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QI XL S23E05 Wild West
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00:00Thank you very much.
00:30Thank you very much.
01:00Thank you very much.
01:02And yippee-ki-yay, Mother Superior, it's Alan Davis.
01:10Their buzzers are from our own rodeo radio.
01:13Eshan goes...
01:15Oh, nice.
01:24Alex goes...
01:27This is great.
01:33Are you just getting over-excited?
01:35I need that chair for other people.
01:40Joe goes...
01:42Oh, yeah.
01:50And Alan goes...
01:51Three wheels on my way, and I'm still rolling along.
01:58Right, let's mosey on down to question one.
02:03Stop me when you know what I'm talking about.
02:06OK, they used whips, they wore leather chaps, big boots, even bigger hats, used lassoes, invented the rodeo, were mostly boys who herded cows in the 18th century.
02:19Two wheels on my wagon.
02:25Er, cowboys.
02:26CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
02:32It's not cowboys.
02:33No, it's not cowboys.
02:34Cowgirls.
02:35LAUGHTER
02:42Cow-thems.
02:50I mean, let's just go for cows.
02:53So most of the things that we associate with the all-American cowboy originate from the Mexican vaquero.
02:58Cattle hand, so vaca, meaning cow.
03:00It comes from Spain, starts in about the 15th century, when established by the 17th century.
03:05So the cowboy that we think of, which is honestly mostly from the movies, comes to the US in the 19th century when they begin to get these big cattle ranching regions.
03:15Now, you've all got some bits and pieces to put on, a little bit of dressing up today.
03:20Yeah.
03:21OK.
03:22Oh, yes.
03:24Now we're talking for good stuff.
03:27Oh, they're spurs, Sandy, they're spurs.
03:28Yes, yes.
03:29They're very sharp.
03:30Have I meant to put that on?
03:32LAUGHTER
03:34I'm going to say, Joe, if you just wear that, you will definitely win.
03:38LAUGHTER
03:40What kind of hat are you wearing, Alex?
03:41What is it called?
03:43It's not a trick question.
03:44Cowboy hat.
03:46You look like a sort of...
03:48No, a mad mystic woman who's going to...
03:52What are the hats called, anybody?
03:54Ten-gallon hat.
03:55Ten-gallon hat.
03:56Do you think it had ten gallons in it?
03:58Yes.
03:59No.
04:01It actually came from the vaquero's sombrero, and it really didn't become popular until the 1920s, which is like way after the Wild West.
04:09Most cowboys wore bowler hats.
04:11They would call them derby hats.
04:12And, of course, they didn't hold ten gallons.
04:14Maybe it came from the Spanish tangalan, meaning so gallant.
04:17Probably, it's just an exaggeration.
04:18So, we had a go at making a hat that could actually hold ten gallons.
04:24LAUGHTER
04:25Now, this...
04:26Whoa!
04:27LAUGHTER
04:28It looks like you're about to go on a hen-do and drink out of that.
04:40I'm on if you are.
04:42Weirdly, this is actually only five gallons. Do you want to try it on?
04:45If it had been ten gallons, it would have been as tall as me.
04:48So, tiny, then?
04:49LAUGHTER
04:50Oh, that's...
04:51Fantastic.
04:52You could have to run it off a steamship.
04:57LAUGHTER
04:58So, chaps got their name from the thorny chapero grass.
05:03The idea was to protect yourself from the grass.
05:06That looks like the early first auditions for the village people.
05:10LAUGHTER
05:11The other thing they had, of course, is they had whips and lassoos.
05:14If you look down there, that is a proper lariat, braided from cattle hide.
05:19This is actually from Argentina, from 1914.
05:21But they had this thing when they were lassoing.
05:23You had to be incredibly careful because the rope was very, very strong
05:28and you could get your thumb trapped in the rope if you didn't throw it properly
05:32and it would come clean off.
05:34Oh.
05:35Don't know why I'm looking at you.
05:36LAUGHTER
05:46I tell you what, I'd have made a shit cowboy.
05:48LAUGHTER
05:50Then he'd be like, he still ain't learnt with the rope,
05:52he took the thumb, he took the other two buggers, didn't he?
05:55LAUGHTER
05:56It was called rodeo thumb.
05:57Rodeo thumb!
05:58I know, you wouldn't think it'd be that strong, would you, the rope?
06:01Alarming.
06:02I know, absolutely.
06:03So, Alan, you show me the spurs.
06:04What do you think is the point of spurs?
06:06And I don't mean a long diatribe about football.
06:09LAUGHTER
06:10Are they for digging into the horse to make it run faster?
06:14Well, that is the sort of theory of it.
06:16But to be honest, they were largely decorative.
06:18Look how smart they were looking in the picture.
06:20I mean, it looks really lovely.
06:21Not a very nice thing to do to your horse, are they?
06:23It isn't a nice thing.
06:24And some of them wore something called, this is quite village people, I think,
06:27jingle bobs.
06:29Just little bits of metal that made a sort of a jingling sound.
06:32I mean, it's meant to tell the cattle that you're nearby.
06:36Because the cattle couldn't see a horse running towards them.
06:39Yeah, couldn't see that, but they could hear the jingle bobs.
06:41Oh, it's the jingle bobs!
06:42What is one of the things in the movies, though,
06:45about the way in which cowboys are pretty much always depicted?
06:48They're always having a row, wouldn't they?
06:50Yes.
06:51They're always there in the pub.
06:52There were some football fans.
06:54Yeah.
06:56So, almost always depicted as white men.
06:58But it wasn't true.
06:59About a third of cowhands were indigenous Mexicans,
07:02or mixed-raced mestizos, and about a quarter were black.
07:05There was a guy called Nate Love.
