1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off

by John Lloyd

  was made of papier mâché.

  To ‘baffle’ someone

  once meant to subject them

  to public disgrace

  by hanging their picture

  upside down.

  Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

  is the only major composer

  to have mastered

  the bassoon.

  The Wars of the Roses

  weren’t called that.

  Sir Walter Scott invented the name

  four centuries after the conflict.

  A walleteer

  is an indispensable word

  for someone who has a wallet.

  Before becoming an artist,

  Magritte was a professional

  wallpaper designer.

  The playwright

  Tennessee Williams (1911–83)

  choked to death

  on a bottle cap.

  If the mass in a one-kilogram bag of sugar

  could be converted into energy,

  it would be enough to drive a car

  non-stop for 100,000 years.

  There were no recorded boxing matches

  anywhere in the world

  between the fall of the Roman Empire

  and 1681.

  Only three

  of the original 60 clauses

  of Magna Carta

  are still in force.

  The soldiers of Edward III

  dressed up as swans for banquets.

  The king himself came

  as a pheasant.

  The EU

  spends over a billion Euros a year

  on translation.

  A third of the 250 Americans

  who catch leprosy every year

  get it from

  armadillos.

  90% of the bullets

  bought by the Ministry of Defence

  are used for training purposes.

  The number of ten-year-olds

  in Britain who hold

  legal shotgun licences

  is 26.

  More than a third

  of the world’s smokers

  are Chinese.

  A lethal dose of caffeine

  is about 50 double espressos.

  Red Bull

  was originally called

  Red Water Buffalo.

  President Obama’s secret-service nickname

  is ‘Renegade’. Ronald Reagan’s nickname

  was ‘Rawhide’, Bill Clinton’s was ‘Eagle’

  and George W. Bush was known as

  ‘Trailblazer’.

  MI5 used to own special kettles

  that it kept specifically for

  steaming open envelopes.

  Sitting in a 15-minute meeting

  uses more energy

  than Usain Bolt expends

  over three 100-metre sprints.

  Almost any domestic cat

  can run faster than

  Usain Bolt.

  Over a distance of about a mile,

  a carrier pigeon

  is faster than a fax machine.

  Modern homing pigeons

  find it more convenient to

  follow motorways and ring roads

  and turn left and right at junctions

  rather than using their

  in-built navigational abilities.

  Brazil nuts are so radioactive

  that a pocketful will set off the alarm

  at a nuclear power station.

  The Oxford English Dictionary

  takes 9,000 words to describe

  the 45 different meanings

  of ‘at’.

  A male rhinoceros beetle

  can lift 850 times

  its own body weight.

  Alan Turing,

  the father of computer science,

  chained his mug to a radiator

  to stop anyone else at work from using it.

  The proud owner

  of the first silicone breast implant

  was a dog called Esmeralda.

  There are only

  two beret factories

  left in France.

  In 1367, King Charles V of France

  explicitly banned the wearing

  of shoes shaped like penises.

  In 2008, pet hamsters

  were banned in Vietnam.

  Monty Python’s Life of Brian

  was marketed in Sweden as

  ‘The film that’s so funny,

  it was banned in Norway.’

  The banning of the fez

  in Turkey in 1925

  led to riots, executions

  and a thriving fez-smuggling trade.

  The Turkish

  for ‘ski’ is

  kayak.

  Dalek

  is Croatian for

  ‘far-away thing’.

  Smegma

  is Latin for

  ‘detergent’.

  The Afrikaans

  for ‘astrology’ is

  sterrewiggelary.

  Theoretically the Pope can resign

  but, since he is the Supreme Pontiff,

  there is no one qualified

  to accept his resignation.

  Vatican City

  is the only place in the world

  where cash machines

  offer instructions in Latin.

  Since the Second World War,

  only 20 babies born in the UK

  have been called Adolf.

  The ‘G-spot’ was nearly called

  the Whipple Tickle –

  after Professor Beverley Whipple,

  who coined the expression

  that we know today.

  Cow’s hooves

  are used to make

  the foam in fire extinguishers.

  The first potatoes

  introduced to Britain

  were used to make desserts.

  In 1976,

  one person in the USA

  was killed by an outbreak of swine flu,

  but the vaccine introduced to combat it

  killed 25.

  There are 1,000 times

  as many bacteria

  in your gut

  as there are stars

  in the Milky Way.

