No Such Thing As A Fish No Such Thing As Hans Gruber's Silent Night
Dec 24, 2020
They unpack the weird world of Christmas crackers, from groan-worthy jokes and Victorian marketing to giant theatre props. They trace nativity scene history, thefts and even knuckle-duster defenses. Carol singing controversies and survey-backed hostility get a spotlight. They explore the origins of Silent Night, Grinch makeup nightmares and what makes certain films feel like Christmas.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Dan Briefly Held A Cracker Pulling Record
- Dan Schreiber briefly held a Guinness World Record for pulling Christmas crackers in a minute during a QI rehearsal.
- Alan Davies beat his record a few hours later after being given an extra box, turning it into a comic rivalry.
How A Computer Ligature Broke A Cracker Joke
- A printing/computer encoding quirk turned 'coffin medicine' into the baffling 'con medicine' in many crackers.
- Matt Parker explained FFI ligature issues cause the FFI sequence to be dropped, producing the faulty joke.
Victorian Crackers Came With Themed Contents
- Tom Smith's cracker company produced themed crackers across history, including wartime and suffragette-themed sets.
- Early crackers sometimes contained items like wedding rings for 'spinsters' and even celebrated contemporary wars.