Characters / QI

The regulars and frequent (at least two appearances to their name) guests of the BBC 2/4/1 Panel Show QI:

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Regulars

Stephen Fry

• Quintessential British Gentleman:
  • The others regularly make jokes about how ridiculously posh he supposedly is.
  • In an episode where Fry revealed he owned both a copper teakettle and an Aga stove, an exasperated Phill Jupitus exclaimed "It's no wonder Twinings had you, pal!"
  • Many of Stephen's jokes work best if, like him, you attended a prestigious public school and an elite university.

Alan Davies

• Actor Allusion: Other panellists often make jabs at his role in Jonathan Creek.
• Butt-Monkey: Always gets the silliest introduction and the most ridiculous buzzer sound, and his answers are generally the most likely to set off the klaxon. In some episodes, his buzzer is rigged to act very strangely when he presses it, such as not working at all, shorting out the studio lights, or even setting off the klaxon (and losing 10 points for it).
• Curious as a Monkey: If the panel is handed a fragile historical artifact or common household tool, Alan will play with it. It's gotten to the point where the people who lend out these artifacts add a clause that Alan is not to touch them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not often, but has played this role from time to time.
• The Ditz: In the first few series particularly, but starting in Series D he's been getting more wins and second-place finishes. He slipped back into this a bit in Series H (his first with no wins since Series C), but recovered in Series I, especially with regards to the "nobody knows" bonus.
• Genre Savvy: According to the behind-the-scenes special, he eventually became aware of the tricks and twists being aimed especially at him and started subverting producers' expectations in the studio, resulting in him starting to rack up genuine victories.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: From a special on the making of the show, it seems that he's sometimes obligated to give the "stupid answers" that would make the klaxon go off.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • Has never managed to get a blue whale question right, but finally got one in the L Series, earning bonus points. Unfortunately, the objective of that episode was to get the lowest possible score, so he ended up in last place by a hefty margin.
  • As a Running Gag, his buzzer is sometimes rigged to play chants by fans of the Manchester United football club, rivals of his beloved Arsenal FC.

Sandi Toksvig

Area of expertise: Inventive uses of geese

• Ascended Extra: Replaced Stephen as presenter as of Series N after having appeared on the show as a guest.
• Fake Brit: Well, yes and no. Danish on her father's side, British on her mother's. She lived in America for a long time during her childhood, but speaks with noticeable and posh-sounding Received Pronunciation, as she was educated in England and has long since become a naturalised British citizen. She said on one episode she based her speech on actress Celia Johnson's after being made fun of for the strong Brooklyn accent she had as a girl when she was first sent to British boarding school.
• Only Sane Woman: Has more or less been conscripted into this role since taking over from Stephen.
• The Smart Guy: She won almost every episode she appeared in as a panellist.

Panellists first appearing in series A

Clive Anderson

Area of expertise: Law

Bill Bailey

Area of expertise: Birds

• Renaissance Man: Comedian, actor, multi-instrumentalist, bird watcher, former butterfly collector, author...

Danny Baker

Area of expertise: Music

Jo Brand

Area of expertise: Mental Health

• Contractual Genre Blindness: On occasion. If she has already received a number of forfeits in an episode, she'll start trying to set the klaxon off deliberately.
• Dirty Old Woman: Makes the most dirty jokes of possibly anyone on the show. See "Jumble" for some particularly gross ones.
• Henpecked Husband: Has one, if she's to be believed. Played for Laughs. Of course, her real-life husband is much more attractive than she lets on, and by all accounts, they have a wonderful relationship.
• Hidden Depths: For all of Jo's crude humour, she is actually well clued up on a number of subjects. (She is a qualified psychiatric nurse, for starters.)
• Iron Lady: Usually the token female panelist, yet is able to put the men down quite easily, and the audience love her.

Gyles Brandreth

• Abhorrent Admirer: Gyles was seated next to Sue Perkins in the Hanatomy episode and pushed hard on the line between chivalrous and lecherous, even though he was extremely the wrong age and gender to interest Sue.
• Insufferable Genius: He ping-pongs between these two tropes so often, it's difficult to tell whether he's got his facts straight on something or not. (Probably the safest policy on anything he says is to not trust it unless Stephen specifically confirms that it is correct.)
• Motor Mouth: He has a tendency to tell extremely long anecdotes, and he seems to have no shortage of them. Whatever the panel is talking about, he is almost always ready to interject with a story either involving himself or one of his ancestors.
  Sandi: There's literally nothing I could say to you where you wouldn't have an anecdote.

Rob Brydon

Area of expertise: Elvis Presley, allegedly

• Attention Whore: Does not like Johnny Vegas stealing the limelight.
• Captain Obvious: He likes to make an Overly Long Gag out of explaining something everyone already knows, starting with his lecture on smoke in "Fire and Freezing."
• Feigning Intelligence: Dresses what little he does know up as more interesting, profound and noteworthy than it is in order to impress Stephen.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: A few words into an impression, he'll tell you who it is.

