- 5 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:30Well, howdy partner, welcome to QI for some highfalutin', rootin', tootin', sharpshootin' in our Wild West special. Yee-haw! Let's meet our lawless varmints.
00:44What in tarnation? It's Eshan Akbar.
00:50Wanted, dead or alive? It's Alex Brooker.
00:56Sheldon Jehoshaphat, it's Joe Brand.
01:00And yippee-ki-yay, Mother Superior, it's Alan Davis.
01:10Their buzzers are from our own rodeo radio. Eshan goes...
01:15Oh, nice. Alex goes...
01:25This is great.
01:33Are you just getting overexcited?
01:36I need that chair for other people.
01:37Joe goes...
01:42How I am.
01:50And Alan goes...
01:51Three wheels on my way, and I'm still rolling along.
01:57Right, let's mosey on down to question one.
02:01Stop me when you know what I'm talking about, OK?
02:05They used whips, they wore leather chaps, big boots, even bigger hats, used lassoos, invented the rodeo, were mostly boys who herded cows in the 18th century.
02:18Two wheels on my wagon.
02:22LAUGHTER
02:23Er, Cowboys.
02:26CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
02:29CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
02:32It's not Cowboys?
02:33No, it's not Cowboys.
02:34Cowgirls.
02:35CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
02:37I mean, let's just go for cows.
02:51LAUGHTER
02:52So most of the things that we associate with the all-American cowboy originate from the Mexican vaquero.
02:57Cattle hand, so vaca, meaning cow.
02:59It comes from Spain, starts in about the 15th century, well established by the 17th century.
03:04So 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.
03:14Now, you've all got some bits and pieces to put on, a little bit of dressing up today.
03:19Yeah.
03:20OK.
03:21Oh, yes.
03:22There we go.
03:23Yeah.
03:24Now we're talking.
03:25The good stuff.
03:26Oh, they're spurs, Sandy, they're spurs.
03:28Yes, yes.
03:29They're very sharp.
03:30Am I meant to put that on?
03:31LAUGHTER
03:33I'm going to say, Joe, if you just wear that, you will definitely win.
03:37I'm just kidding.
03:38LAUGHTER
03:39What kind of hat are you wearing, Alex?
03:41What is it called?
03:42It's not a trick question.
03:44Cowboy hat.
03:45You look like a sort of, I don't know, a mad mystic woman who's going to...
03:50LAUGHTER
03:52What were the hats called? Anybody?
03:53Ten-gallon hat.
03:54Ten-gallon hat.
03:55Do you think it had ten gallons in it?
03:57Yes.
03:58No.
03:59It actually came from the vaqueros' sombrero, and it really didn't become popular until the 1920s,
04:05which is, like, way after the Wild West.
04:08Most cowboys wore bowler hats.
04:10They were called them derby hats.
04:11And, of course, they didn't hold ten gallons.
04:13Maybe it came from the Spanish tan-galan, meaning so gallant.
04:17Probably, it's just an exaggeration.
04:19So, we had a go at making a hat that could actually hold ten gallons.
04:24LAUGHTER
04:25Now, this...
04:26Whoa!
04:27LAUGHTER
04:28APPLAUSE
04:36It looks like you're about to go on a hen-do and drink out of that.
04:39LAUGHTER
04:40I'm on if you are.
04:41Yeah.
04:42Weirdly, this is actually only five gallons.
04:44Do 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'd have to run it off a steamship.
04:54LAUGHTER
04:59The other thing they had, of course, is they had whips and lassoos,
05:01but they had this thing, when they were lassoing, you had to be incredibly careful,
05:05because the rope was very, very strong, and you could get your thumb trapped in the rope
05:11if you didn't throw it properly, and it would come clean off.
05:14Oh!
05:15I don't know why I'm looking at you.
05:16LAUGHTER
05:17APPLAUSE
05:26I tell you what, I'd have made a shit cowboy.
