History Awesome / QI

* The scene when Alan seems to think it odd that Lew Wallace, a New Mexico Territorial governor, decided to write a book about [[Literature/BenHur Roman chariot racing]], and Stephen lays into him for this attitude:
-->'''Stephen:''' Well, what ''should'' he have written about then? Urgh, you wrote a book about something not particularly close to you! You ''wanker''!
* Sean Lock's mocking of Rory [=McGrath=]'s constant showing off. "There's some sort of portal to the underworld here, it's ridiculous!" "If I say it in a different language do I get more points?...Ocho! Ocho cardiganes!"
* One episode had the cast given little boards with refrigerator magnet letters. Creator/JimmyCarr promptly used ''all his letters'' to write out "PUT SMARTIES TUBES ON CATS LEGS MAKE THEM WALK LIKE A ROBOT". He got applause not only from the audience, [[https://youtu.be/LJ35lX-5-i8?t=30s but from the rest of the panel as well]].

** Likely the result of some fixing, since this is a joke Jimmy Carr has previously used in his stand up routine. He also had rather more letters than everyone else. On the other hand, it doesn't mean they expected him to do it, just means they hoped he would.
*** He pinched the extra letters off Creator/BillBailey sitting next to him, Bill only had enough left for 'gay elf romp'.
* In the same vein, Helen Atkinson-Wood, best known for playing Mrs. Miggins on ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', earned 200 points for recognizing the chemical equation for an explosion in a custard factory.
** Worth pointing out that the equation is actually specifically for the oxidation of glucose, but the oxidation of glucose is often taught to children using an explosion in custard as an example.
-->'''Helen''': I believe it's an explosion in a... just a hunch here, a custard factory?
-->'''Stephen''': How in the ''hell'' did you know that?
* Reducing Stephen to a wreck with just nine words... repeated over and over again, also counting as a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}. All together now:
-->[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdvD4Fhc_K8 They say of the Acropolis]], where the Parthenon is... That there are''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis No! Straight! Lines!]]'''
* Creator/{{David Mitchell|Actor}}'s rant against his school.
** His exceptional bluff to the first question in "Europe", which was directed at him due to his being a historian from Cambridge:
--->'''Stephen''': So, we'd like you to name the 5,732 provisions affecting the enclave of Baarle Hertog in the Treaty of Maastricht. Your time starts now. ''[dings a bell]''\\
'''David''': Well... this is an easy one. The enclave actually only exists theoretically because it's a sort of sandbank which was once farmed, but was flooded in the 14th century. It exists between Denmark and Germany in the Heligoland Bight, and it's sort of been an anomaly in diplomatic law ever since then because there were arguments about who owned it theoretically even though no one could go there. And so, the 5,732 provisions are actually a provision for each of the former states of the Holy Roman Empire before it was dissolved by Napoleon.\\

'''Stephen''': That is absolutely... wrong.\\

'''Stephen''': Not ''one thing'' that you said was true! Brilliantly convincing, though. It convinced the audience! They were all set to applaud.
* Dave Gorman turning up, and then [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaking the game]] in his first question.
* Phil Kay correctly predicting that his buzzer would be a crowing rooster in the 'Birds' episode.
* David Mitchell getting two "Teacher's Pet" accolades during the Series F episode "Food." (Unfortunately, it doesn't make him "feel that cool".)
* In the series D episode "Doves", the final question was a bonus question worth 50 points, but Stephen got confused and provided the answer before asking the question. He was then instructed to ask the question again, and Alan buzzed in and got the correct answer and hence the bonus points. When the scores were read out a moment later, it turned out he would have won even without the bonus.

* Series G was an extended CMOA for Alan Davies: he won three shows in a row (4, 5 and 6), tied for first place in a further two (12 and 13) and finished that up when he won episode 16 with the highest score all series and indeed the highest score since series D.
* Roger [=McGough=] spontaneously composing a poem about Hoover the Talking Seal.
* In the 'International' episode, Bill Bailey asked a question about the [[ThePointsMeanNothing scoring system]], then used the Ignorance bonus to earn 3 points and put himself in the lead before the first question.
* A double awesome moment in the 'Intelligence' episode. First, for ASIMO, the most advanced humanoid robot, for walking down a step without falling over, for running, and for ''dancing''. The second awesome moment is for ''QI'', for having enough pull to get the most advanced humanoid robot in existence as a guest.
* In Series "I", Alan Davies correctly guesses the "Nobody Knows" bonus almost every episode.
** If there is one thing Alan knows, it's nothing.
* In "Jam, Jelly and Juice", Stephen explains the concept behind "speech jam", in which a person listening to themselves talk with a slight delay will adjust their speech or get muddled. To demonstrate, he gives Alan earphones and a recipe book to recite from, and then turns on the microphone mid-paragraph -- and stares at it disbelievingly as [[NoSell Alan continues reading without any change to diction or speed]]. (Yes, it ''was'' working, as proven by the other panelists' failure to replicate this feat.) The only sign of Alan having ''any'' difficulty with the task was that he unconsciously pulled the book up closer to his face as soon as the microphone was turned on.
-->'''Stephen''': Alan, did you hear your voice back?
-->'''Alan''': (deadpan) Yes, weird.
* An Awesome Moment for the research team: at the start of the "Jargon" episode, Victoria Coren confesses she has a dream the previous night that one of the questions would be, "Why was the March Hare so important to the Aztecs?" She dreamed that she answered "They worshipped it," and got the klaxon for that response. Cut to the very last question of the episode - when Stephen asks the very question, and of course Victoria answered it, AND got klaxoned - which was then followed with an extensive explanation on why it wasn't, but could've been an interesting trick question. Recording a specific episode most likely takes only two or three hours.
-->'''Stephen''': I'll go even further than this. There are many people who believe that the rabbits that the Aztecs worshiped were jackrabbits, which are in fact, technically, a type of hare..
-->'''Victoria''': ''(astonished)'' and a J-word. This is spooky.
-->'''Stephen''': So Victoria Coren...''(raising his finger at her)'' Burn the witch!
* Invoked by Phill Jupitus in "Jingle Bells". After Stephen lists a number of archaic instruments, Phill asks Danny Baker to name a 70s song that used one of them. He does, immediately.

