c4countdown

Phil Reynolds wrote:

Also, 4 points for saying that pantaloons are, in fact, a type of…pants?

It sounds like you're confusing what the contestants are being asked (viz. "Pick an obscure type of trouser from this list") with what the research pool of 100 people were asked ("Name a type of trouser").

It amuses me how often contestants don't seem to realise this - the number of times someone will say "well there are 2 or 3 obvious ones...so I think I'm going to have to take a risk" is pretty impressive. Although I also like the 'reverse' (but less commonly seen) version in round 2 where, to use the comedy duos example, they somehow think that the 100 were asked to just list double acts.

I'm saying that that was a silly thing to put on the list when they set the question -- I'm not surprised that only 4 people in the survey named "pantaloons", but it was a weird thing to choose as one of the 12 responses to put in the question, since you're rewarded with a very low score for saying something pretty obvious.

Miriam Nussbaum wrote:I'm saying that that was a silly thing to put on the list when they set the question -- I'm not surprised that only 4 people in the survey named "pantaloons", but it was a weird thing to choose as one of the 12 responses to put in the question, since you're rewarded with a very low score for saying something pretty obvious.

I'd say that's pretty much par for the course with the multiple choice questions now, though. (Not to mention the standard pointles caveat of 'it's not necessarily obvious to everyone'.)

Miriam Nussbaum wrote:it was a weird thing to choose as one of the 12 responses to put in the question, since you're rewarded with a very low score for saying something pretty obvious.

Why is that weird? It's the whole point (haha) of the game. It's not just about knowing the answers to trivia questions, but about guessing how many other people know them. The multiple choice rounds always include a mix of high-scoring obvious answers, low-scoring obscure answers and sometimes - as in this case - answers that seem obvious when they're listed in front of you, but which force you to try and put yourself into the mind of someone who hasn't seen that list. It's that mix that makes the game more interesting.

Just watched yesterday's game. Very likeable contestants I thought; Stu (the Shaggy look-a-like, even down to the green T-shirt) was a prime illustration of the principle that someone with average looks can still come over as seriously attractive if they smile a lot.

The two women in the head-to-head were completely Dagenham East but very entertaining. I A-lolled at the discussion about whether Mary Magdalene features in Leonardo's Last Supper:

"She washed his feet, didn't she?"
"Mmm... but did she stay for the meal?"

Must admit I was convinced that was a right answer but that's what you get for taking The Da Vinci Code too seriously.

Phil Reynolds wrote:a prime illustration of the principle that someone with average looks can still come over as seriously attractive if they smile a lot.

Phil Reynolds wrote: "She washed his feet, didn't she?"
"Mmm... but did she stay for the meal?"

Haha, missed that.

I take it you all got the answer to the town in County Meath? How is anyone in the UK gonna know that? Most people in Ireland would've struggled. I did get it myself it but I wouldn't have if I had to go first.

Mark James wrote:I take it you all got the answer to the town in County Meath? How is anyone in the UK gonna know that? Most people in Ireland would've struggled. I did get it myself it but I wouldn't have if I had to go first.

There's a reason it was pointles... I didn't get it, but I have heard of it at least, which makes it fair enough in my book.

Mark James wrote:I take it you all got the answer to the town in County Meath? How is anyone in the UK gonna know that? Most people in Ireland would've struggled. I did get it myself it but I wouldn't have if I had to go first.

I think I've passed through on a cycling holiday - if not I've been close and have certainly seen it on a map. It's also in horse racing country, having it's own racecourse, and many over here will know it from that.

I didn't specifically know it's in County Meath, and like you it took me a while to think of it, but I got there.

Brilliant game shows round on Pointless at the moment.

Scandalous that Countdown is nowhere in sight

An 'article' from one of the pair that won a few days ago. And to think I almost felt bad for thinking they were a bit smug.

Wow. Today's round 2 is footballers' national teams and, of the 12 names on the two passes, I've heard of precisely one.

Phil Reynolds wrote:Wow. Today's round 2 is footballers' national teams and, of the 12 names on the two passes, I've heard of precisely one.

You're not masturbating enough.

Phil Reynolds wrote:Wow. Today's round 2 is footballers' national teams and, of the 12 names on the two passes, I've heard of precisely one.

Yes, too many rounds on Football these days, so often catches out the all female teams, but those two today seemed to know their football, apart from the non-French player - loved the look of shock on her face!

Dream round. Although I did pick Adebayor rather than Essien.

Matt Morrison wrote:Dream round.

I refer you to Ryan's previous response.