05:29LAUGHTER
05:30They'd be like, he still ain't learnt with the rope.
05:32He took the thumb, he took the other two buggers.
05:35LAUGHTER
05:36It was called rodeo thumb.
05:37Rodeo thumb?
05:38I know, you wouldn't think it'd be that strong, would you, the rope?
05:41I know.
05:42I know, absolutely.
05:43What is one of the things in the movies, though, about the way in which cowboys are pretty much always depicted?
05:48They're always having a row, wouldn't they?
05:50Yes.
05:51They're always there, in the pub.
05:53There were some football fans.
05:54LAUGHTER
05:55So, almost always depicted as white men, but it wasn't true.
05:59About a third of cowhands were indigenous Mexicans, or mixed-raced mestizos, and about a quarter were black.
06:06There was a guy called Nate Love.
06:08He was known as Deadwood Dick.
06:10LAUGHTER
06:11They've already called that one.
06:13LAUGHTER
06:14LAUGHTER
06:15He became a cowboy after he was freed from slavery, and he has an amazing autobiography.
06:21It's the only complete story of a black cowboy.
06:24He's amazing.
06:25He drank with Billy the Kid.
06:26He got shot 14 times.
06:27He once lassoed a train.
06:30Wow!
06:31Yeah.
06:32He'd just met his future wife, and he was absolutely drunk on love, I imagine.
06:35Yeah.
06:36And he was dragged into a ditch, and he wrote in his autobiography,
06:39Roping a live engine is by long odds worse than roping wild buffalo.
06:44But my love was as strong as ever, and I thank my lucky star.
06:47She did not see me, as they dragged me out of the ditch.
06:50LAUGHTER
06:51Wow.
06:52The thing is, if you've survived being shot 14 times...
06:54Yeah.
06:55..you'd back yourself lassoing a train, wouldn't you?
06:57Yeah, exactly.
06:58You were actually 50 cent at that point.
07:00LAUGHTER
07:02I've had a 50 cent reference to a QI audience.
07:05LAUGHTER
07:06You love that.
07:07The QI audience and the 50 cent.
07:0950 cent.
07:10LAUGHTER
07:11OK, here's another question.
07:12Where did the famous gunfight between the Clanton gang and Wyatt Earp's gang take place?
07:18Well, I wanted to make a noise, so I'm going to say the OK Corral.
07:22APPLAUSE
07:23So, we're looking here, Ike Clanton on the left, a wrong'un, and Wyatt Earp, who, at that time of the photograph, was a marshal in Dodge City in Kansas.
07:38So, we've got the bad guys against the law guys, and we talk about the OK Corral, but where did it actually take place?
07:45Croydon.
07:46LAUGHTER
07:47The OK Corral was near Tombstone, wasn't it?
07:50Yeah.
07:51It actually took place in an empty lot next to a photo studio, and it should be called the Gunfight outside Fly's Photographic Studio.
07:59LAUGHTER
08:02In fact, that picture that we showed of Clanton in Tombstone was almost certainly taken at Fly's Photographic Studio.
08:09So, the gunfight did take place 1881 in Tombstone, Arizona, but when the newspapers wrote about it, the first thing they wrote was,
08:15there was a fight on Fremont Street, and that lasted for about 50 years, and then Wyatt Earp published his biography in 1931,
08:23and that's when it became the fight at the OK Corral.
08:26So, it is remembered as a shootout between a group of lawmen and a gang of outlaws, although lots of the lawmen were a bit dodgy themselves.
08:34Here's the thing about it, there were 30 shots fired in the 30-second fight.
08:38How many people do you think died? They were only six feet apart, these people.
08:42The two gangs.
08:43All of them?
08:44No, three. They must have been really shit shots.
08:46Oh, God!
08:47LAUGHTER
08:48Six feet apart, 30 shots, 30 seconds, three dead people. Doesn't seem like a very good...