Jimmy Carr

Area of expertise: Gentlemen's Special Interest Magazines

• Black Comedy: His stand-up makes frequent use of this, so naturally, it carries into the show as well.
  Jimmy Carr: (On the subject of domestic violence) It's so stupid; I mean it's your wife. It's like keying your own car.
  David Mitchell: Society just got a tiny bit worse.
  Jimmy Carr: I like to think I can help.

Rich Hall

Area of expertise: The Moon, number of

• Funny Foreigner: There have been other Americans on the show, but Rich Hall is the only recurring one.
• Put on a Bus: Once one of the most common guests, and one of a handful to have appeared in every series to date up until Series J, where he stopped appearing. The Bus Came Back for a single appearance in Series O, but he hasn't been seen since.
• Running Gag: "Which moon are we talking about?" Culminated in a forfeit in Series I.
• When He Smiles: Very rare, true, but when it happens, it's enough to make most people go "D'aaaaaaaw".

Jeremy Hardy

Eddie Izzard (Pilot)

Phill Jupitus

Area of expertise: Stephen Fry impressions

• Running Gag: Kestrels, dating from his very first appearance ("Advent"). John Sessions picked up on it in the series D episode "Drinks".
  • Tries to headbang whenever his buzzer sound is music or singing, no matter what style it is.
• Token Romance: Phill has gone on record (in the making-of special) that his role on the show is to flirt with Stephen as much as possible. This may be partly a joke, but he actually does do this to some extent.

Sean Lock

Area of expertise: The Movement of Banana Trees

• Ax-Crazy: Played for Laughs. When Stephen says that the moon has nothing to do with lunacy, for instance, Sean's response is, "Then why do I go out killing?"
• Berserk Button: Whenever a "Genius" person in the panel's there, Sean's sure to mock that person endlessly.
• Epic Fail: Currently holds the record for the lowest score by a guest panelist on the show: -76 in the "Germany" episode. (Alan, the lone regular panelist, has done worse: -84 on "Cleve Crudgington" under normal circumstances, and there have been special circumstances where he's gone even lower, such as when the score was given in millions.)
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Again, Played for Laughs; he talks about kicking dogs and killing people, all with a childish glee on his face.
• Kick the Dog: Frequently makes jokes about torturing small animals.
• Multiple-Choice Past: An odd nonfictional example: his fanciful stories about his past experiences of being a "goatherdsman" or a plumber in Israel.
• Phrase Catcher: His more offensive jokes are often met with an outraged "Sean Lock!" from Stephen, delivered as if he were scolding a schoolboy.

John Sessions

Area of expertise: The Birth and Death Dates of Artists

• Insufferable Genius: He had extensive knowledge of several subjects.^note Both Stephen and Dara Ó Briain would later say that someone - and neither would say who it was - would ask for the questions before each show. Stephen said that it was someone who didn't need them, and Dara said in 2022 that it was someone who had died but it wasn't Sean Lock; Sessions died in 2020 and did appear in a Series J episode with Dara, so there's a very good chance it was him; that said, because of both Stephen and Dara's reticence on the subject, this is unconfirmed.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: Sessions was quite good at imitating voices, and did a very funny Alan Rickman impersonation by "talking without his lips touching his teeth."
• Too Clever by Half: Despite this, he tended to fall into forfeit traps, and has managed only one win in his appearances to date (two if you count his appearance in series J: he was the highest-scoring panelist that episode, but Stephen Fry "won" that show).
• Luvvies: The "Luvvie Alarm" was installed due to his habit of namedropping.

Panellists first appearing in series B

Jeremy Clarkson

Area of expertise: Cars

• Extreme Omnivore:
  • Every time he's on he likes to tell people about his unusual appetite. Tortoise leg on toast anyone?
  • He specifically noted once that he'd tried some puffin because he'd never had it before.

Fred MacAulay

• Self-Deprecation: About Scotland.

Dara Ó Briain

Area of expertise: Science

• The Smart Guy: Science fan.
• Unfortunate Name: Alan suggest his first name sounds like Diarrhoea. Dara naturally has the response you'd expect.

Mark Steel

Area of expertise: The French Revolution

Panellists first appearing in series C

Andy Hamilton

• Deadpan Snarker
• Troll: Discusses having been this in the Boy Scouts, when he was very young.

David Mitchell

Area of expertise: History

• Put on a Bus: Missed Series P, the only time he's done so since his debut. Unlike other panellists, however, The Bus Came Back as he returned as a frequent guest for Series Q.
• Rant Comedy: Many of his responses and reactions; especially prone to this if he gets the klaxon. The BBC made a supercut of his "angry logic".
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The klaxon.
• The Smart Guy: One of the few who engages his brain when answering a question and not trying to show off.

Panellists first appearing in series D

Panellists first appearing in series E

Johnny Vegas

• Cloudcuckoolander: By far, the panelist with the most out-there responses.
• The Ditz: Invoked; in the QI making-of special, he has gone on record as trying to be dumber than Alan.
• Once a Season: Consistently only appears on one episode every series (except for Series O, where he was Put on a Bus).

