req
160. Now for something completely different.
Copy !req
161. Who's still having sex?
Copy !req
162. The, erm, gold... fish moth? What was it called?
Copy !req
163. - God, dementia already.
- The swift.
- Gold swift moth.
Copy !req
164. - The gold swift.
- Oh, the gold swift moth.
Copy !req
165. JAUNTY TUNE
Copy !req
166. - Well done. You get points for remembering.
- Oh.
Copy !req
167. We are so impressed, because it's very rare that anyone on QI
Copy !req
168. can remember the question that's just been asked.
Copy !req
169. Oh, I was so close, I said goldfish moth.
Copy !req
170. You were close. I know.
Copy !req
171. - Is this a new thing, then? Master Of Memory?
- Yes, that's right.
- Wow!
Copy !req
172. - Yeah, well done you.
- Will we get some slightly easier ones, like our names?
Copy !req
173. - Because my memory's terrible.
- Mine's terrible.
- Yeah, really bad.
Copy !req
174. Such a fabulously middle-aged new feature.
Copy !req
175. - Isn't it?
- I love it.
- I know.
Copy !req
176. Master of Memory!
Copy !req
177. Well done for remembering something seconds ago.
Copy !req
178. "Is it Neville Chamberlain?"
Copy !req
179. - Anyway...
- "One of those rave parties."
Copy !req
180. So what was the question?
Copy !req
181. - Eh? What?
- Eh? What, what?
- What was the question?
Copy !req
182. Who's still having sex?
Copy !req
183. Yes, well done. You remembered that, good.
Copy !req
184. "I like a bit of kedgeree in the morning..."
Copy !req
185. So it's another question, who's still having sex?
Copy !req
186. Is it anything to do with that lady in the picture?
Copy !req
187. - No, the picture, as always, is a complete distraction.
- She's washed her smalls.
Copy !req
188. - Oh, I suppose that's what it is.
- Old ladies don't wear underwear like that.
Copy !req
189. That one does.
Copy !req
190. - I think they're her husband's.
- Do you?
Copy !req
191. So who's still having sex?
Copy !req
192. - It's a fetish.
- A cult.
- Another animal?
Copy !req
193. A fetish about having sex with things that are still.
Copy !req
194. - Oh, oh...
- Oh, I see.
- Statues?
Copy !req
195. - Yes.
- Oh.
Copy !req
196. - Absolutely right.
- Is it?
- Really?
- Yeah, yeah.
Copy !req
197. And what's the Greek myth of someone who fell in love with a statue?
Copy !req
198. - Oh, thing.
- "Thing," yes.
Copy !req
199. - Can we do better?
- What's it begin with?
Copy !req
200. - It begins with, well, the...
- Pygmalion.
Copy !req
201. The sculpture begins with P, Pygmalion, exactly.
Copy !req
202. Pygmalion is the sculpture of...
Copy !req
203. - Yes! Memory, memory!
Copy !req
204. Thank you. That one person.
Copy !req
205. - Well, no, but...
Copy !req
206. Pygmalion made a statue of Galatea and he fell in love with it.
Copy !req
207. And in the myth, the gods took pity and breathed life into her.
Copy !req
208. But it does seem to be a genuine passion people have.
Copy !req
209. Even in Greek times, the first recorded case, Pliny claimed...
Copy !req
210. - And we love Pliny, don't we?
- Yeah.
- Oh, yes, yes.
Copy !req
211. Pliny claimed that Praxiteles' naked statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus,
Copy !req
212. - which is the first naked female statue of that time.
- Yes.
Copy !req
213. Apparently she had a permanent stain on her leg from where
Copy !req
214. a sailor got carried away.
Copy !req
215. - Wow.
- Ugh.
Copy !req
216. What you might call seaman stains. AUDIENCE GROANS
Copy !req
217. Seamen stains, yeah, well, it's true. Quite literally.
Copy !req
218. But Cleisophus was a man who tried to make love to
Copy !req
219. a statue in the temple of Samos.
Copy !req
220. When he found the marble very, very cold, he changed his mind
Copy !req
221. and laid out a piece of meat on the floor and made love to that instead.
Copy !req
222. - It's an incredible jump to make, isn't it?