08:52Who was shooting Brooker?
08:54LAUGHTER
08:58Brookeroo!
08:59We're back there, we're back there!
09:01I'd have been in 30 seconds, I'd have still been trying to get it out of the old stuff.
09:05Get this out for me, mate, we're just...
09:07I'll only hear you pull the trigger, mate.
09:09LAUGHTER
09:12Now, here's some Wild West legends, can you tell me how they got their nicknames?
09:17So, this is Wild Bill Hickok.
09:20Oh, is that how you say it?
09:21What did you think it was?
09:22Wild Bill Hickok.
09:23Yes.
09:24Oh!
09:25I mean, depends if he's wearing the chaps.
09:28LAUGHTER
09:29Highcock sounds like a condition.
09:31Yeah, it does.
09:32LAUGHTER
09:33Guilty!
09:34LAUGHTER
09:35My little brother, when he was about six, he thought he was called Wild Bill Hiccups.
09:43LAUGHTER
09:46So, his real name was James Butler Hickok.
09:48We're not sure, but it's possibly to do with a bit of teasing.
09:51So, some people said that he had a long nose and quite protruding lips and he looked a bit like a duck.
09:57Duck Bill?
09:58Yes.
09:59His nickname was Duck Bill and he decided he didn't like Duck Bill, but he would okay if it was Wild Bill.
10:06Has he not realised he's got, like, the wrong hat on for a cowboy?
10:10LAUGHTER
10:11I'm Cossack.
10:12Wild Bill Cossack.
10:13LAUGHTER
10:14Shut up, Duk Bill!
10:15Fuck you, man!
10:16I ain't Duk Bill!
10:17I'm Cossack!
10:18LAUGHTER
10:19LAUGHTER
10:20I'm starting to think on Wikipedia and you is going to be Duk Bill.
10:25LAUGHTER
10:27He did have a really boring brother called Lorenzo who used to be known as Tame Bill.
10:32Tame Bill.
10:33LAUGHTER
10:34But it did kind of predict what was going to happen while Bill was shot in the back while playing
10:39cards when he was just 39.
10:41And old Lorenzo, Tame Bill, lived into his 80s.
10:43I'm just saying it.
10:44The next one is called Big Nose Kate.
10:47Oh.
10:48LAUGHTER
10:49Which one do you think is Big Nose Kate?
10:51LAUGHTER
10:52Definitely normal noses so far.
10:54I know, right?
10:55It seems like you've got to go to VAR on this.
10:57LAUGHTER
10:58Is it referring to another part of their announcement?
11:03LAUGHTER
11:04So, which one do you think?
11:06One is her sister Wilma and one is Big Nose Kate.
11:09Kate's on the left.
11:10Kate is on the left, yes.
11:12I mean, some people say it's because she used to stick her nose in other people's business.
11:16She was the long-term companion of Doc Holliday.
11:20She was with him at the gunfight at the OK Corral, or the photographic studio,
11:24watching from a nearby window.
11:26I'd do that.
11:27Would you?
11:28Just watch.
11:29I'd go to the window if I heard a gunfight.
11:31Yeah.
11:32She worked as a sporting woman.
11:33Anybody?
11:34Is that like a brass?
11:35Is that a prostitute?
11:36It is a prostitute.
11:37Yes.
11:38Yes.
11:39Is that like a brass?
11:40LAUGHTER
11:41What a team we are.
11:45Get that on a BBC poster.
11:46LAUGHTER
11:47APPLAUSE
11:48The BBC.
11:49For everyone.
11:50LAUGHTER
11:51There are other ones.
11:52Richard Rattlesnake Dick Barter.
11:53Oh!
11:54What?
11:55Rattlesnake Dick.
11:56Rattlesnake Dick.
11:57Rattlesnake Dick.
11:58Rattlesnake Dick.
11:59Rattlesnake Dick.
12:00Rattlesnake Dick.
