In short
“Little Fish: No Harm, No Foul” is a QI-style episode where hosts Andrew Hunter-Murray, Dan Schreiber, and James Harkin read listener-submitted “facts” and then do “fact custodianships” for Clubfish supporters. The episode mixes pop-culture trivia, wordplay, coincidences, and odd historical/scientific claims.
Guests
No external guests appear. The only “guests” are the hosts themselves plus named fact submitters/custodians: Danny Aiello (referenced), plus listeners including Dan Connolly, Sveining Carlson, Mike Abadulla, Daniel Atkinson, Declan Curry, Jono Whitehead, Jono Whitehead, Andrew Joseph Perez, Chris Squires, Wayne, Mary Sanderlands, Brad Downing, Ethan Walker, Holly Flanagan, Michael Reeve, Amy Reeve, and John Gallagher.
Key claims/examples
Danny Aiello released an “answer song” to Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach”; West Bromwich Albion managers’ first names formed a “Johnny/Ron” pattern (1975–1988); Austrian wine poisonings led to European bans including accidental bans on Australia due to similar names; walking the equator puts your head ~37 feet farther from Earth’s center than your feet; Chicago River reversed direction in 1900; Buzz Aldrin later worked at a car dealership and allegedly sold no cars; Cathars were rumored to kiss a cat’s anus; Hollywood Walk of Fame: none of several big stars (Jolie, Clooney, DiCaprio, Affleck, Kubrick, Pitt, Carrey, Al Pacino) actually have stars.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VODanny Aiello's Answer Song
1:13 to 1:52
Discussion on Danny Aiello's response to Madonna's 'Papa Don't Preach'.
“Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of Little Fish.”
A History of Answer Songs
1:52 to 4:21
Exploration of various answer songs throughout music history.
“He's sort of, I've watched the video, and the song sounds very much like a 1990s or a 1980s sitcom.”
Coincidences in Song Titles
4:21 to 6:27
A look into coincidences with song titles and artistic connections.
“There's a crazy one, which is that John Lennon with the Beatles put out In My Life and his dad, who was not a singer, his dad was like a sailor.”
The 1985 Austrian Wine Poisonings
6:27 to 10:40
An overview of the wine scandal in Austria and its repercussions.
“This one, I seem to have become the repository for facts about sporting teams with weird, wordy coincidences.”
Geographical Oddities and Facts
10:40 to 11:32
Curious geophysical facts about the Earth’s curvature and equator.
“And Declan says, My fact is if you walked around the whole earth on the equator, your head would travel roughly 37 feet further than your feet to the curvature of the earth.”
Etymology of Cuttlefish
11:32 to 14:06
An interesting fact about the origin of the word 'cuttlefish'.
“Because it's further away from the centre of the earth.”
The Origins of Cuttlefish
14:06 to 17:49
Discover the linguistic roots of the term 'cuttlefish' and related trivia.
“And I had a little extra look into what cuttlefish comes from.”
Vandalism and the Hollywood Walk of Fame
17:50 to 18:59
Explore the amusing connection between two men vandalizing Trump's star.
“all of those brad pitt jim carrey they don't really have the dosh i don't think to oh yeah But it is what you have to pay.”
The Chicago River's Unique History
19:00 to 21:41
Learn about the fascinating reversal of the Chicago River's flow and its implications.
“Chris writes, you missed the most interesting fact about the Chicago River.”
Fun Facts Shared by Listeners
22:22 to 24:19
Enjoy a series of quirky and humorous facts shared by the podcast's audience.
“If you go, you're trying to buy a car and someone keeps saying, I was on the moon, you know, I'm not interested.”
Show all 14 chapters
Historical Oddities and Mispronunciations
24:20 to 28:00
Dive into amusing historical facts and the art of mispronunciation for comedic effect.
“the Catholic sect, the Cathars, were said to get their name from the fact they liked to kiss a cat's arse.”
The Origin of the Whoopee Cushion
28:00 to 30:06
Explore the amusing historical fact about the whoopee cushion's invention.