  Bacteria

  are about as different

  from viruses as

  metronomes are

  from giraffes.

  Most antibiotics

  are made from bacteria.

  Bacteria

  can get viruses.

  Viruses can get viruses.

  A new one recently discovered

  in a French cooling tower

  was found to be infected

  by another, smaller one.

  Scallops

  have up to 100 eyes.

  The praying mantis

  has only one ear,

  which is located

  between its legs.

  Until the 19th century

  the English word

  for actors was

  ‘hypocrites’.

  The Japanese

  for ‘handbag’ is

  handubagu.

  In 1947, the Duke of Windsor

  bought the Duchess of Windsor

  a black patent leather

  Hermès wheelbarrow.

  In 1915, the lock millionaire Cecil Chubb

  bought his wife Stonehenge.

  She didn’t like it,

  so in 1918 he gave it to the nation.

  Since 1815, Belgium has paid

  the Duke of Wellington’s family

  more than $46 million

  as a reward for winning

  the battle of Waterloo.

  The First World War

  officially ended on

  3rd October 2010.

  Wars kill more civilians

  than soldiers: in a war,

  the safest place to be

  is usually in the army.

  The world’s worst ma
ritime disaster

  was the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff

  by a Soviet submarine in 1945,

  with the loss of 9,343 lives.

  35 years after leaving school,

  the majority of people

  can still identify

  90% of their classmates.

  The speed of the wind

  has fallen

  by 60%

  in the last

  30 years.

  Half of all the species

  in the world live in

  the rainforest canopy.

  The human brain

  is more complex

  than an exploding star

  or the US economy.

  Every day,

  plants convert

  sunlight into energy

  equivalent to six times

  the entire power consumption of

  human civilisation.

  For a million years,

  the human population of the Earth

  was less than 26,000.

  The last two speakers

  of the Mexican language Zoque

  are both in their seventies

  and refuse to speak to one another.

  More than one in five Americans

  believes that the world will

  end in their lifetime.

  Thomas Edison’s last breath

  is held in a vial

  at the Henry Ford museum in Detroit.

  99% of all the species

  that have ever lived

  are now extinct.

  Tasting Notes

  Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact.

  T. H. HUXLEY (1825–1895)

  This book is rather like a whisky still – an immense amount of malted barley, water and smoke have gone in at the top to produce the slow drip of concentrated liquor at the bottom. Feeding that still, alongside the three of us, have been the matchless team of QI Elves led by Bo’sun Justin Pollard and Piers ‘Flash’ Fletcher. Andrew Murray, Anne Miller and Alex Bell have done most of the heavy lifting. Will Bowen, Molly Oldfield, Chris Gray, Rob Blake, Jenny Doughty and Liz Townsend pitched in at key points and Sarah Lloyd’s careful management made sure we ended up with cask-strength single malt and not a cheap supermarket blend.

  Once again the Faber team of Stephen Page, Julian Loose, Eleanor Crow, Paula Turner and Dave Watkins proved they are the best in the business.

  Now its over to you. The sources for each fact can be found online at www.qi.com/1227. Please do let us know if you have a quibble or a correction. And add your own discoveries via our Twitter account @qikipedia. As Mark Twain once reminded us:

  Get your facts first, and then

  you can distort them

  as much as you please.

  Index

  This is here to help you find your favourite bits. Like the facts themselves, we’ve kept it as simple as we can. The rule is: each entry has only one word.

  If you can’t find ‘polar bears’ try ‘bears’; for ‘Adam’s apple’ try ‘apple’ or ‘Adam’s’ and so on. Capital letters at the start of an entry indicate a proper noun or name – ‘bugs’ are insects and ‘Bugs’ is the Bunny.

  007 1; 3-D 2; 7-Up 3

  Abercrombie 1;

  Aborigine 1;

  abortion 1;

  accidents 1, 2, 3, 4;

  accountants 1;

  acrobat 1;

  actors 1, 2;

  Adams 1, 2, 3;

  adoptions 1;

  adrenaline 1;

  adultery 1;

  advertising 1, 2;

  Aerosmith 1;

  Afghanistan 1, 2;

  aid 1;

  airports 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  Albania 1, 2;

  Albanian 1, 2;

  alcohol 1;

  Aldrin 1;

  Alexanders 1, 2;

  aliens 1;