Panellists first appearing in series G

Jack Dee

• Deadpan Snarker: He has managed to get an entire career out of doing this extremely well, after all.
• When He Smiles: It is very difficult to get Jack to do this or burst out laughing on television (radio is different, but you can't see him in that case unless you go to the recording). If you have got this reaction, you have said something extremely funny.

Lee Mack

Area of expertise: The word 'ceiling'

• Brief Accent Imitation: Gets called out on it by Stephen Fry and David Tennant. Repeatedly.
• The Gadfly: He seems to have an ability to find out and push people's Berserk Buttons.

Graham Norton

Sue Perkins

Area of expertise: Spilling liquid all over the set

• Contractual Genre Blindness: She loves getting the klaxon, it seems.
• Put on a Bus: Hasn't been on the show since Sandi took over.

Panellists first appearing in series H

Ross Noble

Area of expertise: Ewoks

• Cloudcuckoolander: He has a tendency to bring the show on even wilder tangents than normal.

Panellists first appearing in series J

Susan Calman

Area of expertise: The Smurfs

• Butt-Monkey: Especially during Sandi's run, since she's one of the few people shorter than Sandi.

Victoria Coren Mitchell

Area of expertise: Jackrabbits

• Dreaming of Things to Come: Dreamed before the show that one of the questions would be "Why was the march hare important to the Aztecs". At the end of the show, this very question was asked. (Of course, it is likely the question was prepared during the show, however, it did in fact have a coherent answer, still fitting the spirit of this trope.)
• The Smart Guy: Has come in first or tied on the shows she's been on.

Jason Manford

Area of expertise: Mr Patel's lessons.

• Cool Teacher: Whenever he's gotten a question right, he always credits his childhood teacher, Mr Patel.

Panellists first appearing in series K

Colin Lane

• Funny Foreigner: Colin is Australian, and both he and the rest of the panel usually get some comedic mileage out of it.

Josh Widdicombe

• A Man Is Always Eager:
  Stephen: Who would bite their arm off to get their leg over?
  Josh: (buzzes in, silently points to himself)
  (klaxon)
• Suddenly Shouting: He screams instead of shouting, but he does this in reaction to Stephen smashing a rose dipped in liquid nitrogen on the desk.

Panellists first appearing in series L

Aisling Bea

• Bile Fascination: Her reaction to Sandi confirming the purpose of the falcon sex hat (followed by a video demonstration) is either this, or Covert Pervert.
  • She had the same facial expressions when Stephen explained the functioning of a male spider's pedipalps... Maybe it's both.
• Fan Disservice: Interprets Alan's "shark impression" as a badly-faked orgasm noise, and starts trying to one-up him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Puts on a ditzy persona when Sandi recruits her to help with a mathematical demonstration.

Panellists first appearing in series M

James Acaster

• Cloud Cuckoo Lander
• Serious Business: Do NOT say that two different types of Quality Street chocolate are the same as each other around him.

Rhod Gilbert

• Sustained Misunderstanding: How much sunlight does Denmark get, again?

Cariad Lloyd

Area of expertise: The Lord of the Rings

• Distracted by the Sexy: A discussion of the origins of the Rorschach test ended quite abruptly when Cariad spied a picture of Dr. Rorschach and immediately caught the thirst.

Matt Lucas

• Awesome Ego: Apparently considers himself a narcissist and once bragged about the great reviews he got for playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream. However, it can be assumed he was at least partly joking on these occasions.
• Toilet Humor: After Holly Walsh mentioned that, under law, you can apparently post a gun to someone but not one with bullets in it, he joked that 'you can send a toilet, but not with a poo in it'.

Romesh Ranganathan

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: His mother appeared in the audience in one episode where he was on the panel. Sandi kept fact-checking his jokes and stories with her, to the point he remarked that it was like having a 'horrible judgmental Wikipedia' in the audience.
• Deadpan Snarker

Panellists first appearing in series N

Corey Taylor

• Atomic F-Bomb: The loudest thing ever shouted was not "SHUT THE FUCK UP," but he was on the right track.
• Questionable Casting: Yes, that Corey Taylor. From Slipknot. Yes, that Slipknot. (He fit in surprisingly well.)

Panellists first appearing in series O

Sally Phillips

Area of expertise: Coconuts

• Shout-Out: When the topic of discussion in “Random” turned to coconuts, she anecdotally mentioned that they can’t be sent to Fiji via mail. Sandi was utterly confounded why Sally would try in the first place, until she mentioned she did it in the Series 5 finale of Taskmaster.

Panellists first appearing in series P

Teri Hatcher

Area of expertise: Superman

• The Tease: Spent significant amounts of her appearance mercilessly flirting with Phil Jupitus.

Panellists first appearing in series Q

Tom Allen

• Camp Gay
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Always appears in a smart suit. When Chris Mccausland joked about the idea of a teenage Tom going to school in a suit with a pocket square, Tom confirmed that he actually did that.

Panellists first appearing in series S

Ahir Shah

• The Smart Guy: Tends to be this.

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