07:07He was known as Deadwood Dick.
07:09LAUGHTER
07:11They've all been called that one time.
07:13LAUGHTER
07:15He became a cowboy after he was freed from slavery,
07:18and he has an amazing autobiography.
07:20It's the only complete story of a black cowboy.
07:23He's amazing.
07:24He drank with Billy the Kid, he got shot 14 times.
07:26He once lassoed a train.
07:29Wow!
07:30Yeah.
07:31He'd just met his future wife,
07:32and he was absolutely drunk on love, I imagine, and whiskey.
07:35Yeah.
07:36And he was dragged into a ditch,
07:37and he wrote in his autobiography,
07:38Roping a live engine is by long odds worse than roping wild buffalo,
07:42but my love was as strong as ever,
07:44and I thank my lucky star, she did not see me,
07:47as they dragged me out of the ditch.
07:49LAUGHTER
07:50Wow.
07:51The thing is, if you've survived being shot 14 times...
07:53Yeah.
07:54..you'd back yourself lassoing a train, wouldn't you?
07:56Yeah, exactly.
07:57You were actually 50 cent at that point, weren't you?
07:59LAUGHTER
08:01A valid and 50 cent reference to a QI audience.
08:04Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:05You would love that.
08:06The QI audience and the 50 cent.
08:0950 cent.
08:10LAUGHTER
08:11OK, here's another question.
08:12Where did the famous gunfight between the Clanton gang
08:15and Wyatt Earp's gang take place?
08:17Well, I wanted to make a noise,
08:19so I'm going to say the OK Corral.
08:29So, we're looking here, Ike Clanton on the left, a wrong'un,
08:32and Wyatt Earp, who, at that time of the photograph,
08:35was a marshal in Dodge City in Kansas,
08:37so we've got the bad guys against the law guys,
08:40and we talk about the OK Corral,
08:42but where did it actually take place?
08:44Croydon.
08:45LAUGHTER
08:47The OK Corral was near Tombstone, wasn't it?
08:49Yeah.
08:50It actually took place in an empty lot next to a photo studio,
08:54and it should be called the gunfight outside Fly's photographic studio.
08:59LAUGHTER
09:01In fact, that picture that we showed of Clanton in Tombstone
09:05was almost certainly taken at Fly's photographic studio.
09:08So, the gunfight did take place 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona,
09:11but when the newspapers wrote about it,
09:13the first thing they wrote was there was a fight on Fremont Street,
09:16and that lasted for about 50 years,
09:18and then Wyatt Earp published his biography in 1931,
09:22and that's when it became the fight at the OK Corral.
09:25So, it is remembered as a shootout between a group of lawmen
09:28and a gang of outlaws,
09:29although lots of the lawmen were a bit dodgy themselves.
09:32Here's the thing about it.
09:34There were 30 shots fired in the 30-second fight.
09:37How many people do you think died?
09:39They were only six feet apart, these people.
09:41All of them?
09:42No, three. They must have been really shit shots.
09:44Oh, God!
09:47Six feet apart, 30 shots, 30 seconds, three dead people.
09:50It doesn't seem like a very good...
09:51Who was shooting Brooker?
09:53LAUGHTER
09:54I'd have been in 30 seconds, I'd have still been trying to get it out of the old stuff.
10:03Anyway, so get this out for me, mate, we're just...
10:06I'll hold it, you pull the trigger, mate.
10:08LAUGHTER
10:11Now, here's some Wild West legends.
10:13Can you tell me how they got their nicknames?
10:16So, this is Wild Bill Hickok.
10:19Oh, is that how you say it?
10:20What did you think it was?
10:21Wild Bill Hickok.
10:23Yes.
10:24Oh!
10:25I mean, depends if he's wearing the chaps.
10:27LAUGHTER
10:28My cock sounds out of condition.
10:31Yeah, it does.
10:32LAUGHTER
10:33Guilty!
10:34LAUGHTER
10:38My little brother, when he was about six, he thought he was called Wild Bill Hickok.
10:43LAUGHTER
10:45So, his real name was James Butler Hickok.
10:48We're not sure, but it's possibly to do with a bit of teasing.
10:50So, some people said that he had a long nose and quite protruding lips,
10:55and he looked a bit like a duck.
10:57That's real.
10:58Yes.
10:59His nickname was Duck Bill, and he decided he didn't like Duck Bill,
11:03but he would, OK, if it was Wild Bill.
11:05Has he not realised he's got, like, the wrong hat on for a cowboy?
11:09LAUGHTER
11:10I'm Cossack.
11:11Wild Bill Cossack.
11:12LAUGHTER
11:13Shut up, Dirt Bill!
11:14Fuck you, man!
11:15I ain't Duck Bill!
11:16I'm Cossack!
11:17LAUGHTER
11:18LAUGHTER
11:19I'm starting a thing called Wikipedia, and you is going to be Dirt Bill.
11:24LAUGHTER
11:26He did have a really boring brother called Lorenzo, who used to be known as Tame Bill.
11:32Tame Bill.
11:33LAUGHTER
11:34But it did kind of predict what was going to happen while Bill was shot in the back
11:38while playing cards when he was just 39.
11:40And old Lorenzo, Tame Bill, lived into his 80s.
11:43I'm just saying it.
11:44Calamity Jane?
11:45Anybody think how she got her nickname?
11:47Quite Bad PMT.
11:48LAUGHTER
11:49APPLAUSE
11:50Don't come in, he has having a personal calamity.
11:54LAUGHTER
11:55Her real name was Martha Cannery, and she was buried next to Wild Bill,
12:00who she claimed was the only man she ever really loved.
12:02I mean, she's grinning here, she's at his gravestone.