“I'm amazed we haven't got one in this room with us now.”
The Oldest Purse and Dog's Teeth
30:06 to 30:52
Learn about the fascinating fact involving the oldest known purse decorated with dog's teeth.
The Knights of the Round Table
30:52 to 31:46
Discover surprising details about the lesser-known Knight, Sir Gareth, of the Round Table.
“What are them doing on the one with Gareth?”
Transcript
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1:13Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of Little Fish. My name is Andrew Hunter-Murray. I'm here with Dan Schreiber and James Harkin and we have gathered to give you your best facts. You've been sending them into podcast.qi.com and we're here to tell you all about them. And then at the end, we're going to do some more fact custodianships for people who've joined Clubfish at the friend of the podcast tier So let's get into it, who's got a fact? That was depressingly good, Andy
1:39James Harkin:Yes! James has been telling me that I make a horlicks of this intro every time and was grinning at me throughout that, just waiting for me to do so
1:47Andy Dawson:I was trying to put you off and it didn't work at all No, no, no, no
1:50James Harkin:I got a fact, should I jump into it? Sure Dan Connolly sends this He says a few months after co-starring As Papa In the video for Madonna's Papa Don't Preach Danny Aiello Who is an actor that you will know From movies such as The Godfather Part 2 He's Leon the professional, he's got a very very familiar Face in those movies So he was Papa in Papa Don't Preach So not long after That was released He released an answer song to it Papa wants the best for you his own version to reply to Madonna for what she was saying. Is he preaching throughout it? He's sort of, I've watched the video, and the song sounds very much like a 1990s or a 1980s sitcom.
2:37James Harkin:Oh, sitcom. Yeah, like, you know, like the intro where it's like, everyone's turning their heads and smiling at camera. Picture what song's underneath that. It's got that vibe about it. Okay. But he seems really distraught. He's incredibly specific reference. It's honestly the same tone. We understand it though Yeah So he did this reply song And he did occasional songs He released a few albums But he wasn't a big singer So Papa Don't Preach is Madonna saying Don't tell me what to do, dad Yeah I think it had something to do with Her having a baby and needing an abortion I think, you know, coded underneath it But largely that's what it was Because I don't know the song All I can think of is the Papa and Nicole adverts
3:21Andy Dawson:that's what it's based on yeah yeah yeah but don't preach i've got a citron here that's right i'm just gonna say to full store the emails renault not citron oh i knew it was that but i thought no one's gonna write in for that are they james you don't see the inbox like i see it
3:40James Harkin:yeah so this comes in a long line of answer songs as they're known can i say one f-u-r-b frankie frankie that's the one i know well that was the bit that was massive in the 90s i think it was and uh it was basically a song would you remember what his name was the artist i can't
3:58Andy Dawson:remember but his song was f you amen he was amen that's right and he just says f you all the way through to this girl and then she says f you right back but she was she didn't know him in real life
4:11James Harkin:turns out she didn't and that was the big thing because at the time it was sold as if this was the genuine girlfriend and it was a sort of one-off but this this goes back so far back so walter riley and krista marlowe traded answer pieces with each other hey krista marlowe kista
4:27Andy Dawson:marlowe and who was the first one walter riley oh walter riley oh rally yeah not riley walter riley is just some guy walter riley is sailing to the new world and doing all of that oh yeah
4:37James Harkin:no i'm not talking about him i'm talking about walter riley got it yeah yeah wrote um some amazing pieces back in the 1500s no rally sorry um who wrote the passionate shepherd to his love and there was a reply which was the nymph's reply to the shepherd so it goes all the way back then it's not necessarily beef it's just a reply it's a different perspective but yeah neil sadaka wrote a o 'carol in reply to throat oh carolina by shaggy i don't even know a second shaggy song so that's amazing knowledge there um neil sadaka wrote o 'carol
5:11Andy Dawson:and carol king wrote o 'neill in reply to that oh that's good um david bowie wrote a um wrote a song oh no had an album called low low yeah and then there was a musician called something low low and he released an album called bowie without the e very nice very nice i wish i could remember everything about it it was the first record released by stiff like stiff label stiff label that had like Madness Rin and a lot of other people. Right.