- It is, a species...
Copy !req
223. "Oh, this statue's not working for me, get me down the butcher's."
Copy !req
224. It is a bit odd, isn't it? That would make...
Copy !req
225. But surely a statue is only a kind of less giving blow-up doll,
Copy !req
226. - really, isn't it? Don't you think?
- This is a really good point, Jo,
Copy !req
227. because you've absolutely...
Copy !req
228. Yeah, thank you.
Copy !req
229. Sex psychiatrists have -
Copy !req
230. sexologists as they like to call themselves - were early on puzzled by
Copy !req
231. the fact that this particular fetish seemed to die away in the 1950s,
Copy !req
232. until they'd considered that maybe it was replaced by the love
Copy !req
233. of blow-up dolls, as they arrived on the market.
Copy !req
234. So it is, whatever that fetish is, that desire to...
Copy !req
235. I suppose it's to... so often the case, men's control,
Copy !req
236. power and all that sort of thing,
Copy !req
237. that you can control and have power over something that
Copy !req
238. - can't answer back, that is inanimate.
- Well, I saw...
- Yeah?
Copy !req
239. I saw a picture in the paper the other day of a very lifelike woman robot.
Copy !req
240. And I must admit thinking to myself, it's not going to be long.
Copy !req
241. - It isn't, is it?
- No.
Copy !req
242. Wait a minute, that was Theresa May.
Copy !req
243. Now, who married Big-Mouthed Margaret?
Copy !req
244. Denis.
Copy !req
245. KLAXON BLARES
Copy !req
246. Oh, thank you. Thank you for that.
Copy !req
247. Well, how can you know Big-Mouthed Margaret?
Copy !req
248. Was it Tiny Todger Tony?
Copy !req
249. If I said Muckle-Mou'ed Meg, would that help?
Copy !req
250. Muckle being big and mou'ed being mouthed, Meg being Margaret.
Copy !req
251. Is it Rabbie Burns?
Copy !req
252. Well, no, but, astonishingly, you're in the right area,
Copy !req
253. in as much as it involves a very - probably after Robbie Burns -
Copy !req
254. - the most famous Scottish writer.
- Wee Willy Winkie.
Copy !req
255. The most famous Scottish writer after Robbie Burns.
Copy !req
256. - Walter Scott?
- Walter Scott, yes, brilliant.
- Bloody hell!
Copy !req
257. Really good.
Copy !req
258. - You're on fire.
- I'm on fire!
Copy !req
259. You are on fire.
Copy !req
260. Yeah, and there you can see William Scott and the woman herself,
Copy !req
261. Muckle-Mou'ed Meg.
Copy !req
262. And William Scott was Walter Scott's great-great-grandfather,
Copy !req
263. and he stole some cattle off a man.
Copy !req
264. And he was sentenced to be hanged, or to marry the man's
Copy !req
265. incredibly, apparently, ugly daughter, Muckle-Mou'ed Meg.
Copy !req
266. - I know, it's...
- What sort of a court was this?
Copy !req
267. And William Scott said, "I think I'll be hanged."
Copy !req
268. But at the very last minute he changed his mind and he married her.
Copy !req
269. And they had a very happy marriage.
Copy !req
270. And because of it, they had Walter Scott as a...
Copy !req
271. Even Robert Browning wrote a poem on it, because they all
Copy !req
272. worshiped Walter Scott in a way that we don't any more.
Copy !req
273. Jane Austen venerated him,
Copy !req
274. particularly the European writers, Balzac and others venerated him.
Copy !req
275. Yes, William Scott said, "I do," to Muckle-Mouthed Meg.
Copy !req
276. And it's a good thing he did, or we wouldn't have Sir Walter.
Copy !req
277. But who advised dissecting a woman before marrying one?
Copy !req
278. I think my husband said something similar,
Copy !req
279. when we were a bit pissed one night.
Copy !req
280. Some great, one of the Victorian...
Copy !req
281. He was a great, and he was 19th century.
Copy !req
282. Oddly enough, I've mentioned his name today.
Copy !req
283. He was a great writer.
Copy !req
284. - Walter Scott.
- No.
Copy !req
285. - Balzac.
- Honore de Balzac.