12:04It's not all that nice, is it?
12:05Is she grinning?
12:06She does look pissed out of her head.
12:07She does.
12:08I believe she is.
12:09Is she grinning?
12:10She does look pissed out of her head.
12:12She does.
12:13I believe she is.
12:14She was notorious for riding a la clothespin.
12:17What might that be?
12:18For a woman?
12:19Riding a la clothespin.
12:20Not side-side.
12:21Exactly right, darling, yes.
12:22Women were accustomed to riding side-side.
12:23Oh.
12:24She literally would sit.
12:25Oh!
12:26I mean, again, we're not really sure,
12:27and most of what we know about her was produced in a pamphlet
12:29which she wrote for her own publicity, so...
12:31LAUGHTER
12:32It's really hard to say.
12:33Why is she called Calamity?
12:34Why is she called Calamity?
12:35Why is she?
12:36Why is she?
12:37Why is she?
12:38Why is she?
12:39Why is she?
12:40Why is she?
12:41Why is she?
12:42It's really hard to say.
12:43Why is she called Calamity Jane?
12:44She claimed that she once saved a man called Captain Egan
12:48when he was ambushed by Native Americans,
12:50and he supposedly said,
12:51I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the planes.
12:54Right.
12:55We've no idea.
12:56I think it's the sort of thing you walk into a door once
12:59in front of people...
13:00Yeah.
13:01..and then there's a door.
13:02Here she is!
13:03Yeah.
13:04The next one is called Big Nose Kate.
13:06Oh.
13:07Which one do you think is Big Nose Kate?
13:10It's definitely normal noses so far.
13:12I know, right?
13:13It's like you've got to go to VAR on this and get the lines out.
13:17LAUGHTER
13:19Is it referring to another part of their announcement?
13:22LAUGHTER
13:23So, which one do you think?
13:25So, one is her sister Wilma, and the one is Big Nose Kate.
13:27Kate's on the left.
13:28Kate is on the left, yes.
13:29Wait, hold on.
13:30My left, or your left?
13:33He's...
13:34OK.
13:35LAUGHTER
13:36You look at that picture, darling,
13:38and don't worry about what he's looking at,
13:40which is also the same picture but from...
13:42LAUGHTER
13:43No, wait, hold on.
13:45Well, I've kept him out of high class.
13:47Hey!
13:48LAUGHTER
13:49No, because when you said on the left,
13:50I don't know whether you meant that as you were looking at it, or...
13:53Were you...
13:54Do you know he's looking at the picture behind you, darling?
13:56Do you...
13:57Oh, yes!
13:58LAUGHTER
14:05It is her on the left.
14:06I mean, some people say it's because she used to stick her nose
14:09in other people's business.
14:10She was the long-term companion of Doc Holliday.
14:14She was with him at the gunfight at the OK Corral,
14:17or the photographic studio, watching from a nearby window.
14:21I'd do that.
14:22Would you? Just watch.
14:23I'd go to the window if I heard a gunfight.
14:25Yeah.
14:26She worked as a sporting woman.
14:28Anybody?
14:29Is that like a...
14:30Is that a prostitute?
14:31It is a prostitute, yes.
14:32Yes, she is.
14:33Is that like a brass?
14:34LAUGHTER
14:35LAUGHTER
14:36What did you say?
14:37LAUGHTER
14:38You're stupid now!
14:40LAUGHTER
14:42What a team we are.
14:44LAUGHTER
14:45Get that on a BBC poster.
14:47LAUGHTER
14:48The BBC for everyone.
14:59LAUGHTER
15:00We've got the photograph of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kids' infamous wild bunch.
15:09So, bottom left, that is Sundance, his real name was Harry Longobar.
15:13And on the right is Butch Cassidy, whose real name was Robert Leroy Parker.
15:18He thought to have got his name because he once worked as a butcher.
15:20Oh.
15:21I mean, it's not as exciting as you think it might be.
15:23They look like the posh village people.
15:26LAUGHTER
15:27The Sundance kid, he got his nickname for serving 18 months in prison
15:31in a place called Sundance for horse stealing in Wyoming.
15:34And then there was William News Carver.
15:36He's top left.
15:37He liked to be mentioned in the newspapers.
15:40Oh.
15:41There are other ones.
15:42Richard Rattlesnake Dick Barter.
15:44Oh!
15:45What?
15:46Rattlesnake Dick.
15:47Rattlesnake Dick.
15:48Rattlesnake Dick.
15:49What a nickname that is.
15:50That is good.
15:52At the urinal.
15:53I can hear him.
15:54LAUGHTER
15:58I reckon Richard's going to the toilet again, isn't he?
16:00Yeah, well...
16:01LAUGHTER
16:04God, Richard, do it again!
16:05LAUGHTER
16:09This is at the Rattlesnake Mine,
16:10where he kept telling everybody he was going to make his fortune.
16:12And then there was Jefferson's Soapy Smith.
16:15That's him at the front there.
16:16He sold soap, which contained prize money in the packaging.
16:19They're giving him a wide berth.
16:21Has he not used the soap?
16:22LAUGHTER
16:23It was a scam.
16:24His friends used to win the prizes,
16:25and this photograph was taken shortly before he was killed.
16:28He's just got his round in as well.
16:31LAUGHTER
16:32How soon after that photo?
16:35Very soon after.
16:36This is the last photograph of him.
16:37If you look at the bottom of the photograph,
16:38it says,
16:39Kill July the 8th, 1898.
16:41So...
16:42This is like a...
16:43Goodbye, Soapy.
16:44OK.
16:45Next question.
16:46What use is a square wagon wheel?
16:49Stop me rolling away.
16:51That is a very good point.