Finally my knowledge of the word KOMATIK comes in handy (although it wasn't mentioned by Richard). Had KNOBSTICK as an alternative though

Series 6 and yet more fiddling around with the format. I would have won the jackpot though with KNOTWORK.

Just a little mention that my Pointless episodes from this series are being repeated on Challenge tomorrow and Tuesday, at 7pm and 9pm respectively.

James Robinson wrote:Just a little mention that my Pointless episodes from this series are being repeated on Challenge tomorrow and Tuesday, at 7pm and 9pm respectively.

Thanks for telling us, James, I'll look out for them.

Do you also know when BBC1 will be done with repeats?

Rosemary Roberts wrote:

James Robinson wrote:Just a little mention that my Pointless episodes from this series are being repeated on Challenge tomorrow and Tuesday, at 7pm and 9pm respectively.

Thanks for telling us, James, I'll look out for them.

Do you also know when BBC1 will be done with repeats?

Unfortunately not, but interestingly enough my shows will be repeated on BBC1 shortly too

James Robinson wrote: Unfortunately not, but interestingly enough my shows will be repeated on BBC1 shortly too

I hope they're giving you repeat fees

Rosemary Roberts wrote:

James Robinson wrote: Unfortunately not, but interestingly enough my shows will be repeated on BBC1 shortly too

I hope they're giving you repeat fees

That would be nice

James Robinson wrote:

Rosemary Roberts wrote:

James Robinson wrote:Just a little mention that my Pointless episodes from this series are being repeated on Challenge tomorrow and Tuesday, at 7pm and 9pm respectively.

Thanks for telling us, James, I'll look out for them.

Do you also know when BBC1 will be done with repeats?

Unfortunately not, but interestingly enough my shows will be repeated on BBC1 shortly too

As I said, my episodes are being repeated on BBC One on Thursday and Friday this week.

Then next week, Series 9 resumes.

James Robinson wrote:As I said, my episodes are being repeated on BBC One on Thursday and Friday this week.

Then next week, Series 9 resumes.

A fitting climax!

I have just watched the first of these and am still utterly gobsmacked that "Marvin the Paranoid Android" could have been a pointless answer. When I was at school "brain the size of a planet" seemed to be one of the most popular catchphrases...

Yes. I thought Marvin was going to be the highest-scoring one.

It's a round world. Surely every capital city in the world is west of London if you keep going west enough. I missed the start. Did they specify a cut off point of where west ends?

Although we had the usual definition of 'country', 'west' wasn't clarified. As the Prime Meridian passes just to the west of London, if a capital's longitude is West it should be described as west of London, if not, not. (There are parts of the western Pacific east of the International Date Line, but no capitals are affected.)

What Richard Osman actually said was "on a conventional atlas", which I thought was something of a cop-out - how does one define what's conventional? I suspect there are some Pacific island groups that could qualify as both west and east of London depending on which atlas you use. Fortunately no one mentioned any of them.

What would they have said about Apia, for instance, capital of Samoa? Longitude 171°45′ W, placing it in the western hemisphere, but (since the end of 2011) on UTC+13 hours, placing it in the eastern hemisphere (i.e. west of the international date line).

[Incidentally, Monday's episode was a new one from series 9, so technically this is the wrong thread.]

Guy Barry wrote:
[Incidentally, Monday's episode was a new one from series 9, so technically this is the wrong thread.]

I don't mind using this one, it's the one nearest the top of the page so it'll do me. Anyway. Top joke on today's show about Mr Messy going on to play for Argentina and Barcelona. Richard is a legend. And I thought it was quite depressing that more people could identify the characters from both Supernatural and Fringe ahead of Breaking Bad. It's pretty much the best show I've ever seen. Disappointed Richard and Xander have never seen it either.

mod - rename thread.

Has there ever been a round quite like the second round in yesterday's programme? On the first pass, all three contestants came up with variations on the same answer: the musical containing "Any Dream Will Do" was named as "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat", "Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and finally "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (the correct answer). Personally I thought it was a bit harsh not to accept the second version but I suppose they have to be precise about these things.

I'm sure Richard has previously allowed similarly abbreviated answers, though it would have been unfair to accept the second near miss after rejecting the first. What really surprised me was that the third candidate risked yet another stab at the same question.

Yeah, by that point I was wondering if it was just "Joseph"

Guy Barry wrote:Has there ever been a round quite like the second round in yesterday's programme? On the first pass, all three contestants came up with variations on the same answer: the musical containing "Any Dream Will Do" was named as "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat", "Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and finally "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (the correct answer). Personally I thought it was a bit harsh not to accept the second version but I suppose they have to be precise about these things.

I bet it would've been accepted if they just said "Joseph", but I suppose we'll never know..........