Line #4 WebVideo/CitationNeeded


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/citation_needed_title.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Mystery Biscuits![[note]]Oh yeah![[/note]]]]
3
4	->''This is Creator/TheTechnicalDifficulties, we're playing Citation Needed...in front of me I've got an article from [[Website/TheOtherWiki Wikipedia]] and these folks can't see it, every fact they get right is a point and a '' ding ''and there's a special prize for particularly good answers which is...'''MYSTERY BISCUITS!''' [[labelnote:*]]Oh yeah![[/labelnote]]
5
6	''Citation Needed'' is a WebVideoSeries produced by Creator/TheTechnicalDifficulties, with Creator/TomScott acting as the host and moderator while the other members -- Chris Joel, Matt Gray, and Gary Brannan -- act as contestants. It is an episodic PanelGame along the lines of ''Series/{{QI}}'', where Tom "almost-randomly" selects an article from Website/ThatOtherWiki (keeping the article hidden from the others) and asks questions related to it while the other three try to answer them. Correct answers earn points and a ding, while particularly good answers are awarded '''''MYSTERY BISCUITS!'''''[[note]]Oh yeah![[/note]].
7
8	Jokes, puns, and divergences abound as Tom tries to get through the article in some semblance of time while awarding points and '''''MYSTERY BISCUITS!'''''[[note]]Oh yeah![[/note]] to the panellists.
9
10	In essence, it's a SequelSeries to their [[https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGVjaGRpZi5jby51ay9wb2RjYXN0L2ZlZWQueG1s?sa=X&ved=0CBoQ27cFahgKEwjA5MubsLT5AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQjAI "Reverse Trivia" podcast]], swapping out trivial pursuit cards for [[Website/TheOtherWiki Wikipedia]].
11
12	The final episode, ''The Sweater Curse and Clothing Controversies'', was uploaded on November 29, 2018, and was succeeded by another panel show, ''WebVideo/TwoOfThesePeopleAreLying'', in 2019. The entire series [[https://youtu.be/oIYcbJKSLxQ?list=PL0CFk33kNHvSdeJm6HQtiJygOCV0o9JdK can be viewed here]], and a [[Recap/CitationNeeded Recap Page]] is now in progress!
13
14	[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] the [[Blog/CitationNeeded the blog of the same name,]] and ''definitely'' not the much more serious "[[https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ Citations Needed]]" podcast.
15	----
16	!!Tropes found in this series:
17	* AbUrbeCondita: All years in the Latin subtitles for "The Hydraulic Telegraph and Latin Grease" are converted to AUC.
18	* AccidentalPun: Matt's kind of prone to this...
19	** On the topic of cello scrotum, which early on was revealed to be a made-up medical condition that was submitted by Dr. Elaine Murphy:
20	--->'''Tom:''' (It) was published in the British Medical Journal without someone pointing out what rather obvious thing?\
21	'''Matt:''' That it was bollocks? (''everyone golf-claps, Matt suddenly laughs as he realizes'') I didn't even know I was making a joke 'til I had done it!
22	** On the topic of Charles Blondin, a tightrope walker who did a pantomime production. Gary has just joked about him being the front half of a panto horse.
23	--->'''Matt''': It's like you have to put some tightrope walking in there because this guy's a one-trick pony.\
24	[''audience groans'']\
25	'''Gary''': Oh f*ck off!\
26	'''Matt''': That wasn't a joke. [''beat''] [[DelayedReaction Oh, horse!]] Panto horse! [''shrugs''] I must just be naturally funny...
27	** And of course, the glorious example from the episode on time-teller Ruth Belville.