16:53But in this case, wagon is a person's name.
16:55So, in 1997, there was a professor called Stan Wagon
16:59at Macalester College in Minnesota,
17:01and he made a functioning square-wheeled tricycle.
17:05OK?
17:06This is not him.
17:07This is a man who...
17:08I don't know.
17:09In a suit.
17:10Um...
17:11And he's called Stan Wagon?
17:13The guy who invented it is called Stan Wagon.
17:15Did J.K. Rowling name him?
17:16Like, what...
17:17I always think when I see things like this, like scientists,
17:21in one room they'll be going,
17:23what are you boys up to?
17:24Yeah.
17:25Just looking for a cure for cancer.
17:26What are you up to?
17:27Just trying to build a square wheel at the moment, mate.
17:30So, in order for a wheel to work at all,
17:33the centre has to be level, right?
17:35And so the easiest way is to make a round wheel.
17:37But if you make a specific track,
17:39so you can see he's on a very specific track here,
17:41then the wheels can be any shape pretty much,
17:43apart from triangles, really.
17:45So, look at this, right?
17:47This is a rather brilliant bus,
17:49but it doesn't go anywhere because it's got square wheels.
17:52However, if you make a surface like this,
17:57which has got what...
17:58These humps are called inverted catenaries,
18:01and basically, look, along it goes like that.
18:06I know.
18:07So, the reason this is interesting,
18:08there's an engineer called Gerard Font,
18:11and he thinks because stones with very similar curves
18:14were found in Giza,
18:16this method may have been what helped people
18:18to roll the blocks into place for the pyramids.
18:20So, I guess you can see it's kind of pointless,
18:23but it's also interesting.
18:24Yeah.
18:25How did they do that?
18:26But that road there looks like every 20 mile an hour
18:28is only a school anyway.
18:29Yeah, that is so true.
18:30LAUGHTER
18:32Isn't it fascinating?
18:33Wouldn't it be great to have a car with square wheels?
18:35I just really like it.
18:36I really don't think it would.
18:37No?
18:38LAUGHTER
18:39Just for one speed bump.
18:40Here we go.
18:41Here we go.
18:42It comes into its own.
18:43Oh, well.
18:44It's just me.
18:45I like a square wagon wheel.
18:46That's just the way I roll.
18:48Oh, nice.
18:49Come on.
18:50I like it.
18:51Thank you, I appreciate that.
18:52Right.
18:53Let's move on to a question about wondrous wealth.
18:54In which state was the first American gold rush?
18:57Wasn't it like California?
18:58Oh!
18:59Oh!
19:00Oh!
19:01Oh!
19:02Arizona.
19:03Nevada.
19:04Oh!
19:05Oh!
19:06Oh!
19:07Oh!
19:08Oh!
19:09Oh!
19:10Oh!
19:11Oh!
19:12Oh!
19:13Oh!
19:14Oh!
19:15Oh!
19:16Oh!
19:17Oh!
19:18Oh!
19:19Oh!
19:20Oh!
19:21Oh!
19:22Oh!
19:23We're talking about 1799.
19:24The United States is newly formed.
19:26Oh, so it's got to be over to the east.
19:28Yeah.
19:29New York State.
19:30We have another 46 to go, so I'm going to stop you there.
19:38North Carolina was the very first time.
19:40So there was a child playing called Conrad Reed and he found a nugget of gold described as
19:45the size of a shoe and for three years the family used it as a doorstop.
19:51So 1799 they find this thing, they keep it as a doorstop for three years and then his father thought, I wonder what I could get for it.
19:57And he took it along to Silversmith and he got $3.50.
20:01It was actually worth $3,600.
20:04Oh!
20:05Is that in a way?
20:06I mean this is at the time, right?
20:08Yeah.
20:09They found out that they had been rooked so they thought, oh let's go look for some more and over the next 20 years they found $100,000 worth of gold.
20:16This is $100,000 at the time.
20:18I mean we're talking millions.
20:19Damn!
20:20Yeah.
20:21And basically it was just what they could find in the river.
20:23There were no actual mineshafts dug until the 1830s.
20:26So the geezer who bought it off and didn't go, by the way, just out of interest, where'd you...?
20:30Yeah, have you got any...?
20:31The California gold rush doesn't come until 1849.
20:36What is the most successful method that people used to make their fortune in the California gold rush?
20:43Probably selling things to the gold rushers.
20:46Sell supplies to the prospectors, absolutely.
20:48The very first American millionaire was a journalist and also a shopkeeper called Sam Brannan.
20:53And someone came into his store with a lump of gold and instead of looking for gold himself,
20:58he bought all of the shovels and pickaxes and so on and went out into the town shouting,
21:03there's gold in them there hills!
21:05And everybody came.
21:06He bought pans for 20 cents, which he then sold for $15.
21:10What was his name?
21:11Sam Brannan.
21:12Oh, I thought you said Sam Brand.
21:14Oh!
21:16Because my beard's quite similar to that.
21:20There are accounts of single lemons selling for a dollar, which is about $40 today,
21:26because people were frightened about getting scurvy.
21:28A single pair of boots today in Armony, $2,300.
21:32And one farmer earned the equivalent of $160,000 in 1849 just selling onions.
21:38Like Disney, they get you with the merch, didn't they?
21:41Yeah.
21:42Once in air.
21:43Shop every five metres.
21:44Yeah.
21:45Eleven.
21:46My wife and I were travelling through Wyoming and there was a sign at a cafe that said,
21:50last place for 300 miles.
21:52And I said, is it the last place to get coffee?
21:54And they said, no, it's the last place for 300 miles.
21:57When the M11 opened, where I grew up, we were against it for years.
22:03Everyone had stickers on their cars saying, no to the M11.
