Skip to main content

'University Challenged 2016/17: Volume Thirteen (07.11.16)


While much of the hype online (and on Twitter particularly) was regarding the sudden death neck-and-neck end to tonight’s episode of University Challenge, I was far more struck by the return of Team Edinburgh; particularly its male contingent.

As I said in my final tweet tonight, they looked like they could have a sideline as a prog rock band, particularly with Boyle’s striking resemblance to the well-known blues and soul bass player Duck Dunn. No self-respecting adult in 2016 should have his or Dale’s facial hair. This game show is just about the only place these sort of people turn up.

See below for my Twitter ramblings about University Challenge tonight; they’re not big, nor are they clever.

Open University Vs. Edinburgh (07.11.16)

8:01pm: Jeremy Paxman sees every episode of #UniversityChallenge as a contractual obligation.

8:02pm: "Hi, I'm Rob Mitchell, and I have fifteen corpses in my garage."

8:02pm: All the men in Edinburgh: for fuck's sake.

8:03pm: Dale and Boyle's facial hair is interchangeable. You can remove it from their faces and stick it on Smith.

8:04pm: Edinburgh's Smith looks like one of The Proclaimers crossed with Sting.

8:05pm: Jeremy Paxman: a barrel of laughs.

8:07pm: Every member of the Open University: "Their joints creak".

8:09pm: I'd like to cast Edinburgh's Boyle as the male lead in the musical Hair.

8:11pm: Dress Dale in a black turtleneck & put him in a 1950s coffee shop / in a band on John Thomson's Jazz Club. "Great".

8:20pm: "Benjamin Britten (cough) BENJAMIN BRITTEN" "Benjamin Britten (cough) BENJAMIN BRITTEN" Repeat til fade.

8:21pm: Dale, Smith, Benjamin. Gimps.

8:22pm: "Gamma, gamma, gamma, gamma, gamma chameleon."

8:23pm: Let's crowdfund some eyebrows for Crawford.

8:26pm: Boyle.



8:27pm: "Open Mitchell." Roger Tilling masquerading as a surgeon in an operating theatre.

8:29pm: In their spare time, Edinburgh play prog.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...
Read more

'...I'm Gonna Look at You 'til My Eyes Go Blind."

Over the past week or two, I’ve been on a bit of a Sheryl Crow kick, largely thanks to rediscovering her cover of one of my most-liked Bob Dylan songs. She has one of my favourite female voices, yet despite this, I only own one CD and that’s just a single (her '97 release ‘Hard to Make a Stand’); on that basis, you can only imagine how much of her back catalogue I’d own if I hated her (it would fall into minus-figures). Dylan, conversely, takes up more of my collection than anyone else, save The Beatles and Paul McCartney’s solo work. He’s one of those artists who, when you get him, you really get him - and once I’d tuned into his style as a student, I'd time and again be blown away by his lyrics; he’ll have more jaw-dropping imagery in one track than other people fit in a whole career. These days, I mostly listen to music in the morning when getting ready, and more often than not, this will consist of a suggested YouTube playlist when I’m in the bath, r...
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...
Read more