28	--->[''Matt starts corpsing at a bad joke he's just come up with'']\
29	'''Tom''': That's the look that means this is about to hit the cutting room floor.\
30	'''Gary''': Everybody, roll up your sleeves, this one's coming!\
31	'''Audience''': [''cued by Gary, crescendoing''] Oooooooooh...\
32	'''Gary''': Go!\
33	'''Matt''': [''still corpsing''] This is terrible! [''composes himself''] Did she meet her untimely death at the third stroke?\
34	[''A mix of cheering and groaning from both the panel and audience erupts when Matt says "untimely death'']\
35	'''Matt''': Oh no! No!\
36	[''Tom awards '''MYSTERY BISCUITS!''''']\
37	'''Matt''': That wasn't even the joke! I hadn't noticed that! That was better! I was going to say, "Did she die at the third stroke?"
38	* AllOfThem: Matt's response to the question "Roughly how many calories does the fool's gold loaf[[note]]a loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with peanut butter, jelly and bacon[[/note]] have?"
39	* AloneAmongTheCouples: {{Inverted\|Trope}}. Several jokes have been made about Gary being the one married person on the panel.
40	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The rapid-fire guesses for what substances a marathon runner might have been given are "Cocaine!" "Ketamine!" "Margarine!"
41	* ArousedByTheirVoice: Will Seaward's guest appearance in Season 6 Episode 3 inspires quite a few jokes about his voice, particularly whenever he says "Panthers."
42	-->'''Gary''': Can you make anything ''not'' sound kinky?!
43	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: They're quite prone to getting distracted if it's interesting enough. From the Thomas Midgley Jr. episode...
44	-->'''Tom''': We are now three diversions deep, but keep going!
45	* AudienceParticipation: Starting with the special at the tail end of Season 5, the show was filmed in front of live audiences. This naturally leads to the audience getting in on the fun.
46	** On one occasion in the "Ice Block Expedition" episode, Tom asks for mathematicians in the audience to judge whether Chris or Gary was closer to the answer of how much arctic ice had melted when the expedition reached Algiers - the answer was four liters, and Chris' answer was zero[[note]]even though Chris claims he never actually said anything, not that he was complaining[[/note]] while Gary had said "an nth" (1/n), which is undefinable. [[spoiler:Chris won the point.]]
47	** Series 6 Episode 3 saw Tom bring back the "Chris Joel, ornithologist" RunningGag from the podcast days using for the gag; Tom said "Ornith," the audience said "ologist!"
48	** In the same episode, Tom asks the question "what pest eats the Stephen's Island Wren?", and an audience member calls out "[[Series/TheGoodies Bill Oddie!]]"
49	--->'''Tom''': You know it's bad when the audience have better gags than we do.
50	** Before Season 7 Episode 3 started taping, Gary orchestrated a call-and-response with the audience. This lead to AudienceParticipationFailure in both episodes 4 and 6, where the audience jumped the gun, and a glorious reprise of the gag in Series 8 Episode 3.
51	%%* BigFun: Gary, which is lampshaded many times.
52	* BizarreTasteInFood: If a strange foodstuff is mentioned, Matt will probably express an interest in trying it.
53	* BuffySpeak: In the episode about Charles Blondin, Tom asks the others about what specific acrobatic act he was famous for. Matt answers with "the windy-windy-falling-fabric thing", Chris says "the flat-o-mer-boing-a-mi-thing", and Gary says "the high-rope-walky-longy". Matt seems like he had been unable to come up with the formal term of "aerial silks", but Chris and Gary's answers for "trampoline" and "tightrope walking" appear to have been just made for comedy.
54	* {{Catchphrase}}: Tom often says "Quite the opposite" in response to answers, which the others usually then interpret [[ExactWords very literally]].
55	-->'''Chris, speaking as Julie D'Aubigny''': You killed my father, prepare to die!\
56	'''Tom''': Quite the opposite.\
57	'''Chris''': ...you ''resurrected'' my father? ('''Gary joins in''') ...prepare to live!?
58	* CensoredForComedy: Very rarely, one of the panelists will say something in the studio that could get them in legal trouble, so Tom censors it out with the title "CENSORED FOR LEGAL REASONS." In the Sidney Weltmer episode, it led to this:
59	-->'''Gary''': For those of you in the "Abroads" part of the world, Derek Acorah's professional title is--\
60	[''Series of three bleeps over a black screen with "REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS"'']\
61	'''''...BISCUITS!'''''