Copy !req
286. - Pliny.
- Honore de Balzac is the right answer.
Copy !req
287. - I just said Balzac! I said Balzac!
- No, he did just say that. He did.
Copy !req
288. - You didn't say the first name!
- All right, calm down. There he is.
Copy !req
289. There he is, I'd know him anywhere!
Copy !req
290. Did his fiancee hang herself?
Copy !req
291. - Bless him.
- Well, his fiancee stayed his fiancee for a very, very long time.
Copy !req
292. He fell in love with a countess, who said, "You can't marry me
Copy !req
293. "until my husband dies," because she was already married.
Copy !req
294. And it took 17 years.
Copy !req
295. Eventually they got married.
Copy !req
296. Five months later, Balzac died.
Copy !req
297. So, he didn't get much use out of her,
Copy !req
298. if that's the right word.
Copy !req
299. - I don't think it is.
- No.
Copy !req
300. He wrote a book in 1829 called The Physiology Of Marriage,
Copy !req
301. in which he said, "A man ought not to marry without having
Copy !req
302. "studied anatomy and dissected at least one woman."
Copy !req
303. - So, I mean a dead woman, he's not...
- Oh, that's such a creepy suggestion.
- It is a bit creepy.
Copy !req
304. I guess it's so he knows what's... the bits, where they all go.
Copy !req
305. - And where everything is.
- Really?
Copy !req
306. No, I hand my mother a cup of tea without knowing
Copy !req
307. the workings of her hand.
Copy !req
308. - That's a very good point.
- It's not very romantic, is it?
- No.
Copy !req
309. - "Darling..."
- Well, I don't want it to be, she's my mother.
Copy !req
310. There's a lot worse coming, which I'm not going to read you,
Copy !req
311. - because you'll never read Balzac again.
- Ooh, great.
- Oh, please.
Copy !req
312. He said that "A man should weaken the will
Copy !req
313. "and strength of a wife by tiring her out under the load of constant work,
Copy !req
314. "so that she has no energy left to cause trouble."
Copy !req
315. - He deserved a big spank, didn't he?
- He was an early founder of Ukip.
Copy !req
316. And, very weirdly, he said, "Never allow her to drink water alone.
Copy !req
317. "If you do, you are lost."
Copy !req
318. I mean, it's interesting,
Copy !req
319. within a few sentences he is clearly just a fucking nutter, isn't he?
Copy !req
320. - Yeah.
- He's having a laugh, surely.
Copy !req
321. I'd find him hard to forgive if he wasn't such a looker.
Copy !req
322. Do you know the Rodin sculpture of him, which is fantastic?
Copy !req
323. It's one of the great works of art.
Copy !req
324. - I've rubbed against it.
- Have you?
- No!
Copy !req
325. Now, what do monkeys spend their money on?
Copy !req
326. It depends on the monkey, doesn't it?
Copy !req
327. Your macaque will spend it on cigarettes and drink.
Copy !req
328. Your mandrill, DIY.
Copy !req
329. Clever!
Copy !req
330. Very good. Man-drill.
Copy !req
331. - Surely the macaque would spend it on lavatory paper.
- Of course!
Copy !req
332. Oh, we're going that way, are we? Oh, OK. I see.
Copy !req
333. Food, I bet this...
Copy !req
334. Is this going to be some sort of experiment where they got rewarded
Copy !req
335. with something and they had to take it somewhere to get something else?
Copy !req
336. - Like sort of a monkey thing?
- Well, they actually were taught...
Copy !req
337. they were taught the principles of money, monetary exchange.
Copy !req
338. They were given silver discs
Copy !req
339. and taught that they could exchange them for food.
Copy !req
340. These are capuchins.
Copy !req
341. So called because of their colours, the creamy top...
Copy !req
342. - They really do look at a camera lens, monkeys.
- Those do, yeah.
Copy !req
343. - You see those shots of loads of monkeys all staring at a camera lens.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
344. If you've noticed, there's one of them who's not looking at the camera lens.
Copy !req
345. Quite notably, yes.
Copy !req
346. Unless that monkey has had a very unfortunate accident with a camera.
Copy !req
347. Or he's looking for a game of anal hoopla.
Copy !req
348. Why are capuchins called capuchins?
Copy !req
349. - Isn't it something to do with...