5:42James Harkin:There's a crazy one, which is that John Lennon with the Beatles put out In My Life and his dad, who was not a singer, his dad was like a sailor. He was out on the seas and that's why John didn't grow up with him, released a song that same year, within the same month called That's My Life. And it's been labeled as an answer song, but I think it was just jumping off the sort of coincidence of title to make it so that he goes up in the charts with the name Lennon. But what's amazing is he recorded it with a 30-piece orchestra, and two of the members of that orchestra were part of Jimi Hendrix's experience band.
6:16James Harkin:So it was Noel Redding and Mitchell, the two people who defined psychedelia, along with Jimi Hendrix, worked on a song with John Lennon's dad back in 1965.
6:27Andy Dawson:Should we have another fact? Yeah, okay, here's one. This one, I seem to have become the repository for facts about sporting teams with weird, wordy coincidences. Look, a sport fact comes into the inbox. I think I'm not going near that. I know who's the man. Yeah, well, Spineon Carlson wrote in and said that between 1975 and 1988, the football club West Bromwich Albion went through a run of managers whose first names went Johnny, Ronnie, John, Ron, Ronnie, Ron, Johnny, Nobby, Ron and Ron. Nobby sticks out a bit. Nobby sticks out a mile. oh that's just that's so funny so sveining found this on um twitter uh from a uh twitter account called touchline x um but yeah he checked it out and it was johnny giles ronnie allen john wild ron atkinson ronnie allen ron wiley johnny giles nobby styles ron saunders and robbie styles johnny giles giles then styles yeah giles and styles amazing absolutely amazing was that a fact from someone called carlson his surname is carlson that's probably the best fact about football managers i've ever heard it's brilliant from carlsberg that's a reference to carlsberg yeah okay just for stalling the emails handy it's close enough and at the same time uh you sent me a fact from orler everback and it is about body glimpt who won against atletico madrid in the champions league recently and the uh goals were scored by serloff from madrid sievold and her and all of those names have got a circle with a line through it okay you know like uh the o with a an uh yeah what a wonderful fact what's a wonderful fact yeah ola said that it was maybe the greatest win for the letter U through all times.
8:25Here's a fact from Mike Abadulla. Your fact bestowing at the end of Little Fish has probably had the intended effect here and prompted me to go and listen to some old episodes. Guys, it works. It works. Nice. Brilliant. A friend of mine has worked on maintaining some old software which uses something called the PIC operating system. This product was named after one of its developers, Mr. Dick PIC. Come on. I've looked this up and I tell you I got it wrong the first time I did not add pic operating system in quotes I've searched dick pic how was it? it was alright lost an hour of time but it was good so anyway no dick pic was a real guy who came up with the pic operating system that's so interesting I suppose he predated the dick pic that's wonderful
9:17Andy Dawson:predated the digital dick pic absolutely His was the analogue Anyway
9:23James Harkin:Here's another one This is from Daniel Atkinson Says A little fact I discovered Researching the 1985 Austrian wine poisonings Oh So before I get to his fact We should qualify what that is 1985 in Austria There was an incident where All the wineries were found to be Illegally adulterating their wines By using an antifreeze To make sure that it was sweeter that it had that full-bodied taste, like one that was like a late harvest wine. Why is that illegal? Well, because it can make you blind. Oh, okay.
9:56Andy Dawson:There you go. I just thought we'd better draw that out. You know, anti-freeze sounds good, doesn't it?
10:00James Harkin:It sounds great. You don't want your wine freezing. So Austria, for a while, they were the third largest wine producer in the world. And this absolutely decimated them because it was seen to be illegal and they had to get rid of all of these bottles of wine. So they ended up draining away 27 million liters of wine. So 36 million bottles. It was seven months worth of Austria's total wine exports. And they did use it for useful things. They started... They poured it into cars, I presume. Well, yeah, that's the thing. They were using it for sewage treatment plants. They were using it on the roads as an antifreeze.