22:06And then as soon as it opened, we were all on it.
22:09LAUGHTER
22:11Wizzing up and down.
22:12But every business in the area would put last news agent before the M11.
22:17Oh, yeah.
22:18Last shoe shop before the M11.
22:20It only went to Harlow.
22:22LAUGHTER
22:25Why did saloons in gold country have sawdust on the floor?
22:29For dancing.
22:30No, it's to make money.
22:32How might you make money putting sawdust on the floor?
22:35Sell it as cocaine.
22:37LAUGHTER
22:39So, anybody who panned for gold was hoping to get a large lump
22:42and more often than not, they got a tiny shard.
22:45Still quite a decent amount.
22:46So, one gram of gold today is worth about £80.
22:49And that could buy you a few drinks.
22:51But occasionally, people would drink and they would drop.
22:54Tiny bits of gold.
22:56And the next morning, what they would do is they'd take all the sawdust,
22:59they'd put it into a bucket of water and the gold would sink to the bottom.
23:02So, it was careless prospectors losing their gold out of their pockets.
23:07Imagine sweeping up a floor on the Wetherspoons.
23:09LAUGHTER
23:11You might get the odd gold tooth.
23:13LAUGHTER
23:16Who or what are Blake's body grip, Smith's descending beads
23:21and Morgan's perforated star?
23:24You use the body grip.
23:25Yeah.
23:26Make use of the descending beads.
23:28Mm-hm.
23:29And you end up with a perforated star, don't you?
23:31LAUGHTER
23:34See, I was thinking about it being arranged for Ann Summers.
23:38LAUGHTER
23:40So, that's where I was, yeah.
23:42You know, it's like, yeah, cool.
23:43Look at the beat.
23:44I've got the new...
23:45I've got the new perforated star, right?
23:46Star, yeah.
23:47LAUGHTER
23:48What do we think?
23:49Blake's body grip, Smith's descending beads,
23:50Morgan's perforated star.
23:51Are they body parts as vested?
23:52No.
23:53No.
23:54There are all types of barbed wire, which is the thing there.
23:58Look at all these different kinds of barbed wire.
24:00This is the thing that changed the West.
24:02For the very first time, huge areas of land could be completely
24:06enclosed at very, very low cost.
24:09So, in Texas, there was a farm in 1885, three million acres.
24:14That's slightly smaller than Northern Ireland, right?
24:16That photo looks like a memorial for someone who's allowed to get over.
24:19Yeah.
24:20LAUGHTER
24:21Yeah.
24:22It was invented by a farmer called Joseph Glidden in 1873,
24:26but it was the aptly-named salesman John Gates who popularised it.
24:31He used to call himself Bet-a-Million, and what he would do
24:33is that he would trap the wildest cattle in an area with a barbed fence
24:37and he would get people to bet who's going to break free.
24:40And, of course, the animals never did, because it's phenomenal stuff.
24:43And it stopped...
24:44You know, we have that image in movies of the open-range system
24:46with cattle being driven.
24:48That probably only lasted 20 to 25 years,
24:51and then America began to be closed off with this extraordinary thing.
24:54But there was another use for barbed wire.
24:56Does anybody think what that might be?
24:58That had nothing to do with containing cattle.
25:00Protecting buildings or monuments?
25:03Telephone.
25:04They made a telephone network, the American farmers in the 19th century,
25:07out of barbed wire.
25:09So what you did is you attached a microphone to the fence,
25:12and that turned the sound to electrical signals,
25:15which then travelled down the fence,
25:16and then somebody had a receiver attached directly to the wire.
25:20And you could connect up to 20 telephones to the same wire,
25:23so you could call for medical attention, which is fantastic.
25:25But sometimes to entertain each other at night,
25:27some ranchers would play instruments down the line,
25:29they would read the newspaper, they would blast the radio down it.
25:32By 1907, three million people were using this telephone system,
25:37so that's half a million more than the official Bell telephone system,
25:40and it was still in use in Texas until the 1970s.
25:43Can I imagine the people calling for medical assistance?
25:46Yeah. What's happened?
25:47Well, I'm calling from barbed wire, mate.
25:49You can probably guess that it was.
25:50LAUGHTER
25:52But I love that. I love the ingenuity of it.
25:54Yeah. Yeah, it's incredible.
25:55Barbed wire telephone meant farmers, much like cattle, could be heard.
26:00LAUGHTER
26:02All right.
26:04APPLAUSE
26:06What did Kaiser Bill learn from Buffalo Bill?
26:09So, Kaiser Bill on the left, who was he?
26:12German.
26:13He is. He's the last German Emperor, King of Prussia.
26:15Wilhelm?
26:16Yes, Wilhelm II, exactly.
26:18He abdicated in 1918, so the end of the First World War,
26:21and the guy on the right?
26:22Buffalo Bill.
26:23Buffalo Bill.
26:24Buffalo Bill, yes.
26:25He was a buffalo hunter, and he met a journalist called Ned Buntline in 1869,
26:31and Ned wrote a biography about him called Buffalo Bill,
26:34The King of Border Men, and it was a huge hit, this book,
26:37and it was turned into a theatrical show with Buffalo Bill himself,
26:41and he went around the world, you know, showing wild animals
26:44and sharp shooting skills and so on, toured the US and eventually Europe,
26:48and I love this.
26:49It caught the eye of the German army.
26:52So, Annie Oakley, she was one of the great star acts.
26:55She wrote in her autobiography,
26:57We never moved without at least 40 officers of the Prussian Guard standing
27:02all about with notebooks taking down every detail of the performance.