62	** The third experiment, ''The Format Laboratory'' had a running gag proposed by Chris where everyone keeps making jokes until one of them needs to be cut, and the last one made before the cut is "the nth degree". [[spoiler:Eventually ''Tom'' of all people hits it.]]
63	* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: France is the country the gang mock most frequently.
64	* CouchGag: Every episode begins with Tom introducing the panel, leaving gaps after their names for them to improvise. What they say is different each episode, but they usually use this template:
65	** Chris says a short variant of "hello."
66	** Gary ad-libs a silly sentence.
67	** Matt usually ends it with a variant of "Hello, Website/YouTube!"
68	*** Often in [[BilingualBonus different languages]], such as Swedish ("Hej hej"), French ("Bienvenue"), German ("Guten abend") and Arabic ("Marhaba").
69	* CurbStompBattle: The Sark football team has lost every international match played. In double digits. A shoutout must go to their match against the Isle of Wight which was 0-20.
70	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Series 1 is noticeably different than the following series in a couple of ways:
71	** There were "sponsorship" jokes at the beginning of each show, a carryover from the group's previous podcast series.
72	** Tom didn't introduce the other panellists with their now-familiar titles.
73	** Tom's curation of the article he chose wasn't as great as it was in later series; it's clear he was relying too much on using Wikipedia's random article feature, and that consistently dredged up far less educational and interesting topics, which led to far looser banter and a lot more tangents.
74	** Tom maintains in the opening that the article is "almost random", where Series 2 onward, he would drop that part from the opening entirely, making it clearer it was specially curated for the episode.
75	** Tom, Gary, Matt and Chris' social media handles ([[ReclusiveArtist or in Chris' case, the lack of social media handle]] as he "doesn't do this Twitter nonsense") are all present in the episode to give a TitleIn to each one.
76	* EntertaininglyWrong: Sometimes, the panelists get the gist of the article's topic and come up with something plausible(-ish), but untrue. Tom occasionally gives '''MYSTERY BISCUITS''' for such answers. The Jack Churchill episode gives us a particularly epic example from Chris.
77	-->'''Tom''': [Churchill] was captured-\
78	'''Chris''': Yes. Was he?\
79	'''Tom''': Do you know the story there?\
80	'''Chris''': Oh, I can only presume that he was captured, went along willingly, beat all the guards at chess and poker, drank the camp commandant's rum, then dug his way out with his teeth while the commandant was passed out, chewing on broken glass and spitting it at guards, before having relations with the entire female population of the nearest town, lighting a cigarette on the ground, not even using a match, [[FlippingTheBird flipping the V]] and then walking into camp and saying, "What have you f***ers been doing?"\
81	[''audience applauds, Tom awards '''MYSTERY BISCUITS''''']
82	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Discussed in S6 E3. After Will Seaward[[note]]who replaces Matt for the episode and also joked about having eaten him in his intro[[/note]] makes a terrible pun:
83	-->'''Tom:''' Will, you have slotted into Matt's seat just perfectly.
84	-->'''Will:''' Well, when I ate him I stole his powers! That's how it works.
85	-->'''Chris:''' You actually had a buzz cut didn't you, before you went in? (mimicks hair shooting out of head)
86	-->'''Gary:''' The man was clean shaven and five-foot one.
87	* ExpospeakGag: In the vein of ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'', most of the prizes for a given episode's winner is basically Tom giving a long description then pausing before repeating it in simpler terms that just so happen to rhyme. For example:
88	-->'''Tom:''' You've won a holiday to a French resort with Sulu from ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and the director of ''Film/{{Transformers\|2007}}''. [[spoiler:It's Creator/GeorgeTakei and Creator/MichaelBay's week away in St Tropez.]]
89	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: [[{{Keet}} Matt]] (sanguine), [[LargeHam Gary]] (choleric), [[DeadpanSnarker Chris]] (phlegmatic), and [[OnlySaneMan Tom]] (melancholic).
