The panel consists of four participants: three rotating and one regular, Alan Davies, who has the seat to Stephen Fry's immediate right. Davies has appeared in every episode, except for one that was themed on "Divination": he was present at the beginning, but he "teleported" away during the buzzer demonstration...his buzzer that episode was the sound of the TARDIS from
Doctor Who. He was at a football match instead but was still able to play as communicated "from beyond." He has only won 13 times (including two tied victories) as he generally offers up most of the "obvious but wrong" answers. However, as of episode 16 of the 'G' series, this is the highest number of victories, ahead of Rich Hall's nine (Hall and Davies tied for first place in the Series G episode "Gravity"). Davies has, by contrast, finished in last place 54 times and also holds the record for the lowest score on the show: -144, gained after losing 150 points for guessing that Gandhi's first name was Randy (ironically he would have won with 6 points.) The show's other panellists mainly come from a stand-up comedy or comedy writing/performing background, although there have also been guests from other fields, including Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Clarkson, Gyles Brandreth, Roger McGough, David Tennant and Emma Thompson.
Questions are sometimes misleading or very difficult. Providing an "obvious but wrong" answer results in a sequence of klaxons and flashing lights, and a theatrical cry of despair from Stephen Fry. In the first and second series, Fry produced the given answer on a card to show the panellists, while it also flashed on the large screens behind them (except in the pilot episode and the first show of the first series, when only the cards were used). In the third series and onward, Fry's answer cards were dispensed with altogether, leaving only the screens as proof that such answers had been predicted.
Because of the show's expectation that hardly anyone would be able to give a correct answer without significant prompting, it instead encourages sheer interestingness, which is how points are mainly scored. As such, tangential discussions are encouraged, and panellists are apt to branch off into frivolous conversations, give voice to train of thought, and share humorous anecdotes from their own lives. The number of points given and taken away are normally decided by Fry or beforehand by the
QI's researchers known as "The
QI Elves", especially if the points given or taken are very large. For example, one episode asked, "What is the main ingredient of air?" The correct answer is "nitrogen". The incorrect answer "carbon dioxide", which none of the panellists offered, would have resulted in a deduction of 3,000 points (CO2 is a trace gas being only 0.038% of the atmosphere). However, Davies was deducted 10 points for suggesting "oxygen". Fry once said (in Episode ten of the first series):
Now, the rules are simple. Scoring is my business. Points are given and points are taken away. They are taken away for answers which are both obvious and wrong, and they're given not so much for being correct, as for being interesting. Their level of interestingness is impartially determined by a demographically-selected customer service focus consultancy, broken down by age and sex — i.e. me. Erm ... because there is no-one more broken down by age and sex than me.
The only point at which scores are given is at the conclusion of the show. Negative scores are common, and occasionally the victor is the panellist with the least of them.
John Lloyd,
QI's creator, has admitted that not even he has any idea how the scoring system works, but there is someone who is paid to check on the scores. Guests are allowed the right of appeal if they believe their score is wrong, but none has so far exercised that right.
Buzzers
Each panellist has a buzzer, with the sounds of all four often being based on a theme. They are demonstrated at the beginning of the programme, but are sometimes changed in some way for repeated use. Davies' buzzer usually subverts the theme established by the preceding three. Notable comical twists include in the ninth episode of series B (Bats) when all the first 3 buzzers were bells, then Alan's buzzer turned out to be a male voice saying "Well hello! Ding dong!" It was revealed last in every episode except for the unbroadcast pilot, in which he went first and Eddie Izzard was fourth. In episode 5 of Series A, rather than a comical buzzer, Davies set off the forfeit alarm, meaning he started the show on -10 points before a question was asked (it was later changed to the sound of a duck quacking.). This was done again in episode 1 of Series H.
Apart from the pilot, where the panellists used various objects to draw attention to themselves, two episodes have not used a buzzer system: the series D episode "Denial & Deprivation", where as part of the theme the entire usual set had been dispensed with and the panellists instead used assorted objects, and the series G episode "Green", where the buzzers were switched off to 'reduce the show's carbon footprint' and replaced with a set of whistles.
Sometimes questions are based on the buzzers themselves, usually Davies's. For example, one of his buzzer noises the Series D episode "Descendents" sounded like a clanger and the panel had to try and guess what was being said (the answer being: "Oh sod it, the bloody thing's stuck again.") In the Series F episode "Fakes and Frauds", all the buzzers sounded like ordinary household objects, but then turned out to be the sound of the Superb Lyrebird mimicking the noises. Davies however, was again an exception. His buzzer, which sounded like a telephone, really was a telephone and not a lyrebird mimicking one.
General Ignorance
In a parody of ubiquitous general knowledge quizzes, the final round is off-topic and called "General Ignorance", focusing upon seemingly easy questions which have
obvious but wrong answers. Whereas in the main rounds of the show, the panellists' use of buzzers is not usually enforced, the "General Ignorance" questions are introduced by Fry's reminder to keep "fingers on buzzers".
Due to the large number of "obvious but wrong" answers, panellists, especially Davies, usually incur the greatest point losses in this round. In the second series' Christmas episode, Davies stated his refusal to participate in General Ignorance, saying that he "will
not be humiliated at Christmas". In response, Fry offered to switch places with him, to the delight of the audience. Despite the seeming spontaneity of the swap, it was undoubtedly planned (at least on the part of Davies and the producers), as evidenced by the fact that Davies, in turn, produced his own set of questions on loose-leaf paper (most of which he directed at Fry), and also by the photographs and obvious-answer graphics which accompanied Davies' questions. At the end of the show, Fry announced that the game's loser was, in fact, Fry himself, as a result of his falling into many of Davies' traps.
In the 7th episode of series G, on 'Greats' Fry asked the question 'How many men have been President of the United States' and showed a clip of US President Barack Obama declaring himself the 44th person to have taken the oath. This is incorrect since Grover Cleveland was elected to two non-consecutive terms, meaning only 43 people have taken the oath. Obama was then said to have come in fourth with -10 points.
Extra tasks
In some episodes, the panellists are given an extra task to complete during the course of the game. Those who do the best are often awarded extra points. Past tasks have included drawing contests (in which John Sessions has shown a particular talent); or looking for a specific hidden thing over the course of the show, such as a squirrel or a cuttlefish. In series "B" panellists were given a card covered with magnetic letters with which to create words over the course of one show. Jimmy Carr successfully used all of his letters to create, "Put Smarties tubes on cats legs, make them walk like a robot." In the fifth series, Series "E", all the episodes have the same extra task — "The Elephant in the Room". In each episode, at least one of the answers is related to elephants, the panellists being required to wave an elephant on a stick when they believe it is the appropriate moment. Extra points may also be dependent upon the topic of the episode - for instance during the "France" episode of Series "F", panelists were informed that they would receive extra points for any answers given in French, though none did.