* In "Knowledge", Stephen explains that many things said in previous episodes have since been proven false, and as the result of that, the panelists were owed some points, which are given back at the beginning of the episode. As the result of that, Alan wins the episode with 689.66 points.

* The reveal in "Cat's Eyes" that answering a question with "Who cares?" is an automatic forfeit.
* The Series "O" Christmas episode, "O Christmas Tree" ends with a FlashMob: It turns out that most of the audience for the episode was a professional choir, and they close out the show with a chorus of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

** Instead of trying to beat the fastest time to dress in a Santa Claus costume herself (30.94 seconds), Sandi lets her son Theo Toksvig-Stewart go for it. He runs into trouble with the belt on his first attempt, but his second one comes in at 28.91 seconds.

* An Awesome Moment for the research team: at the start of the "Jargon" episode, Victoria Coren confesses she has a dream the previous night that one of the questions would be, "Why was the March Hare important to the Aztecs?" She dreamed that she answered "They worshipped it," and got the klaxon for that response. Cut to the very last question of the episode - when Stephen asks the very question, and of course Victoria answered it, AND got klaxoned - which was then followed with an extensive explanation on why it wasn't, but could've been an interesting trick question. Recording a specific episode most likely takes only two or three hours.

-->[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX5WavWy2t0 They say of the Acropolis]], where the Parthenon is... That there are''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis No! Straight! Lines!]]'''

* Invoked by Phill Jupitus in "Jingle Bells". After Stephen lists a number of archaic instruments, Phill asks Danny Baker to name a 70's song that used one of them. He does, immediately.

** Rory [=McGrath=] managing to exhibit a remarkable knowledge of the Latin names of various birds and other such trivia.

'''Phill Jupitus''': Hang on, I'll throw him off his game. ''(Lord Melchett impression)'' Baaaaah! ''Baaaaaah!''

-->They say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is... [[spoiler:That there are''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis No! Straight! Lines!]]''']] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX5WavWy2t0]]

** Instead of trying to beat the fastest time to dress in a Santa Claus costume (30.94 seconds), Sandi lets her son Theo Toksvig-Stewart go for it. He runs into trouble with the belt on his first attempt, but his second one comes in at 28.91 seconds.

** Alan goes up against fellow panelist Justin Moorhouse to try and set the record for the most crackers pulled in 30 seconds. He self-deprecatingly jokes that he won't even match the current mark of 20. He proceeds to plow through 35 crackers, beating Justin by five and breaking the record.
** Instead of trying to beat the fastest time to dress in a Santa Claus costume (30.94 seconds), Sandi brings her son Theo Toksvig-Stewart onstage to go for it. He runs into trouble with the belt on his first attempt, but his second one comes in at 28.91 seconds.

* Series "R"'s Christmas episode, "Rejoice", features 3 Guinness World Record attempts, adjucated by editor-in-chief of GWR, Craig Glenday. Two of them are successful.
** When setting the "most crackers set off in 30 seconds," Alan self-deprecatingly jokes that he's not going to get the record (20), before proceeding to plow straight through them in rapid succession. He ends up getting 35 crackers, beating the world record.
** Sandi's son Theo returns to the show to attempt the "quickest costume change into Santa Clause" record, with a 30.94 second target. After a quite impressively quick run, he gets 28 seconds.

* The Series "O" Christmas episode, "O Christmas Tree" ends with a FlashMob: It turns out that most of the audience for the episode was a professional choir, and they close out the show with a chorus of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

* An Awesome Moment for the research team: at the start of the "Jargon" episode, Victoria Coren notes that she dreamt the previous night that one of the questions would be, "Why was the March Hare important to the Aztecs?" It's asked as the last question of the episode and followed with an extensive explanation on why it wasn't, but could've been an interesting trick question. Recording a specific episode most likely takes only two or three hours.

* Reducing Stephen to a wreck with just nine words... repeated over and over again, also counting as a CrowningMomentOfFunny. All together now:

''[audience laughs as applause abruptly dies]''

'''Stephen''': That is absolutely wrong. Not ''one thing'' that you said was true! Brilliantly convincing, though. It convinced the audience! They were all set to applaud.

* The scene when Alan seems to think it odd that Lew Wallace, a Texas governor [[note]]actually New Mexico territory; not to mention he hailed from, and spent most of his life in, Indiana[[/note]], decided to write a book about [[Literature/BenHur Roman chariot racing]], and Stephen lays into him for this attitude:

* The scene when Alan seems to think it odd that Lew Wallace, a Texan [[labelnote:*]]Actually New Mexico territory; not to mention he hailed from, and spent most of his life in, Indiana[[/labelnote]] governor, decided to write a book about [[Literature/BenHur Roman chariot racing]], and Stephen lays into him for this attitude:

* Creator/D{{David Mitchell|Actor}}'s rant against his school.

* Creator/DavidMitchell's rant against his school.

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** When Sandi Toksvig took over as quizmaster for Series N, Alan won two shows in a row right from the first episode and got many questions right. The panel are particularly astonished in the first episode, and they theorize that he's doing so well because he's no longer intimidated by Stephen.