27:06They made minute notes on how we pitched camp, how we boarded the trains
27:10and packed the horses and broke camp, and ironically, given the modern stereotype,
27:15the German media was especially impressed by the order and organisation of the camp.
27:19Oh, wow.
27:20They took that back with them in plans for the First World War.
27:23Now, you notice it seems bizarre, doesn't it?
27:25Yeah.
27:26Is she going to shoot that dog?
27:27Well...
27:28LAUGHTER
27:29This is Annie Oakley with her dog, Dave.
27:32Dave.
27:34The connection with her and the Kaiser is extraordinary.
27:37They were touring in Germany with the show,
27:39and she shot the ash off the cigarette that the Kaiser was holding.
27:44Whoa.
27:45And if she had been a better shot, World War I might not have happened.
27:48That's the thing.
27:49LAUGHTER
27:50Anyway, when the war began, her husband wrote to the Kaiser
27:52and asked if she could have a second go.
27:54LAUGHTER
27:56Who has been unfairly called a glutton for as long as we can remember?
28:01Is it me?
28:03LAUGHTER
28:05APPLAUSE
28:07Can I just say you're looking very beautiful?
28:11Fuck off.
28:12Yeah.
28:13LAUGHTER
28:15Genuinely true.
28:16I told a friend of mine that I wanted to go on a weight loss kick,
28:19and she said to me,
28:20Yeah, but you're so handsome.
28:21That's got nothing to do with it.
28:23She was in her own way, in a woman's way,
28:25saying, Yeah, you should.
28:26LAUGHTER
28:29My stepdad, Keith, went on a diet,
28:31and he's a big old geezer, and he just wasn't losing any weight,
28:34and my mum went,
28:35He's trying so hard, bless him, and he ain't losing any weight.
28:38And then one day, he said he was going out to get the papers,
28:41and when I looked back on the CCTV on the door,
28:44I saw him round the side of the house smashing fish and chips.
28:47LAUGHTER
28:48It's the sort of thing where I could have gone up to him privately,
28:50gone, Yeah, mate, look, I know you've been smashing the fish and chips
28:53on the side.
28:54Mm-mm-mm.
28:55Not me.
28:56I wait until everyone was in the house.
28:57LAUGHTER
28:58My wife, my mum, my in-laws, and I got the iPad out,
29:02and I went, here's the evidence.
29:04LAUGHTER
29:05I don't know which is weirder, him doing that,
29:07are you watching it or...
29:09LAUGHTER
29:11So are you doing that a Zen pic thing, then?
29:14No.
29:15I considered it, I'm just trying to go...
29:17I'm just trying to be in a calorie deficit, really,
29:19and, erm, it's not working, so...
29:21LAUGHTER
29:22Oh, you poor thing, it's very boring, doing calorie...
29:26Oh, that's why I've stopped.
29:28LAUGHTER
29:29There you go.
29:30We are talking about the wildlife of the Wild West.
29:33Anybody think of it's a W?
29:35Particular creature in the Wild West.
29:38A warthog.
29:39No.
29:40LAUGHTER
29:42I can't think of a single movie where a cowboy goes,
29:46Oh, my Lord, it's a warthog.
29:48LAUGHTER
29:49We've got three different versions of the Lion King.
29:51LAUGHTER
29:52So, not a wallaby, then?
29:55No, no, no.
29:57Er...
29:58The Wolverine was...
29:59Well, how would we get that?
30:01How the...?
30:02Isn't it magnificent, do you not think?
30:05Its range reached down the American West
30:07as far as California's Sierra Nevada.
30:09I thought it was Hugh Jackman.
30:11Yes, I did I.
30:12LAUGHTER
30:13I think it's been to a dentist in Turkey as well.
30:17LAUGHTER
30:18Don't you think it looks weird when people's teeth are that perfect?
30:23Yes, it looks so weird.
30:25That's why mine are all yellow with bits of green stuff in them.
30:29LAUGHTER
30:30It's nice to keep a bit of salad for later.
30:32LAUGHTER
30:33So, these are most closely related to Martins,
30:36which is a weasel-like carnivore.
30:38They were called Gulo Gulo, their Latin name,
30:41meaning glutton-glutton, but it's a mistranslation.
30:44So, the old Norwegian for a wolverine was Fjellfrås,
30:48which means mountain cat.
30:50It was translated into German as a rather similar sounding
30:53Vjellfrås, which means eats a lot.
30:56Oh.
30:58It's not fair.
30:59One nickname sticks.
31:00I know, right?
31:01LAUGHTER
31:02There are stories that it eats so much,
31:04it forces its faeces out of its body to make more space.
31:07LAUGHTER
31:09We've all been near Boxing Day.
31:11LAUGHTER
31:12Well, then after eight, hang on, I've got to go to the loo.
31:16LAUGHTER
31:19Does anybody eat after eights at any other time,
31:21other than Boxing Day, just after lunch?
31:23I have some on my coffee table, so I have it pretty much every night.
31:25How's that net deficit going?
31:28LAUGHTER
31:33Every time you meet someone who says,
31:35oh, I'm trying to lose weight,
31:36and then the next sentence,
31:38yeah, I always have after eights.
31:40LAUGHTER
31:41The whole thing, just one.
31:43No-one has one after eight.
31:44I have one.
31:45It's a single most moorish thing in the world.
31:47I've got really good self-control, actually.
31:49LAUGHTER
31:51Well, I can't think why there's a problem.
31:55LAUGHTER
31:57So they are amazing creatures.
31:59They're really adapted to snowy, mountainous conditions.
32:01But what is incredible about them,
32:03so when they step onto the snow,
32:05their paws spread out to twice the original size.
32:07So it's like having built-in snowshoes.
32:10And each paw has got five extremely sharp claws,
32:13so they can climb a sheer cliff or an icefall or whatever.