10:37James Harkin:That's incredible. Yeah, it's amazing. But the fact that's been sent in by Daniel Atkinson is that apparently when the news eventually got out about the poisoned wine, many countries in Europe banned not just wine from Austria, but China and Japan accidentally banned all of Australia's wine as well because of the similar names. Can't be too careful. Yeah, that's very funny. Incredible.
10:59Andy Dawson:Okay, here is one from Declan Curry. And Declan says, My fact is if you walked around the whole earth on the equator, your head would travel roughly 37 feet further than your feet to the curvature of the earth. What? Yeah, so that's very dangerous actually, isn't it? Ending up with your head that much further away from your feet. There are a few technical issues such as the fact that most of the equator is underwater. Sure. Yes. But yeah, in theory that's what would happen.
11:32James Harkin:So what goes further? Your legs than your feet? Your head.
11:35Andy Dawson:Because it's further away from the centre of the earth. oh that's very good fact yeah amazing um can you think of any ways that you can tell how far away from the equator you are um well look around you and um if you can see a polar ice cap you know you're you've got a way to go yeah but how do you know you're not in the south pole i will i'd um i suppose i'd look around for any polar bears and if i can't see any polar bears then i'm definitely at the uh south pole yeah or the zoo exactly are you shorter you're
12:05James Harkin:shorter yeah is gravity pulling on you slight bit stronger that'll be it that you've just
12:09Andy Dawson:yeah very slightly very difficult for you to measure i should think so what am i trying to tell here if i'm at the equator just far away how can you tell how far away from the equator you are use google maps wouldn't i i mean on a practical level okay your phone's not working oh well i'm i'm stuffed i'll look around probably for any nearby trees with moss on them okay and if i and And, you know, if I find trees with awesome them, I'm happy wherever I am in the world. Okay. Trees is a good one. Okay. So there is one way you could do this. This is the Cook Pine Tree. And the Cook Pine Tree bends a different amount depending on how close to the equator you are.
12:49Andy Dawson:Admittedly, it doesn't grow in all places on Earth. But wherever you are, if you can find a species of this tree, the amount that it's leaning will tell you your latitude. That's incredible. That's stunning. That's amazing. That's great. Another way you can do it is you can speak to one of the locals. And if their language has more vowels than consonants, they're going to live closer to the equator. Okay. This is absolutely foolproof.
13:13James Harkin:And you're saying that's less hard than measuring yourself.
13:18Andy Dawson:To like an angstrom of height, right? I mean, how much taller are you? Oh, I don't know. I thought you had the answers. I have the answers to my actual answers. But not my ones, I get it now. But not your whimsical ones. All right, I get it. Can I give you another one? Yeah. This is from Jono Whitehead. I was listening to you and Dan brought up RAS syndrome, which stands for Redundant Acronym Syndrome Syndrome. Oh, yeah. Lovely. And I thought you'd appreciate this. We all know what a cuttlefish is, don't we? Cuttlefish? Yeah. Yeah. Little sort of squiddy things. Sure. They're oceanic and molluscoid, aren't they?