90	* FunTShirt: Well, hoodie, actually, but same effect; For the entirety of series 8, Gary wore a black hoodie with "SATIRE" written in green on the front. It then became a small running gag throughout the series up until the end.
91	* FunWithSubtitles:
92	** 5x01, ''Hydraulic Telegraph'', features a subtitle track completely in Latin, inspired by a joke from Matt.
93	** 8x02, ''The Norwegian Butter Crisis'', has a one-off example when the subtitles change to English-with-Swedish-vowels to match Gary's [[JustAStupidAccent Swedish accent.]]
94	** 8x03, ''Juan Pujol Garcia'', gives us this after Gary claims Pujol was "a shepherd spy":
95	--->''[Subtitler's note: Gary's joke is a pun on "shepherd's pie", but for the first time in the show's history, this pun is entirely untranslatable to text.]''
96	* GrandFinale: 8x06 plays this for laughs: Tom makes it clear from the get-go that Citation Needed will end with that episode, and the finale nature of the episode is used as joke material throughout the episode.
97	-->'''Tom''': This is the final episode, and I'm feeling a bit like a teacher on the last day of school, but nevertheless, we are talking about "The Sweater Curse."\
98	'''Gary''': F*** off! That's no way we're ending this on jumpers!
99	* HamToHamCombat: Tons of it, typically involving [[LargeHam Gary]].
100	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each episode title has the name of the article being discussed, followed something else mentioned in the episode, which can range from a throwaway joke to a whole other article that takes up half the episode.
101	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: After learning that Reverend M. Bishop called Sidney Abram Weltmer a "miserable charlatan", Gary quips that he was offended by the "miserable" part.
102	-->'''Chris''': (as Weltmer) "I throw the very best of parties. I just don't understand!"\
103	'''Gary''': (also as Weltmer) "I'm not having 'miserable'!"
104	* JokeAndReceive: Occasionally the panelists will make jokes about the subject only for it to be completely right.
105	-->'''Chris''': I've just realized, we've not actually touched on telegraphs yet, and we have to do that at least once or twice a seas--\
106	''[ding!]''\
107	'''Chris''': oh, f*** off!
108	* LamePunReaction: ''Many'' of the jokes Matt makes are in the form of puns. The others are prone to this as well, but Matt's are particularly infamous to the point where on several occasions Gary's response is a mock "GetOut" at their lameness.
109	* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The eighth series contains noticeably more ribald and raunchy jokes, often forgoing innuendo entirely for [[RefugeInAudacity outright smut]]. Presumably because it's the last series so the lads can be more unfettered.
110	* LateToThePunchline: On a couple of occasions Tom has visibly needed several seconds for a joke made by one of the others to sink in, usually resulting in a FacePalm on his part when he eventually gets it.
111	* MadLibsCatchphrase:
112	** Starting with Series 4, the group have taken to using the phrase "And the wheel spins and lands on [offended country]!" after a joke by Brannan about getting a wheel that points to various countries that they'll offend that episode.
113	** From the beginning, there was "As we [workers in specialized field] call it," usually spoken after Tom corrects the gang's BuffySpeak description of a real thing.
114	* MagicAIsMagicA: {{Discussed\|Trope}} in 3x02: "The Boobrie and Conservative Pandas" in which Gary mentions that "If you're gonna make something up, at least you make it up consistently!"
115	* MotorMouth: Tom's spiel at the start of every episode. At one point he said it so rapid-fire that he actually said "I think I've set a new personal best there!"
116	* NotSoAboveItAll: Despite being the StraightMan of the [=TechDif=] crew, Tom's not above jumping on the joke bandwagon himself. During the Turra Coo episode (S7 E3) he also does this unintentionally.
117	-->'''Tom:''' There's a full circle to this story.
118	-->'''Gary:''' Did it become a cow again?
119	-->'''Tom:''' (looks at audience as they're laughing) It was never not a cow, Gary.
120	-->'''Gary:''' [[ItMakesSenseInContext It was a judge for a bit!]]