12:01What a nickname that is.
12:02That is good.
12:03At the urinal.
12:04I can hear him.
12:05LAUGHTER
12:06Ricky� focuses on your bone.
12:07Oh!
12:08What?
12:09It was Tyr mammal.
12:10In the formal manner of a aspirational weapon.
12:11He is Governor Hendby.
12:12LAUGHTER
12:13Whoa!
12:14sheets, let's go straight Comся.
12:15Very much.
12:16Thanks, Mr Alexander.
12:17APPLAUSE
12:19Well there are ones.
12:20Richard Rattlesnake Dick Barter.
12:21Oh!
12:22What?
12:23Rattlesnake...
12:24Rattlesnake Dick Dick?
12:26Rattlesnake Dick Dick.
12:27Rattlesnake Dick Dick.
12:28What a nickname that is.
12:29That is good.
12:30A urinal.
12:31I can hear him.
12:32LAUGHTER
12:36he was going to make his fortune okay next question what use is a square wagon wheel
12:43stop me rolling away that is a very good point but in this case wagon is a person's name so in 1997
12:50there was a professor called stan wagon at mccallister college in minnesota and he made
12:56a functioning square wheeled tricycle okay this is not him this is a man who i don't know in a suit
13:04um and he's called stan wagon the guy who invented is called stan wagon did jk rowling name him like what
13:14so in order for a wheel to work at all the center has to be level right and so the easiest way is
13:19to make a round wheel but if you make a specific track so you can see he's on a very specific track
13:24here then the wheels can be any shape pretty much apart from triangles really so look at this right
13:29this is a rather brilliant bus it doesn't go anywhere because it's got square wheels however
13:35if you make a surface like this which has got what these humps are called inverted catenaries
13:44and basically look along it goes like that i know so the reason this is interesting there's an engineer
13:52called gerard font and he thinks because stones with very similar curves were found in giza this
13:59method may have been what helped people to roll the blocks into place for the pyramids so i guess
14:04you can see it's kind of pointless but it's also interesting yeah how did they do that but that
14:09that road there looks like every 20 mile an hour there near a school anyway yeah that is so true
14:15isn't it fascinating wouldn't it be great to have a car with square wheels i just really like it i
14:19really don't think it would no it's just me i like a square wagon wheel that's just the way i roll
14:35oh nice come on i like it thank you i appreciate that right let's move on to a question about
14:42wondrous wealth in which state was the first american gold rush wasn't it like california
14:50oh arizona nevada we're talking about 1799 the united states is newly formed oh so it's
15:09got to be over to the east yeah new york state we have another 46 to go so i'm going to stop you
15:20there north carolina was the very first time so there's a child playing called conrad reed and he
15:25found a nugget of gold described as the size of a shoe and for three years the family used it as a
15:32doorstop so 1799 they find this thing they keep it as a doorstop for three years and then his father
15:39thought i wonder what i could get for it he took it along to silversmith and he got three dollars and
15:43fifty cents it was actually worth three thousand six hundred dollars i mean this is at the time
15:50right yeah they found out that they had been rooked so they thought oh let's go look for some more
15:56and over the next 20 years they found a hundred thousand dollars worth of gold this is a hundred
16:00thousand dollars at the time i mean we're talking millions damn yeah and basically it was just what
16:05they could find in the river there were no actual mineshafts dug until the 1830s so the geezer who
16:10bought it off and didn't go by the way just out of interest yeah have you got any the california gold
16:16rush doesn't come until 1849 what is the most successful method that people used to make their
16:24fortune in the california gold rush probably selling things to the gold rushers sell supplies to the
16:30prospectus absolutely the very first american millionaire was a journalist and also a shopkeeper
16:34called sam brannon and someone came into his store with a lump of gold and instead of looking for gold
16:40himself he bought all of the shovels and pickaxes and so on and went out into the town shouting there's
16:45gold in them there hills and everybody came he bought pans for 20 cents which he then sold for 15
16:53there are accounts of single lemons selling for a dollar which is about 40 today because people