13:55Yeah. Yeah. We all know what a cuttlefish is. Anyway, the cuttle in cuttlefish comes from the Old English kudel, meaning cuttlefish. So a cuttlefish is a cuttlefish fish. That's good. That is good. Pleasing, isn't it? And I had a little extra look into what cuttlefish comes from. The kudel either comes from the Middle Low German kudel, meaning container, or the Old norse coddy which means cushion or testicle oh or the old english cod oh and cod actually comes
14:29Andy Dawson:from the same as testicle actually like a cod piece i read that cod and codpiece were not i guess there's also the testicle cod not the fish cod yes you're absolutely right kudel is where codpiece comes from exactly exactly interesting and why do we think that it's called that is it like the shell that you would use as a cup or something kudel uh yeah i think so i think it's i think that's either it or it's like a cushion or it's like a testicle which would be the old fish where you get sepia from like that you have in old photographs i don't know i only know that you put you put a cuttlefish um shell in the in the base of a parrot's cage for it to have something to chew on that's true yeah that's what they all dream to be when they're
15:10James Harkin:older there's a good ras syndrome one that i remember now which is uh dc comics oh is it yeah well detective comics comics is that right it's in there and then and then somehow someone picked me up for this because i got it wrong uh in my book which was i wrote the hiv virus
15:28Andy Dawson:of course the v is virus i think it's fine yeah i think i don't mind you putting virus in there just to make sure everyone knows what you're talking that's what i said to the brain surgeon and he was not buying it he got his friend the rocket scientist involved um here is a fact from andrew joseph perez and they say that the man who was arrested for vandalizing donald trump's star on the hollywood walk of fame in 2016 offered to bail out the man who was arrested for vandalizing donald trump's star on the hollywood walk of fame in 2018
16:01James Harkin:well that's nice isn't it that's a club what a family yeah yeah it's passing it on to the next
16:08Andy Dawson:pay it forward yeah did they do anything especially amusing to the star or not really yeah it wasn't very interesting i've got to say i got facts about the hollywood walk of fame though oh yeah um so who of these people has the biggest star oh uh angelina jolie george clooney leonardo dicaprio ben affleck stanley kubrick brad pitt jim carrey or al pacino who has the biggest star because
16:34James Harkin:they're all basically the same size they're all the same size but there are some differences
16:38Andy Dawson:in some of the stars for instance the apollo 11 crew have stars on there but they're in the shape of moons oh that's clever okay because they went to the moon yeah that's pretty good oh i get it
16:49James Harkin:yeah um so i've been to the hollywood walk of fame and i've walked up and down same here i was looking for looking for you i was very disappointed i can't is one of them got a comically big star
Read the full transcript
17:03Andy Dawson:Jolie Clooney, DiCaprio Affleck, Kubrick, Pitt, Cary Pacino. Kubrick, because Kubrick did 2001 A Space Odyssey. And The Moon Landings, of course. Yeah.
17:16James Harkin:I'll say Kubrick. Dan? I'm going to say Jim Carrey, and I have no reasoning for it.
17:22Andy Dawson:Well, the answer is, none of them has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was a trick. That is a good trick. Yeah, great prank. Isn't it? and isn't it weird because they're all pretty big names yes none of them has ever as far as i can see say said why they don't have it but you need to be nominated to start off with i imagine all these people have been but then you have to pay a sponsorship fee every year and you have to attend
17:49James Harkin:the unveiling oh yeah so it's a bit of a bit of a scam exactly and they've had a rough few years all of those brad pitt jim carrey they don't really have the dosh i don't think to oh yeah But it is what you have to pay. Yeah, you have to maintain. That's nuts. Yeah. No, thank you. Is that why you don't have one? That's why Andy's not got his, yeah. On principle. God, I have to wade through a dozen emails a day from those guys. Please, sir.
18:19Here's one. Okay. From Chris Squires. Great name. We talked about the Chicago River. Do you remember?
18:26Andy Dawson:Yeah. Yeah. With John Lloyd? We did And it's You know It used to be very very filthy There is Someone follows me on Instagram Called The Real Dave Matthews Of Dave Matthews Band I don't know If it's him or not Has he got a little tick Sounds like him I can't I didn't check But I just got a follow From someone called The Real Dave Matthews And I was very excited Yeah Right Because regular listeners Will know That we talked about The Dave Matthews Band Whose bus went over The bridge of the Chicago River And dumped excrement On a tourist boat below Not on purpose, as far as we know
18:59James Harkin:Yeah, so you two Haven't interacted, you're just a sort of standoff I saw that he's a follower
19:04Andy Dawson:I don't follow him, I can't see his Or hers, I don't know Could be a female Dave Matthews But I can't see their Instagram stuff Because I'm not following them Right, sounds like Dave Matthews to me It sounds like the real one Well yeah, I mean, on the cursory examination It sounds like the real Dave Matthews Yeah, but it's so easy, you'd like to just make a fake The real Dave Matthews Instagram On the internet, no one knows if you're Dave Matthews or not. Chris writes, you missed the most interesting fact about the Chicago River. What a challenge. And I thought, we can't have done it. I think we did.