121	-->'''Tom:''' That doesn't mean it still can't be... (realises what he's saying) For God's...! ({{Face Palm}}s)
122	* OnceAnEpisode: The first five series of Citation Needed have the intro's for each member of the Technical Difficulties be some kind of NonSequitur, and Matt would say "Hello Youtube", with "Hello" being in a different language. This changed for most of Season 6 where the [[StudioAudience Live Studio Audience]] made the gag redundant (except in the Live special and the first episode, where Matt greets the Live audience with a VisualGag and greets the crowd respectively), and Matt joins the others in making jokes.
123	* OnlySaneMan: Tom is usually the last remaining member of the show who tries to move the episode along even as the others get caught along in whatever zany antics pop up.
124	* OopNorth:
125	** All four members met at the University of York, and three of them are native to the area[[note]]Chris hails from South Yorkshire, Gary from West Yorkshire, and Matt has stated that he's from York (though he lives in the South and has a mixed accent as a result)[[/note]]. Tom, as the odd one out, hails from the East Midlands, specifically Nottinghamshire. Out of the group, Gary has the most prominent Yorkshire accent and has also worn a hoodie labelled "Professional Yorkshireman" on set. Chris's accent can be fairly strong too.
126	** {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in S6 E4 with Will Seaward replacing Matt:
127	--->'''Tom:''' And standing in for Matt Gray, the mouth from the South, Will Seaward!\
128	'''Will:''' Hello! I'm not from Yorkshire.\
129	'''Gary:''' (recoils in his seat, away from Will) Get him out!
130	* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: Gary is introduced as "Everybody's favourite Gary Brannan: Gary Brannan."
131	* ARareSentence: In the "Thomas Trueblood" episode, Matt blurts out [[ItMakesSenseInContext "How can I run in these marrow-y clogs?"]] Gary and Chris promptly joke about how great the sentence is.
132	-->'''Gary:''' Nowhere else in the world today is anyone going to say "how do I run in these marrow-y clogs?" Now, we need a [[GilliganCut smash cut, somewhere in the Netherlands]]. ''[puts on cartoonish Dutch accent]'' "How do I run in these marrow-y clogs?" [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike "No one else say that today."]]
133	* RunningGag:
134	** Three series in a row Gary references Tinder. This despite the fact, as Tom points out the third time this happens, that Gary is the only one at the table who is married.
135	** The repeated [[InvokedTrope invocation]] of NationalStereotypes:
136	--->'''Chris:''' Broad guess at the country we're insulting today...Italy!
137	--->'''Gary:''' ''(in mock Italian accent, upon the mention of Stefania Follini)'' Hold-a onto your pasta pizza lasagna!
138	*** The amount of times they insult [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys France]] when the subject of the episode is a French person, led to this exchange in Series 7:
139	---->'''Gary''': The wheel spins and lands on France! \
140	'''Chris''': It's not a wheel! It's just a piece of cardboard with an arrow saying "France"!
141	** Whenever one of them mentions the Chuckle Brothers, somebody else will implore the American segment of their audience not to look them up on Google, sometimes followed up by another member imploring they ''do'' and also look up any of the Chuckle Brothers' more recent segments.
142	** Gary has been asked to do his goose and train horn impressions 3 times in the series so far. They invariably end with him doing an impression [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs of a goose being hit by a train.]]
143	** Later on in the series (and carrying into the group's other videos), Chris has a penchant for saying strange things that may or may not be related to the subject at hand, then shrugging it off (usually with the phrase "Sorry, wrong meeting").
144	** Some episodes have a downplayed, self-contained version, where for one episode the panel will latch onto a particular funny phrase, gag, or what-have-you. A few examples of these include...
145	*** "Magnetic healing" and its related bullshit from 3x04.
146	*** The 'rabbit conspiracy' from 3x05.
147	*** The many unfavorable backpackers stereotypes from 5x03.
148	*** The way Will Seaward says 'PANTHERS?' in 6x03.
149	*** Matt Gray's hovercraft enthusiasm from 7x02.