32:16They have an extraordinary keen sense of smell.
32:19So they can smell prey 20 feet under the snow.
32:22Why might that be a good thing?
32:25Because that's where prey hides.
32:27It's where prey hibernates.
32:29Oh, how annoying.
32:31Yeah, they never even see it coming.
32:33And they also use snow a bit like refrigerators
32:35for keeping food fresh.
32:37They have special teeth.
32:38These are not from Turkey.
32:39These are their own teeth.
32:40Special teeth at the back of the jaws,
32:42which are rotated 90 degrees to the rest
32:45so that they can crunch frozen food.
32:47That's something you could get, that darling.
32:49And then...
32:50What is happening?
32:52You don't have to defrost.
32:55Yeah.
32:56Just go straight in.
32:57Iceland.
32:58Boom.
32:59Yeah, boom.
33:00I want nice food.
33:02I'm not that desperate.
33:04Well, that's good.
33:05Moving on to larger animals.
33:09Can you describe the natural diet of a grizzly bear?
33:12After apes!
33:21Is it people?
33:22Well, so they are known as voracious carnivores,
33:24so you might think it would be people.
33:26But until the Europeans turned up,
33:28they were mostly vegan.
33:30What?!
33:31I know!
33:32I thought you would like this.
33:33So they've looked at the chemicals in the bones
33:35of lots of museum specimens
33:36and they've been able to work it out.
33:38Land animals made up only 10% of their diet.
33:41Fish only 2%.
33:42They liked grass, vegetables and fruit.
33:46And then the Europeans turned up
33:48and they began to eat more meat.
33:50Why do you think that might be...?
33:51Because it tasted nicer.
33:53You know what it's like?
33:55You can't just have one.
33:57Yeah.
33:58Exactly.
34:01They were raiding the stores of the humans.
34:03That's exactly right, darling.
34:04Like Yogi Bear.
34:05That is exactly right.
34:06Hey, boo-boo!
34:11I got my picnic basket!
34:15So, basically, the colonists brought domesticated animals
34:17which were easier to catch.
34:18Dave the dog.
34:19Dave the dog.
34:20That is exactly right.
34:22And they displaced lots of Native American groups
34:24so the overall human population went down
34:26and that led to an increase in wild animal populations.
34:29But before that...
34:31Grass.
34:32Veg.
34:33Fruit.
34:34Imagine if you were in a vegan cafe in East London
34:35and two bears turned up.
34:37One of those milk latte.
34:39You'd be like...
34:41I was in a cafe the other day
34:42and a woman came in and she said very loudly,
34:44she said,
34:45I'm going to die if I don't have a chai latte.
34:46And I thought,
34:47what if that were true?
34:48Yeah, that's...
34:52Grizzly bears were mostly vegan,
34:58but they didn't go on about it.
35:00LAUGHTER
35:01APPLAUSE
35:03OK, time for general ignorance.
35:08Fingers on buzzers, please.
35:10Which US state inspired the writers of the hit song
35:13Take Me Home Country Roads?
35:16West Virginia?
35:19BUZZER
35:24I mean, it's like I open a trap door, isn't it?
35:27LAUGHTER
35:28So, anybody remember who sang it?
35:30John Denver.
35:31John Denver.
35:32Colorado, then.
35:33No.
35:34Kentucky.
35:35Let's do some states.
35:36LAUGHTER
35:37North Dakota.
35:38Nope.
35:39South Dakota.
35:41We've run out of Dakotas now.
35:43So, that's the...
35:44Hawaii?
35:45Pennsylvania.
35:46So, it was written by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nyvert.
35:49And they got the...
35:50Tennessee.
35:51Mississippi.
35:52Michigan.
35:53Wisconsin.
35:54Texas.
35:55Oregon.
35:56Ohio.
35:57Nevada.
35:58Georgia.
35:59Washington.
36:00Argonne.
36:01Michigan.
36:02Missouri.
36:03Mississippi.
36:04Massachusetts.
36:05Massachusetts.
36:06Mumbai.
36:07Mumbai.
36:08Mumbai.
36:12Maryland.
36:13Oh!
36:14Where are the cookies?
36:15Where are the cookies?
36:16Where are the cookies go from?
36:19Do you only have one?
36:20Yeah.
36:21LAUGHTER
36:22APPLAUSE
36:27No way!
36:29One Maryland cookie.
36:30One after.
36:31One cake or tart.
36:33One custard cream.
36:34One vicarbiscuit.
36:35One vicarbiscuit.
36:36Nice.
36:37A breakaway.
36:38A penguin.
36:39All lined up.
36:40LAUGHTER
36:41God, now Alan's going to be naming biscuits all night.
36:43LAUGHTER
36:44A pink wafer.
36:45A jammy dodger.
36:46LAUGHTER
36:47Neither John Denver nor Bill nor Taffy who wrote the song had ever been to West Virginia when they recorded this song.
36:59And they chose it because it's got loads of poetic sounding landmarks like the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River.
37:06But they're mostly actually in Virginia.
37:08I mean really the song should be called It's About the West of Virginia.
37:11Right.
37:12There was a brief while they thought about using Massachusetts to fill in a four syllable gap in the song.
37:16You know the wonderful song Moon River by Johnny Massa?
37:19It's got a great line in it.
37:20My Huckleberry Friend.
37:21It's one of the kind of great lyrics of all time.
37:23And Huckleberry was a placeholder by Johnny Massa when he was writing it because he wanted that sound.
37:28Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
37:29And he thought I'll just put that in for a moment and then they recorded it and it has now become one of the great lyrics of all time.
37:35It's like I never knew what apple bottom jeans were.
37:37Oh.