19:38Really? Yeah. In 1900, it changed direction. Oh. This is so wild. I just didn't know it at all. It used to be really horrible, right? And it used to empty into Lake Michigan. Yep. Which is where the principal water source for the city of Chicago. Yep. So if you're taking water from the lake and it's taking water from the river and there's all sorts of horrible gunk in the river, you've got problems. I see. You've got cholera, which happened plenty. And in 1871, they were trying to stabilise a local canal. They pumped some water in. It temporarily reversed the flow of the Chicago River. And they thought, hang on, this is an idea.
20:15And so they created a canal to imitate a downhill direction for the river, moved millions and millions of cubic yards of earth. and these days it runs out of Lake Michigan and down eventually into the Gulf of Mexico via another river.
20:30Andy Dawson:Is that right? Isn't that stunning? That's very cool. They just reversed it. They raised Chicago around that time, didn't they? Remember, the entire city was raised by like a meter or something. What? I think that's right. I think, yeah, it's ringing a bell. I wonder if this was part of the same thing. Why do they? Well, I think the problem is I can't really remember. But I'm sure they did it. Where's my phone? Let me just quickly check it. You two talk amongst yourselves for a minute. Dan, you watched anything good lately? I started watching White Lotus. Oh, yeah. It's good. It's okay, yeah. They're all a bit mean, aren't they?
21:05Andy Dawson:I'm only an episode in. Oh, well, okay. Enough of this red hot banter. During the 1850s and 1860s, engineers carried out a piecemeal raising of central Chicago to lift the city off its low-lying swampy ground. Good Lord. So they raised a load of buildings just so that they would get out of the marshes, but it's not related to the thing that you said. But very interesting. And also confusing because, you know, if you raise a city to the ground, that's the opposite of what we wanted you to do. Very good. Right. That's, for the moment, enough of your brilliant facts. If you'd like to send in more, just email whatyou'vegot to podcast.qr.com.
21:46We love receiving them. But now it's time to dish out some of our headline facts from over the years. if you go to patreon.com slash clubfish you can join clubfish where you can have ad-free episodes of this podcast you can have bonus stuff our fortnightly drop us a line audience feedback show and if you join at the top tier we will bestow on you in perpetuity one of our headline facts you will become custodian on one of these facts and we send you even a gorgeous certificate at proving your ownership to any doubters uh it's really fun check it out patreon.com slash clubfish
22:22Andy Dawson:let's dish out some of the facts now who should we start with okay i'll do one this fact is now under the custodianship of mary sanderlands and mary your fact is that after returning from the moon landing buzz aldrin worked at a car dealership where he failed to sell a single car i love this I also understand it. If you go, you're trying to buy a car and someone keeps saying, I was on the moon, you know, I'm not interested. I want to know about the... Do you reckon he would do that? Does it have air conditioning? Oh, I bet he would. Do you think? He strikes me as a very uncompromising guy. Also, I'd be terrified to buy a car from Buzz Aldrin.
22:56Okay. Well, he's scary. He's a very scary guy. He is pretty scary. Yeah. I can imagine just him being quite brisk in a sales situation.
23:03Andy Dawson:What I think is that he's about to close a sale and then Neil Armstrong gets in there first.