  Alka-Seltzer 1;

  allergies 1;

  amoebas 1;

  anaesthetics 1;

  angina 1;

  Anglo-Saxon 1;

  Annes 1;

  anorexia 1;

  anteaters 1;

  antelopes 1, 2;

  anthems 1, 2, 3;

  anthropologists 1;

  Antigua 1;

  ants 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  anuses 1, 2;

  apartments 1;

  apes 1, 2;

  aphids 1;

  Apollo 1, 2;

  apples 1, 2;

  Apple 1, 2;

  Arabic 1, 2;

  archbishops 1, 2;

  Archimedes 1;

  armadillos 1;

  arsehole 1;

  arses 1, 2, 3;

  arthritis 1, 2;

  Arthurs 1, 2;

  aspirin 1;

  asteroids 1, 2;

  asthma 1;

  astrology 1;

  astronauts 1, 2;

  atoms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  Aurora 1;

  Austrian 1, 2;

  awning 1;

  Aztecs 1

  babies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 13, 14;

  baboons 1;

  Bach 1;

  bacon 1;

  bacteria 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  badgers 1, 2, 3;

  baking 1;

  balloons 1;

  bananas 1, 2;

  bands 1;

  Bang 1;

  banging 1, 2;

  Bangladesh 1;

  banks 1, 2, 3;

  bans 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  barley 1;

  barn 1;

  barnacle 1;

  Barnacle 1;

  baseball 1;

  basketball 1;

  bassoon 1;

  bastards 1, 2;

  bats 1, 2;

  baths 1;

  bathwater 1;

  battles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  BBC 1, 2;

  beans 1, 2;

  beards 1, 2;

  bears 1, 2, 3, 4;

  beavers 1;

  beds 1, 2, 3;

  beefsteaks 1;

  beekeeping 1, 2;

  beer 1, 2, 3;

  bees 1, 2, 3, 4;

  Beethoven 1, 2;

  beetles 1, 2, 3, 4;

  behind 1, 2, 3, 4;

  beliefs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;

  Bens 1, 2;

  bends 1;

  berets 1;

  Bethlehem 1;

  Beyoncé 1;

  Bible 1, 2, 3 4, 5;

  bicycles 1, 2, 3, 4;

  billionaires 1;

  biofuel 1;

  Bills 1, 2, 3, 4;

  biologists 1;

  birds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 7, 8, 9;

  Birds 1;

  birdseed 1;

  birthdays 1, 2;

  biscuits 1;

  bishops 1, 2, 3;

  bison 1, 2;

  blackberries 1;

  blackboard 1;

  blackcurrants 1;

  bleating 1;

  blinking 1;

  Blitz 1;

  blood 1, 2;

  blue 1, 2, 3, 4;

  boa 1;

  boar 1;

  boats 1, 2;

  Boatswain 1;

  Boeing 1, 2, 3;

  Bog 1;

  Bolt 1, 2;

  bombing 1;

  bombs 1, 2;

  bonobos 1;

  bookseller 1;

  Boring 1;

  bottoms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;

  botulism 1, 2;

  Bovril 1;

  boxes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  boxing 1, 2;

  Braille 1;

  brains 1, 2, 3;

  bran 1;

  breakfast 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  breast 1;

  breath 1, 2, 3;

  Bricklehampton 1;

  Brimaquonx 1;

  Britain 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21;

  British 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20;
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  broadcasting 1;

  Broadmoor 1;

  broccoli 1;

  Broccoli 1;

  brushes 1, 2, 3;

  bubblewrap 1;

  Budding 1;

  buds 1, 2;

  bugs 1;

  Bugs 1;

  bulbs 1, 2;

  bullets 1, 2, 3, 4;

  bulls 1;

  Bulls 1, 2;

  Burberry 1;

  burglars 1;

  butter 1, 2, 3, 4;

  butterflies 1;

  buttocks 1;

  buzz 1;

  Buzz 1;

  buzzing 1

  Caesarean 1;

  cabbage 1;

  caffeine 1, 2, 3;

  cake 1;

  cages 1;

  Cambridge 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;

  camels 1, 2, 3;

  canal 1;

  canaries 1;

  candles 1, 2, 3;

  candyfloss 1;

  cannabis 1;

  cannibal 1;

  canning 1;

  carbon 1, 2;

  cardboard 1;

  cards 1, 2, 3;

  Cardiff 1;

  carriers 1;