150	*** The many careers of the Turra Coo from 7x03.
151	*** The mules in the minecart from 7x04.
152	*** The show's imminent conclusion in 8x06.
153	* ShapedLikeItself: Part of Tom's standard introduction for the Difficulties.
154	--> '''Tom:''' ...everybody's favorite Gary Brannan, Gary Brannan!
155	* ShoutOut: Frequently, especially to British pop culture.
156	** In "Neckarwestheim and the End of the World", Chris talks about touring a decommissioned nuclear bunker, and mentions that as he left the bunker, he saw a group of people standing outside the chain-link fence, looking in, which gives Gary an unpleasant flashback.
157	---> '''Gary:''' Aaah! Aaah! Aaah! It's like ''Film/{{Threads}}''! It's like ''Threads'' happened!\
158	'''Chris:''' Oh, it's ''Threads'' turned up to eleven. If you guys are around on a different Sunday, because we're busy tomorrow, you'll - well, you'll hate it, but you'll all love it, I'm sure, it's great.\
159	'''Gary:''' No! No! No! Because it'll make me think of ''Threads''!
160	** Two episodes (1x06 "Neckarwestheim and the End of the World", and 6x05 "Acoustic Kitty and Bat Bombs") have ended by quoting Jeremy Clarkson's "on that bombshell..." CatchPhrase from ''Series/TopGear'', as a pun.
161	** Because Chris reads books, y'know, he'll sometimes throw in references to authors he reads. Take this example from the "Benjamin Rush" episode:
162	--->'''Gary''': Why aren't all expeditions done on opiates? Strong opiates! Ranulph Fiennes, off his tits at the North Pole, I'd gladly watch that!\
163	'''Chris''': Have you read any Creator/HunterSThompson?
164	* SmartBall: for all their joking around, the three panellists all have subjects where they are very well-informed, such as history for Gary[[note]]he's an archivist[[/note]], engineering for Matt[[note]]he's a radio engineer[[/note]], and birds and literature for Chris[[note]]he works on a nature reserve, he just likes birds and books[[/note]]. This is actually a RunningGag for Gary and Chris, as whenever the subjects of ornithology[[note]]the study of birds[[/note]] or history come up, it's cue for a chant of "When I say 'ornith-', you say '-ologist'!" or "When I say Brannan, you say archivist!" respectively.
165	* SpeakInUnison: This happened twice in "Hail Cannons and Operation Popeye"! The first time it was when Matt suggests that a hail cannon allows one to create hail, Chris and Gary both ask "why would you want that?" in the exact same rhythm, inflection and cadence. The second time was Gary and Matt referencing "Bohemian Rhapsody" after Chris says "thunderbolts and lightning". Both got applause and biscuits were had!
166	* StraightMan: Tom is this to the other three and their shenanigans, such as in the episode about the hydraulic telegraph where the others mock him relentlessly for saying "There are flags and there is water", leading him to throw his hands up in defeat and say in exasperation, "''Are you done?''" Many jokes have been made playing off his (relatively) serious demeanor in his quest to finish an episode.
167	* VerbalTic: Gary says "Let's face it!" a lot.
168	* VitriolicBestBuds: {{Downplayed\|Trope}}, but the lads do enjoy roasting each other and, as old friends tend to do, often end up bickering with each other.
169	* WikiWalk: Happens all the time when joke answers devolve into tangents about various topics. For example, in episode 5x02, Tom asks a question about Thomas Midgley Jr. inventing something regarding how vehicles are powered. Matt's joke answer of "nuclear-powered cars" rapidly devolved into a series of tangents involving ''Film/TheBigBus'', ''Series/{{Supertrain}}'', ''Series/TheLoveBoat'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{TUGS}}''.
170	--->'''Tom''': We're now three diversions deep, but keep going.
171	----
172	--> ''So, with that, we say thank you to [[Creator/TheTechnicalDifficulties Chris Joel, to Gary Brannan, to Matt Gray]], I've been Creator/TomScott and we'll see you next time!''

Context WebVideo / CitationNeeded