37:38Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:39Food sweep the floor.
37:40Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:41Have you ever heard?
37:42Do you know that?
37:43No.
37:44The whole world's looking at her.
37:47She got the flow.
37:49She got low, low, low, low, low.
37:52Do you have one of those puzzles to stop people listening?
37:55Sorry?
37:56It's the young people's turn now.
37:58And as soon as some young people turn up we'll let them out.
38:09Right.
38:10Which of these knots is strongest?
38:12So we've got a reef knot and a grief knot.
38:15What do you think is the strongest?
38:17A grief knot looks tight, doesn't it?
38:19Yeah?
38:20You think it's the grief knot?
38:21I think it's the reef knot.
38:22I think it's the reef knot.
38:23I would go reef knot also.
38:25We used to do a reef knot in the Cubs.
38:27Yes?
38:28Why would you do that?
38:29Because they made you do shit like that.
38:31LAUGHTER
38:37Genuinely, I played handball in the Cubs.
38:44Left over right and under, right over left and under.
38:46Yeah, but the answer is reef knot.
38:48So most people are terrible at working this out.
38:51There's a thing called intuitive physics, OK?
38:53It's the ability to automatically work out how everyday things are going to behave.
38:58So, for example, it's your hand automatically reaching out to catch something that is falling from a cupboard.
39:03It's knowing which way a stack of books is going to fall if it's leaning over.
39:07But there are some blind spots where we just think, oh, I can't really work this out.
39:11And people seem to struggle to work out with knots.
39:14What is the intuitive thing?
39:16So the grief knot is called that because it's incredibly similar to the grief knot.
39:19But if you pull on one end of the grief knot, it will just come apart.
39:22You can see that, though, I think, don't you?
39:26You're exactly right, Joe.
39:27I was trying to make Alex feel better because he was the only one that...
39:30Put it in mind, though, I had a whole room full of people in tears when I first tied my shoelaces.
39:34So he's a real little.
39:35LAUGHTER
39:37APPLAUSE
39:39What a gig that was.
39:44LAUGHTER
39:46Yeah, and that was my pip assessment, so...
39:49LAUGHTER
39:52Lost a lot, did it too quick.
39:55LAUGHTER
39:56So what happens is because the grief knot seems to have more visible overlaps,
39:59people think it's stronger, but it is not at all.
40:02Which company was formed in 1850 by Henry Wells and William G Fargo?
40:10Wells Fargo.
40:12Oh!
40:16They did set up Wells Fargo, but not in 1850.
40:20Oh.
40:21Yeah.
40:221852, they set that up.
40:24What did they set up first?
40:27Fargo and Wells.
40:28LAUGHTER
40:32APPLAUSE
40:33It's still going.
40:34It's one of the most famous companies in the world.
40:36McDonald's.
40:37Coca-Cola.
40:38It's American Express.
40:40Oh.
40:41Yes!
40:42Along with a man called John Butterworth, in 1850 they set up American Express
40:46to deliver goods around the East Coast, and the Wells Fargo Company was created
40:51to move goods around the West.
40:53Basically it was profiting from the gold rush.
40:55American Express.
40:56Extraordinary.
40:57By the end of the Civil War, 900 offices in 10 states, almost 10,000 miles of railway
41:02and express routes.
41:03The largest empire of stagecoaches in the world, and they made an absolute fortune.
41:08In fact, when Fargo died, his home was so expensive to maintain they knocked it down.
41:15Whoa!
41:16Yeah.
41:17The largest city in North Dakota is called Fargo, also named after him.
41:20But I'm a huge fan of Henry Wells.
41:23Is that him on the right?
41:24On the left.
41:25Henry Wells is on the left.
41:26I like the other one.
41:27Do...
41:28Yeah.
41:29Why is that?
41:30He's about to get off with them.
41:31Who's what they do?
41:32He's much more attractive, the one on the right.
41:35And younger.
41:36He is handsome, the one on the right.
41:37If I'd founded not one, but two companies that were banging like that, surely you're smiling.
41:43He's just annoyed he didn't invent the camera.
41:47I think, Joe, you will like Henry Wells.
41:50He believed in the education of women, and you have to understand how rare this is.
41:54LAUGHTER
41:59He described the education of women as the dream of his life.
42:03He said,
42:04It is commonly said that women's mind is not capable of attaining to a higher order of discipline.
42:10Not acknowledging this, let me say, give her the opportunity.
42:15Yeah.
42:16APPLAUSE
42:19But then would he say, get us a cup of tea, love.
42:23LAUGHTER
42:26I bet he did.
42:27He probably did.
42:28Even today, Wells Fargo, fourth largest bank in the United States.
42:30It still continues.
42:31All of which brings us to the end of the line.
42:33So let's see who's cut the mustard and who couldn't teach a hen to cluck.
42:36Couldn't you just do that last bit in an American accent?
42:39Uh, OK.
42:40All of which brings us to the end of the line.
42:42So let's see who's cut the mustard and who couldn't teach a hen to cluck.
42:46LAUGHTER
42:47APPLAUSE
42:49In last place tonight, it's got a bit ugly for Ishan with minus 47.
42:58APPLAUSE
42:59In third place with minus 29, who was pretty bad, Alan.
43:04APPLAUSE
43:05And our winner, putting the OK in the OK corral, with minus 19, it's Alex.
43:18APPLAUSE
43:20Thank you, Alex, Ishan, Joe and Alan, and I leave you with this,
43:30not from the Wild West, but from May West.
43:33I've no time for broads who want to rule the world alone
43:36without men who'd do up the zipper on the back of your dress.
43:39Thank you. Good night.
43:40APPLAUSE
44:09Be honest
44:10In the in the
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