Tipping Point again:

What boy's name do you get when you put the chemical symbols Beryllium and Nitrogen together?

This woman answers with Bryan!

Knowing that Nitrogen is a single letter, "N", whatever the spelling "BRYA" doesn't fit as you don't get 4 letter chemical elements, only 1, 2, or 3 letters.

But that's hardly the most stupid answer ever, is it?

At least I can see why she said it, and you may as well say something rather than nothing.

THe Chaser - Which royal house ruled in the 19th century (Hanover of course)
Contestant answer > Buckingham

She said Buckingham Palace.

Correct - not a lot of people know that.

Tipping Point today:

Hydrocarbons are made up of Carbon and which other element of the periodic table?

"Carbon Dioxide"

Yes,I saw that one myself today and considered putting it on here. Obviously Carbon Dioxide isn't an element. And there is a big clue in the question - "Hydro".

But you must remember that a lot of people know next to nothing about chemistry,even school level stuff,and will just say the first vaguely chemistry related thing that comes into their head that might be right.

So on balance I'm disallowing that one.

Maurice Micklewhite,another pub quiz standard question. Actually that ties in rather nicely with Harold MacMillan as I mentioned earlier.

I get really irritated at contestants in quiz shows that pull stupid faces and grimace when they think a hard question's come at them, and it's as if they think why the Hell they should be expected to know anything about things maybe twenty or thirty years ago. It's a quiz show, for f#ck's sake, it's you that's applied to be on it! I really despair at the standard of general knowledge amongst people these days. I'm not expecting Stephen Hawkings or Albert Einstein, but I expect folk to know what the capital of France is or who was our Prime Minister during WW2 for Heaven's sake.

Is it true when asked how many sides does a square have? Joey Essex answered 6!

Probably. He thought the country that bordered Wales was London.

"Oh, before my time, that one...."

Hate this one too. Just one example could be name any play by Shakespeare.

He is just a tad before any living person's time.


It would appear that he says rehearsed "stupid" lines. Maybe that was one of them.

He said that, I doubt he thought it though. He makes his money through playing a character who is stupid

I don't think he has to try hard.

I was in a charity quiz once and they had some trick questions. One of them was Who wrote Beethoven's Fifth symphony and the answer given was Paul McCartney. Someone also thought J. K. Rowling wrote Hamlet. Compared to that most of the people on TV quizzes appear to be quite bright.

Today on Tipping Point...

".cu is the internet domain suffix for which Caribbean Island?"
"Jamaica"

Crikey...

Whilst a silly answer, it's not an easy question unless you accept a general 'South America' as the answer.

One of my favourite trick questions that isn't a trick is:

"What was the name of the ship in the film Mutiny on the Bounty?"

It's surprising how many people will not know,suspect a trick,or say something like,"I don't know,I've never seen it."

Or try asking people quickly,"What's half of 99?"

You'll get all sorts of answers: 45 1/2 and 47 1/2 are common.

Not many will get 49 1/2 quickly.

To be fair when you think of Carribbean island you don't really think of Cuba. You think Jamaica or Barbados.

On The Chase tonight. What 1985 TV series was a spinoff of Dynasty? The Green Green Grass.

OMG I never missed that on a Sunday. Loved it. Favourite was always "Which country drives on the left?".

I'm from Liverpool originally, and Loved HYP. It was required listening every Sunday lunchtime!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7APmG5qN5A

Interesting thread with some quite funny posts. However I suspect some of the posters are like CJ who has huge gaps in his knowledge but rolls his eyes when a contestant doesn't know or gives the wrong answer.

There are loads of reasons why people don't know the answers or give the wrong one, particularly under pressure. The only thing that really annoys me is when people say they are making an 'educated' guess and then give a totally stupid answer. I wouldn't have called it stupid if they hadn't said it was an educated guess!

The person who gave the answer 12 for the question about the farthing was probably thinking of 12 pennies in a shilling.