16:59were frightened about getting scurvy a single pair of boots today in harmony 2300 and one farmer earned
17:06the equivalent of 160 000 in 1849 just selling onions like disney they get you with the merch didn't
17:13they yeah once in there shop every five meters they know now who has been unfairly called a glutton
17:21for as long as we can remember is it me
17:31can i just say you're looking very beautiful fuck off yeah
17:37genuinely true i told a friend of mine that i wanted to go on a weight loss
17:41kick and she said to me yeah but you're so handsome that's got nothing to do with it
17:45she was in her own way in a woman's way saying yeah you should
17:51my stepdad keith went on a diet and he's a big old geezer and he just wasn't losing any weight
17:56and my mum went he's trying so hard bless him and he ain't losing any weight and then one day
18:01he said he was going out to get the papers and when i look back on the cctv on the door
18:06i saw him around the side of the house smashing fish and chips it's the sort of thing where i could
18:11have gone up to him privately gone here mate look i know you've been smashing the fish and chips inside
18:17not me i wait until everyone was in the house my wife my mum my in-laws and i got the ipad out and i
18:24went here's the evidence i don't know which is weirder him doing that are you watching it
18:33so are you doing that a zempic thing then no i i consider it i'm just trying to go
18:39just trying to be in a calorie deficit really and um it's not working so
18:45oh you poor thing it's very boring doing calorie oh that's why i've stopped
18:49okay we are talking about the wild life of the wild west anybody think if it's a w
18:58particular creature in the wild west a warthog no
19:05i can't think of a single movie where a cowboy goes oh my lord it's a warthog
19:11we've got very different versions of the lion king
19:13so not a wallaby then no no no the wolverine was well how would we get how that isn't it
19:25magnificent do you not think its range reached down the american west as far as california's
19:30sierra nevada i thought it was hugh jackman yes i did i i think it's been to a dentist in turkey as well
19:43don't you think it looks weird when people's teeth are that perfect yes it looks so weird yeah
19:48that's why mine are all yellow with bits of green stuff in them yeah it's nice to keep a bit of
19:54salad for later so these are most closely related to martins which is a weasel-like carnivore they
20:01were called gulo gulo their latin name meaning glutton glutton but it's a mistranslation so the old
20:08norwegian for a wolverine was fjellifros which means mountain cat it was translated into german as
20:14a rather similar sounding vjellifras which means eats a lot oh it's not fair one nickname sticks i know right
20:25there are stories that it eats so much it forces its feces out of its body to make more space
20:29we've all been near boxing though
20:36join an after eight hang on i've got to go to the loo
20:42does anybody eat after eights at any other time other than boxing day just after lunch
20:46i have some on my coffee table so i have it pretty much every night how's that net deficit
20:55every time you meet someone who says oh i'm trying to lose weight and then the next sentence
21:00yeah i always have after eights the whole thing just one no one has one after eight it's the single
21:08most moorish thing in the world i've got really good self-control actually
21:11well i can't think why there's a problem
21:20so they are amazing creatures they're really adapted to snowy mountainous conditions but what is
21:24incredible about them so when they step onto the snow their paws spread out to twice the original size
21:30so it's like having built-in snowshoes and each paw has got five extremely sharp claws so they can climb
21:36a sheer cliff or an ice fall or whatever they have an extraordinary keen sense of smell so they can
21:42smell prey 20 feet under the snow why might that be a good thing because that's where prey hides
21:50it's where prey hibernates oh yeah they never even see it coming and they also use snow a bit like
21:56refrigerators for keeping food fresh they have special teeth these are not from turkey these are
22:01their own teeth special teeth at the back of the jaws which are rotated 90 degrees to the rest so
22:07that they can crunch frozen food that's something you could get that darling and then what is happening