- Cappuccino.
Copy !req
350. Cappuccino? Because they're coffee-coloured?
Copy !req
351. Because they are the same colour as cappuccino,
Copy !req
352. cream colour at the top, dark at the bottom.
Copy !req
353. - But that's why...
- Monks.
Copy !req
354. That's right, it starts with the monks.
Copy !req
355. What is going on today?
Copy !req
356. Something's gone wrong with me, I tell you, because normally...
Copy !req
357. Capuchin monks have a cream-coloured cowl and dark habit.
Copy !req
358. And so the coffee was named cappuccino,
Copy !req
359. - because it was creamy at the top and coffee below.
- Oh!
Copy !req
360. And similarly, capuchin monkeys have that colouring.
Copy !req
361. It's impossible to take your eyes off that one, I want to.
Copy !req
362. I just imagine what's going on in his head.
Copy !req
363. It is so severely inspecting, isn't he?
Copy !req
364. "Mate, you've got a problem back here, seriously."
Copy !req
365. "Something's just crawled into your arse."
Copy !req
366. Researchers at Yale taught capuchin monkeys that in exchange
Copy !req
367. for a certain number of tokens,
Copy !req
368. they could buy a certain number of grapes or little cubes of jelly.
Copy !req
369. Once they grasped this, the extraordinary thing was,
Copy !req
370. they really got the whole concept.
Copy !req
371. One of the monkeys used their new currency to give to a female
Copy !req
372. to have sex with him -
Copy !req
373. essentially a prostitute.
Copy !req
374. And the female would then take the disc and buy herself a grape.
Copy !req
375. So the money had gone, you know, through the system, as money does.
Copy !req
376. Anyway, what uses can you think of for a parachute on your wedding day?
Copy !req
377. Dress?
Copy !req
378. Yes! It's that simple.
Copy !req
379. You're running away with it.
Copy !req
380. Well, normally I'm thick as shit,
Copy !req
381. I can't really understand what's going on. Anyway.
Copy !req
382. It was particularly in World War II, and parachutes were made out of?
Copy !req
383. - Silk.
- Silk, yes.
Copy !req
384. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, exactly.
Copy !req
385. And any spare, or ones that were found in fields,
Copy !req
386. were grabbed by grateful people to turn into wedding dresses.
Copy !req
387. There was a village in 1941 where a German soldier
Copy !req
388. landed in his parachute and he...
Copy !req
389. Didn't have a swastika on it, did it?
Copy !req
390. No, no, fortunately not! Or if it did...
Copy !req
391. ALAN SINGS THE WEDDING MARCH
Copy !req
392. "I say, she's got a bloody swastika!"
Copy !req
393. "I think that's in very bad taste."
Copy !req
394. Even if they were, it was great, because that village
Copy !req
395. turned them into bloomers, you known, into long knickers.
Copy !req
396. Oh, that's all right, to have a swastika on your bloomers, though.
Copy !req
397. - Well, no-one would see.
- I think it's positively encouraged, actually.
Copy !req
398. "There's something you don't know about me..."
Copy !req
399. But there you see a wedding dress,
Copy !req
400. and the majority of wedding dresses were not white until after the war.
Copy !req
401. White was a more common colour than any other,
Copy !req
402. but it still wasn't the majority.
Copy !req
403. Jane Austen's mother wore a bright red dress, for example.
Copy !req
404. And Queen Victoria had a white wedding dress,
Copy !req
405. and that was quite a sort of fashion statement that people copied.
Copy !req
406. But things didn't get really white
Copy !req
407. until the age of the washing machine and things like that.
Copy !req
408. Right, it was a luxury, afforded by the rich.
Copy !req
409. And even in the '50s, people expected to wear their wedding dress
Copy !req
410. again, it wasn't a one-off thing, as it is now.
Copy !req
411. But I'll tell you an interesting thing about Queen Victoria.
Copy !req
412. - Yeah?
- Yeah.
Copy !req
413. When she died, towards the end of her life...
Copy !req
414. - No, it's gossip and I feel guilty about telling you.
- Go on.