23:09James Harkin:oh if only he was at the dealership across the road that would be
23:13Andy Dawson:amazing cash pills ringing yeah michael collins just doing a test drive
23:20James Harkin:lovely yeah i've got a um he's written a couple of autobiographies buzz aldrin because he really he really struggled when he came back from the moon there was a lot of alcohol there was divorces all that sort of stuff check out this this is the blurb at the back of his autobiography on the 20th of july 1969 apollo 11 made its historic first landing on the moon two years later astronaut buzz aldrin was hospitalized for psychiatric treatment
23:40Andy Dawson:wow because of what he saw up there yes sent to the loony bin like lunar bin absolutely an old-fashioned phrase but what i think we're bringing back if it works as a pun it's not offensive i got it but it was like i think it came from the moon like because people thought What, that you went crazy when you saw the moon? As in lunatic, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right. No harm, no foul. I'd just like to apologize. Next full moon, your place is going to be full of complaints in person. Shall I do one now? Yeah. This one goes out to Wayne. Wayne, your fact is now that in the Middle Ages, the Catholic sect, the Cathars, were said to get their name from the fact they liked to kiss a cat's arse.
24:27This is the Cathars. I think this was your fact, James. Yeah, it sounds like me. They were heretics and the traditional church. I do like a sect. Yeah. Do you?
24:37Andy Dawson:Unnatural sects. I have sects appeal. Nice. Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No harm, no foul.
24:48James Harkin:Andy's lost an hour to dick pics and you've got sex.
24:52Andy Dawson:No, yeah, it was, what, Middle Ages? and they used to make up stories of what they did. Yes. And they said that they would kiss a cat's bum. And also Satan supposedly sometimes came as a cat. Right. And so it was like kissing Satan's bum. Ah, yes. Rick Mayle had a cat called Satan. Did he? Did he? Yeah. That's good. The cat Satan the mat. Satan the mat. Yeah. Satan. You pushed it too far. No, I think it's all good. I think.
25:23James Harkin:I really like it. Off the back of Looney Bin as well? Come on This is a man on fire I get it Let's do another one This goes out to Brad Downing And your fact is The British pop charts have had three Top 50 songs sung exclusively In Latin
25:41Andy Dawson:Wow I can't remember Gaudi Amos Three times over? I can't think of any Latin Maybe like Pia Yezu kind of thing Yeah I think they'll probably have been choral works Maybe it was Big at Christmas, for example. I feel like Lil Wayne did a song last year. Maybe it was... As in, it had it in the background that he rapped over it. Oh, that wouldn't count. Unless he's rapping in Latin. I don't know if it's a good language to rap in, like French, because there's so many similar rhymes at the end of words. French is terrific for rap. Which is why all the great rappers are French. There are some good French rappers.
26:16Andy Dawson:Absolutely. But I think Latin does have endings, doesn't it? Your verb endings. Any verb. if you end each sentence in a verb then they might rhyme
26:25James Harkin:well there's clearly a thirst for it so maybe that can be the fish single my latin's very weak
26:32Andy Dawson:Andy yours is not bad is it yeah I'm not conversational I'd say I could get by I could get by in ancient Rome no problem okay here is another one this fact is that the way to recognise the Buddha is to look out for webbed feet, a tongue which can reach his ears, and withdrawn genitalia. And look at you, Ethan Walker. This is now your fact. You know what? There's some things that you remember from these shows. And I remember listening to the edit of this show. And I remember where I was, I was skiing. And I was, for some reason, I had to listen to an edit that day. And I was on holiday. and so I was on the ski slopes and I remember listening to this specific moment.
27:21Andy Dawson:Wow. That's a lovely situational memory you've got there. I don't even remember which country it was. Yeah. But it would have been so cold you probably also would have had with John John Italia at the time.
27:33I've seen the Buddha's tooth in a temple. In Kandy. Sri Lanka. It's in Kandy where you would lose a tooth if you were. Very, very, very nice.
27:41James Harkin:So where's Kandy? It's in Sri Lanka. I was thinking of the joke so I missed the second bit of that. Doesn't matter. Yeah. Cool. And it's presumably not his tooth but claimed to be a relic.
27:54Andy Dawson:Well, I've seen his tooth in I think Singapore or somewhere else. He's got 32 of the things. And the baby teeth. 64? Come on. I'm amazed we haven't got one in this room with us now. Anyway, yes. Buddha. Good to know. Keep alert. This one goes out to Holly Flanagan. Holly, this fact is that the whoopee cushion was invented by a Roman emperor called Basianus. Also known as Basianus, also known as Elagabalus. Dan, this is one of, I'd say, this is the fact I've heard most from you over the years. It's your go-to. You love it.