22:16you wouldn't have to defrost yeah just go straight in iceland
22:20boom yeah boom i'm not like i want nice food i'm not i'm not that desperate well that's good um
22:30okay time for general ignorance fingers on buzzers please which u.s state inspired the
22:35writers of the hit song take me home country roads west virginia
22:41i mean it's like i open a trap door isn't it so anybody remember who sang it john denver john denver
22:55colorado then no kentucky let's do some states north dakota nope south dakota that we've run out of
23:05dakotas now so that's the kawaii sylvania so it was written by bill danoff and taffy nivert and they've got the
23:14mississippi michigan uixco texas oregon ohio nevada georgia
23:22washington argon begins with m michigan missouri mississippi
23:27mississippi massachusetts massachusetts uh mumbai maryland
23:36oh
23:42do you only have one
23:46one
23:54one
24:00one vicarb biscuit nice a breakaway a penguin
24:07god now alan's going to be naming biscuits
24:10a pink wafer a jammy dodger
24:16neither john denver nor bill nor taffy who wrote the song had ever been to west virginia when they
24:22recorded this song and they chose it because it's got loads of poetic sounding landmarks like the blue
24:27ridge mountains and the shenandoah river but they're mostly actually in virginia i mean really
24:31the song should be called it's about the west of virginia there was a brief while they thought
24:36about using massachusetts to fill in the four syllable gap in the song you know the wonderful
24:40song moon river by johnny mercer it's got a great line in it my huckleberry friend it's one of the
24:44kind of great lyrics of all time and huckleberry was a placeholder by johnny mercer when he was
24:50writing it because he wanted that sound and he thought i'll just put that in for a moment
24:55and then they recorded it and it has now become one of the great lyrics of all time i never knew what
24:59apple bottom jeans were oh yeah food sweep the floor yeah have you ever heard you know that no
25:10she got the flow and if you know she got low low low low
25:16do you have one of those puzzles to stop people listening sorry it's the young people's turn
25:24and as soon as some young people turn up we'll learn
25:29which company was formed in 1850 by henry wells and william g fargo
25:40wells fargo
25:46they did set up wells fargo but not in 1850. oh yeah 1852 they set that up what did they set up
25:55first fargo and wells
26:04it's still going it's one of the most famous companies in the world
26:07mcdonald's coca-cola it's american express
26:14along with a man called john butterworth in 1850 they set up american express to deliver goods around
26:18the east coast and the wells fargo company was created to move goods around the west basically it
26:24was profiting from the gold rush american express extraordinary by the end of the civil war 900
26:29offices in 10 states almost 10 000 miles of railway and express routes the largest empire of stagecoaches
26:36in the world and they made an absolute fortune in fact when fargo died his home was so expensive to
26:43maintain they knocked it down whoa yeah the largest city in north dakota is called fargo also named
26:49after him but i'm a huge fan of henry wells is that him on the right on the left henry wells is on the
26:56left i like the other one do oh yeah why is that to get off with him it's just a lot more
27:03well i think joe you will like henry wells he believed in the education of women and you have to
27:09understand how rare this he described the education of women as the dream of his life he said it is
27:20commonly said that women's mind is not capable of attaining to a higher order of discipline not
27:27acknowledging this let me say give her the opportunity even today wells fargo fourth largest bank in the
27:46united states has still continued all of which brings us to the end of the line so let's see who's cut the
27:51mustard and who couldn't teach a hen to cluck
28:11in last place tonight it's going a bit ugly for ishan with minus 47.
28:14in fourth place with minus 29 it was pretty bad alan
28:24in second place it's quite good for joe with minus 27.
28:30and our winner putting the okay in the okay corral with minus 19 it's alex
28:35ishan joe and alan and i leave you with this not from the wild west but from may west i've no time
28:50for broads who want to rule the world alone without men who'd do up the zipper on the back of your dress
28:55thank you good night
Be the first to comment