Copy !req
415. She won't find out.
Copy !req
416. She was wider than she was tall.
Copy !req
417. - Really?
- So?
Copy !req
418. - I wore my wedding dress again, actually.
- Did you?
Copy !req
419. Yeah. I went to a fancy dress party as Alaska.
Copy !req
420. - Anyway...
Copy !req
421. Tell us about... more about old...
Copy !req
422. She was 59 inches tall,
Copy !req
423. - and she was 66 inches wide.
- Wow!
- Bless her.
- Really?
- Yes.
Copy !req
424. - But wide or in circumference?
- In circumference.
- Yeah, I was going to say.
- Sorry, not wide.
Copy !req
425. - She can't possibly have been...
- No, no. Sorry. LAUGHTER
Copy !req
426. That's circumference. Yeah.
Copy !req
427. - I don't mean width, but I mean...
- "Here she comes."
Copy !req
428. All the way round was 66.
Copy !req
429. - "We're going to have to knock through."
- Yeah.
Copy !req
430. Can't get through any of the doors.
Copy !req
431. And that's how the Victoria Line was started.
Copy !req
432. She needs a pew of her own.
Copy !req
433. The Albert Hall was just a cast of her body.
Copy !req
434. This is her bust size, I'm talking about. 66.
Copy !req
435. - Wow!
- 66 bust?
- Yeah.
- Crikey!
- Good Lord!
Copy !req
436. - She was very short.
- Oo-hee, there's some lovin' there.
Copy !req
437. Her bloomers were sold, quite recently, for over £6,000.
Copy !req
438. Must have been an enormous swastika on there.
Copy !req
439. - Almost certainly a swastika.
- What do you think their waist was?
Copy !req
440. Bloomers start at the waist, they're like pants...
Copy !req
441. - 80 inches.
- Well...
- XXXL.
Copy !req
442. Yeah, they were XXX... There were lots of Xs, 52 inch waist.
Copy !req
443. - And she was what, what did we, how tall?
- 4'11".
Copy !req
444. - 59 inches.
- 4'11". Aw.
- Bless her heart.
Copy !req
445. - A tiny, little Queen.
- Yes, she was!
Copy !req
446. Now it's time to enrol in the dreaded school of General Ignorance.
Copy !req
447. Name a monogamous bird?
Copy !req
448. Me.
Copy !req
449. Swan.
Copy !req
450. KLAXON BLARES
Copy !req
451. Sorry, we just had to get you there.
Copy !req
452. - Penguin.
Copy !req
453. Penguin. Penguin from the audience.
Copy !req
454. Oh, does the audience want one? KLAXON BLARES
Copy !req
455. - That's what happens...
- We've got a dumb audience.
Copy !req
456. - Yeah, you see.
- Not so clever now.
Copy !req
457. - Magpie.
Copy !req
458. No, it's a nun, it's a nun.
Copy !req
459. Almost no birds are monogamous,
Copy !req
460. even ones that are thought of as monogamous are not truly monogamous.
Copy !req
461. They misbehave. They cheat.
Copy !req
462. I mean, the only one we've come up with is the black vulture.
Copy !req
463. - Where you do genetic tests...
- Nobody...
- Nobody will have him.
- No.
Copy !req
464. Ugh!
Copy !req
465. A proud, handsome fellow.
Copy !req
466. - Or girl.
- He is monogamous?
- He is, yeah.
- Not by choice.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
467. No infidelity is found by DNA testing,
Copy !req
468. whereas in almost all the other birds...
Copy !req
469. Ducks are... They're dirty sods, aren't they?
Copy !req
470. Swans have also... black swans in particular - one in six signets is
Copy !req
471. the result of extra-pair copulation, what we would call extra-marital.
Copy !req
472. - Yes.
- Despite the love hearts
Copy !req
473. and the beautiful romantic shape that they make.
Copy !req
474. Other orders or classes of animal that are genuinely monogamous,
Copy !req
475. apart from black vultures, are the flatworm Diplozoon paradoxum.
Copy !req
476. When a male meets a female, they actually fuse together,
Copy !req
477. so they don't really have any choice in the matter.
Copy !req
478. So they remain faithful till death.
Copy !req
479. And voles.
Copy !req
480. - That's very sweet. Look at that.