28:29James Harkin:But it's because it was one that I'm pretty sure I found myself. You know, sometimes we find facts that are written by others. I was reading an entry on Elagabalus on Wikipedia, and I saw that his birth name was Basianus, of course, Basianus. I just couldn't believe that this guy attributed it with it. And I remember running into you, James. We were in the Covent Garden offices and going, can I say Basianus? What do you think? And you were like, yeah.
28:54Andy Dawson:But was this the first time we ever deliberately mispronounced something for Comic Effect? I think this is patience at all for that. It can't be. It could be. Really? All right.
29:03James Harkin:This one's from Michael Reeve, folks. And your fact is now the oldest known purse is decorated with dog's teeth. Oh, yeah. How many teeth do they have? Dogs Buckets Loads
29:19Andy Dawson:Canines All of them are canines There's the joke I do feel a very nice satisfaction Sometimes I feel like We might just make the same joke again That we made last time Ten years ago But I feel like sometimes We'll find our way to a new joke And I think James will have just done that there
29:33James Harkin:That's lovely to hear It's really nice It's like we're getting a second chance
29:38Andy Dawson:To live our entire life This is what Andy does as if he goes to a comedy show. He sits on the front row and someone does a joke and he goes, it's actually really nice to hear a joke like that on a day like today. Probably the structure of the joke is not something I've really heard before. I'm sorry for being an enthusiast. I'm trying to boost you guys up here. You could have just lulled. I never lull. I won't do it. You go straight to ruffle. I do. Okay. That fact was for Michael Reeve folks. This next fact now belongs to amy reeve folks any relation no relation i assume some relation we don't know it could be a coincidence yeah we've had some joint correspondence from michael and amy well i would like to know because who's got the best fact so michael your fact is about the oldest known purse being decorated with dog's teeth and amy reeve folks your fact is that according to a 2011 study 27 of britain's Neither love nor hate Marmite Great That's good Great fact I don't know which is my favourite though They're both classics Oh that is good Yeah I think Marmite I encounter Marmite more often than I encounter dog's teeth I very rarely have dog's teeth on toast every morning Let's have one last fact This one goes out to John Gallagher And it's that The Knights of the Round Table included Lancelot Galahad Gawain And Gareth Yeah Sir Gareth Gareth Bold Sir Gareth
31:09James Harkin:Again I was reading I was reading A book of the Knights Of the Round Table And when I saw that name I was like That was Gareth Yeah Who's this guy That no one ever talks about Do you remember anything He got up to I don't actually know 12 years go by And apparently Sir Gareth is nothing To you anymore I'm a bit blank On this entire episode I think I've just found I've looked in our archive He was King Arthur's nephew And he was maybe On one of Oh no he was on the main table But there were lesser tables Much like at a wedding That's what I was going to say Children's table That's my only memory is that there were other round tables and they were, you've got to get to the one with Lancelot.
31:42James Harkin:That's really funny. What are them doing on the one with Gareth? Ah, alright, well look, that's enough of our facts. Thank you so much to all of our new custodians of facts. Just to remind you, that's John, Amy, Michael, brackets no relation, Holly, Ethan, Brad, Wayne, and Mary. Thank you so much to all of you. Thank you to all of you for listening. If you'd like to submit a fact to us, it's podcast at qi.com. That's our email address and if you'd like to join clubfish to get ad-free episodes bonus content and so much more go to patreon.com forward slash clubfish thanks again for listening and we'll be back next week with another one of these and in a few days with the main episode of no such thing as a fish and um potentially in a couple of days with a drop us a line all right bye for now bye
32:32Andy Dawson:you let yourself down there i truly did
32:39Thank you.
From the publisher
Dan, James and Andy discuss YOUR facts, including antifreeze, leaning trees and FURBs. Andy reveals why he's not on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And we name eight more Friend of the Podcast fact custodians.
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