QI | QI vs The Unbelievable Truth

The rivalry continues!

This clip is from QI Series K, Episode 1, 'Knees and Knockers' with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, David Mitchell, Sara Pascoe and Jack Whitehall.

[DizzNutt]

David tries his best to remain neutral, explains the rivalry between shows, and gives his answer in the most passive way possible. Only to be met with the fact that not only do they not know the real answer for sure, but the only thing they do know for sure is that David is wrong. David puts on smile, but we all know what he is thinking. " *This means war!* "

[menachemsalomon]

Now _this_ calls for a compilation. In fact, a *coordinated* compilation between QI and The Unbelievable Truth, with both the original factoid on one show and the mockery (to use David's term) on the other.

[Ngamotu]

Once again David Mitchell found himself in a war against the QI elves.

[zyggy]

I always enjoy watching David pre-cringe at the klaxons

[patrickthornton]

Of course, now we know the simple truth that the monkey wrench was in fact named by a time-travelling Foo Fighters fan, who named it after his favourite song.

[MerlinZener]

let's see [hear] Stephen as a guest on TUT!

[Simon-Zephyr]

This has to be the best channel on Youtube? Surely

[Tryo]

Some executive needs to allow David to take The Unbelievable Truth and run it on television. He is quite capable of hosting his own show.

[ferrumignis]

The tool the Steven was showing is known in the UK as a "Pipe wrench" or "Stilsons" (which is a brand name, turned into a noun like 'Hoover') and has serrated teeth to bite into the object being turned. These tools grip the fastener more tightly the more force you apply.


A "Monkey wrench" has smooth jaws for turning hexagonal or square fasteners, and is much more like the modern "adjustable spanner" except the jaws are at right angles to the handle rather than almost parallel. These do not increase the grip on the fastener with increasing torque, so are very good at rounding the corners off nuts and bolt heads.

[Klostream]

Admirable of David, knowing it was a booby trap, to set it off anyway in the most genial way possible.

[Edie]

I believe the monkey in the navy was the brass tray invented to hold the cannon balls so they wouldn’t roll all over the deck. Unfortunately during colder temperatures, the cannon balls would not fit into the circular openings for holding the balls thus giving us the expression, “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey”.

[courtneyacoleman]

I only relatively recently discovered The Unbelievable Truth here is the U.S. and really love it.

[kevinbennett]

How many of you watch to the end until Sandi tells you to pick something?

[ckb]

the unbelieveable truth is the best radio 4 comedies listening showes.. .

[joaoleandro]

In Portugal we call it the "Chave Inglesa", it means "English Wrench".

[SusiBiker]

Quote from my engineer father - "It's a wrench that any monkey can use to undo a nut." A more-likely etymology I reckon. (For the uninitiated, a 'monkey' is someone not trained as a mechanic...)

[jb]

'sfunny, I thought it was named after its inventor, Charles Wrench.

[latewizard]

I always thought it came from the slang for mechanic, which is monkey.

[phodaOG]

in croatia its called french wrench, but we dont use word wrench but key so french key

[ernestbywater]

Decades ago I read an article on where odd terms came from and they had the term Monkey Wrench having been derived from a very old term for a helper in some forms of work. It then went on to quote positions like a powder monkey who was the helper who took the gunpowder from a naval ship's powder magazine to the guns.