- Aw!
Copy !req
481. How can you not love a vole?
Copy !req
482. Everything eats them as well, it's such a shame for them. Yeah.
Copy !req
483. - Owls in particular.
- Yeah.
- An owl can hear the heartbeat of a vole or...
Copy !req
484. - Or a shrew.
- .. or something, from, when it's four feet underground,
Copy !req
485. - when it's flying overhead.
- I know, it's amazing.
Copy !req
486. And they've got their concave face, the owls,
Copy !req
487. it's like an echo chamber, and they can hear the heartbeat underground.
Copy !req
488. - Isn't that amazing? They say they can, anyway.
- Yeah.
Copy !req
489. "Yes, I heard it underground. Hmm."
Copy !req
490. I was like that when I had my ears waxed
Copy !req
491. and it was like that, you know, coming out of the surgery.
Copy !req
492. "Oh, my God, I can hear a vole four miles away!"
Copy !req
493. I saw an owl flying for the first time in my life this year.
Copy !req
494. - And they make no noise at all, do they?
- No.
Copy !req
495. - And apparently they're really thick.
- Are they?
Copy !req
496. - They're not as wise as people have been going on about, are they?
- No, apparently not.
Copy !req
497. Barn owls are really stupid, they don't even know where they live.
Copy !req
498. They have to have the habitat built into the name.
Copy !req
499. "Where do I live? Barn, barn! That's it. Oh, yes."
Copy !req
500. Well, voles are monogamous and charming
Copy !req
501. and indeed their names are an anagram of?
Copy !req
502. - Love.
- Yes. Isn't that nice?
Copy !req
503. Well, many supposedly monogamous birds have a little tit on the side.
Copy !req
504. Who can marry you at sea?
Copy !req
505. The captain of the ship.
Copy !req
506. KLAXON BLARES
Copy !req
507. A vicar who happened to be on the ship.
Copy !req
508. Ship's entertainer?
Copy !req
509. No. No, I don't think so.
Copy !req
510. That would be great, wouldn't it? "Des O'Connor's marrying you."
Copy !req
511. The thing is, a ship's captain can't, and never has been able to.
Copy !req
512. - It's a total myth.
- Oh.
- Where's that come from, then? Why do I know that to be true?
Copy !req
513. It seems to come from films, you know, all kinds of things.
Copy !req
514. The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, it happens.
Copy !req
515. - Look, Bill, there's your pipe character made flesh.
- Oh, yes.
Copy !req
516. - Oh, yes. It is, yeah.
- Look at that moustache.
Copy !req
517. "Good God!
Copy !req
518. "I can't marry you, but I can have a bloody good go."
Copy !req
519. "The things I can do with this moustache,
Copy !req
520. - "you wouldn't believe, madam."
- "Extraordinary."
Copy !req
521. "Ooh, oooh!"
Copy !req
522. "You can actually play hoopla with this moustache."
Copy !req
523. "And once I bring the pipe into play...
Copy !req
524. "..you'll be begging for mercy."
Copy !req
525. "Ooh, ho-ah!"
Copy !req
526. A ship's captain is no more qualified to marry you than I am.
Copy !req
527. So, to the scores. Oh, my actual.
Copy !req
528. Well, in first place, the blindingly, anagrammatically,
Copy !req
529. factually gifted Jo Brand, with seven points!
Copy !req
530. Well done, Jo.
Copy !req
531. Plus 7, that's a rare plus.
Copy !req
532. In second place, what a debut, with minus 4, it's Greg.
Copy !req
533. Well done, Greg Davies. APPLAUSE
Copy !req
534. In third place, with a mighty minus 13, is Bill Bailey.
Copy !req
535. But never knowingly out-hopelessed,
Copy !req
536. with minus 32, is Alan Davies.
Copy !req
537. It only remains for me to thank Greg, Bill, Jo and Alan.
Copy !req
538. And I leave you with this wise old adage off a bumper sticker.
Copy !req
539. "Marriage is like a hurricane,
Copy !req
540. "it starts with all that sucking and blowing,
Copy !req
541. "and in the end you lose your house."
Copy !req
542. Good night. APPLAUSE
Copy !req