Sex is lovely, vaginas and penises themselves are pretty rancid. I just tend to think of the theme music from The Good Life while making love instead. Much lovelier.
I love how as soon Stephen Fry said libraries the camera cuts to a picture of some books. Was there really someone in the editing room thinking "Oh fuck what if the BBC 2 audience doesn't know what a library is We better find a picture of some books"
How great it is when Fry is spontaneously asked what he would put in his "Room Lovely" - he even makes it look like he's really thinking trying to come up with some examples - and when he happens to mention the Mac computer they at once have one on their screen in the studio - non-scripted spontaneity at its best :D
I love that when Stephen says "libraries", the BBC felt it necessary to show a picture of some shelves with books on. For the benefit of their younger viewers no doubt.
The part where they discuss speech particularly 'you can't turn round to me....' almost made me spit a mouthful of beer at my computer. I could not agree more.
Gosh... he actually put his own show in the bins... How cool is Paul Merton? And Stephen Fry is just awesome. He's one of those people I'd love to sit and have a conversation with. Someone genuinely intelligent.
Fair play to Stephen Fry- he criticised negative, snarky TV that focuses on the things we hate in the world, then he put his money where his mouth is and made QI- the polar opposite. Got to give him credit for that.
+samwiseshanti Yes, but like all people who espouse the idea of indiscriminate niceness, he inevitably had to achieve it via projecting hatred towards something else (PCs, Windows). Nobody is universally nice.
No, because this isn't the last episode. Ian Hislop was the last guest of this format of Room 101. He's the only person to ever do the show twice. That had a proper send off. It's on youtube if you have a look.
Yet it would be very easy to argue against his choices as well. 1. Movie critics play a vital role in dissecting the art that is most pervasive in our current day and age. By dissecting it, we can glimpse what is possible or rather what could be possible, as well as analyzing long standing issues with media. Disassembling sexist or homophobic tropes can only be done by vigorously and sometimes too harshly looking at entertainment. It is - or at least can be - done for the improvement of media as a whole, which is a valid goal. 2. Art is subjective and policing other people's tastes is already a step towars authoritarianism. Noone harms others by owning, purchasing or producing shallow pieces of art. While one could argue that cheaply written novels would influence people toward unrealistic views of the world that can be harmful, a painted plate alone has no such power, so there is no benefit in taking away things from those that have a different taste. 3. A symbol itself does not constitute harmful cultural appropriation and a belief in extra-scientific approaches is not inherently evil either. The dream catcher as an example falls particularly flat, given that with dreams an important part of it is psychological, so believing in a magical item that keeps away bad dreams might very well put you at ease enough to actually take care of said dreams. Additionally, adopting a belief held by a culture that was ravaged by people of one's own culture at least gives the culture some space to stay alive. Having a dream catcher because it "looks cool", would fulfill the criteria for cultural appropriation, it disregards the origin and thus trivializes the culture. Giving something outside one's culture the benefit of the doubt is a positive trait. It's the opposite of "they do x, so we are in our right to commit genocide". Also, why are we so lenient with home grown anti-scientific ridiculousness but fail to show that leniency when it comes to foreign things? Wouldn't prayers more firmly belong into "Room 101", given how they are much more pervasive and harmful in modern Britain? 4. This one is easy. Language changes and evolves. We laugh at those in history who tried to stop language from changing, because they look like utter fools, very much like humans of the future will look back at those of us who fight tooth and nails to keep everything the same, to conserve everything. Being conservative (lower case, mind you), is what makes humanity suffer. It is what makes LGBTQIA+ people suffer, it is what makes people of colour suffer, it is what makes women suffer and it is what makes everyone suffer who has even a shred of creativity or abilitiy to think freely. Traditions - of language, societal roles, etc. - need to be questions. Do they need to be questioned at every single step on every single topic? Certainly not, but standing in the way of progress just because it hurts one's sense of familiarity will be the wrong thing to do 99 times out of 100. 5. Evolutionarily speaking, the dislike for something is the strongest uniting force and it always has been. It made sense in the day of nomadic clans of humans or pre-humans, and while we want to get rid of it rather desperately, the fact that it's hard coded into our brains makes it hard to shake. There are different approaches to hate, though, which are crucially divergent from one another. Hatred because of deeply rooted beliefs will make us hate other humans. Hatred because of something which is exactly as arbitrary but more easily seen as arbitrary will make us groan, roll our eyes and hate other humans - for 3 seconds, before we move on. Coming together to hate the fans of the opposing sports team (in a non-hooligan kind of way, of course) for two hours will bring the most unlikely people together in their artificial hatred. This unity can last, yet outside of match day, the sane people will still happily mix with the opposing fans and might unite for different causes. Hating banal things together makes us feel connected. Noone will start hating a person collecting painted plates because of this show, but our collective hatred of said plates can give us a sense of having something in common. The truth of the world is that for every two people on this planet, they will easily find dozens of things they have in common, and focusing on that common hatred for small things might make us less prone to hate people for who they are. Because they hate astrology as much as we do.
He actually says "people would SAY things like" which makes sense as the words which follow are an example. He is not replacing 'say' or 'said' with 'like'.
1:36 - The explanation I've heard for using "like" instead of "said" is that it implies that what is reported is an *approximation* of what was actually said. i.e. "He said something *like* this, but those weren't his exact words."
Hid did quite a anti-Windows rant on the QI Vodcast for episode 5 (Europe). If you find it on UA-cam it starts around 2 minutes into the video. He also owns enough IPods, IPads and IPhones to open a small store. Stephen claims to have bought the third Mac in the UK (that would have been back in 1984!). The first two went to his friend Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
How could you have not known that already, he is at the launch of pretty much every new iPad and iPhone and has allways said about how much he likes apple products.
LOL I remember when I was watching Neighbours when I was a kid and someone quite clearly said that someone else had "had a strike". I asked my mum what a strike was, and she said that it was in fact a "stroke". Totally that "Oi noi" syndrome Stephen mentioned here!
my friend's mum once started talking to us about the word 'like' and how it is overused in conversation and it always make me thing about the word after I've used it.
@Craxblorg Probably not really a case of him 'letting' it go out on that channel, more that they were just the easiest route towards getting it made. To be honest, Pixar also say that they don't really think about the audience that much. When I saw Toy Story 3, there was barely any children there either! And we went on the weekend after it opened, so the place was packed! Maybe I'm just lucky.
@TalesOfWar Pixar are regarded as more the exception than the rule though. At least as far as most mass audience cinema is concerned. I was referring more to TV though in my point about US industrialisation. (It's also debatable as to whether Pixar have never made a film pitched by an outsider. Brad Bird was originally going to make The Incredibles with Warner Bros. But I don't know if he told Pixar about the idea before or after he accepted their offer to work there.)
I ADORE Stephen Fry!!!...but I wish I knew who Kathy Berk was though. Could someone tell me? I don't quite know who Jamie and Sonya is either, but I believe Fry said domething about EastEnders, so I take they are from there.
@Soundfrequency I think he appreciates the attention given to its design. You must admit that overall, Macs are prettier than PCs, OS and casing, whether or not you like to use them.
@Craxblorg Ren & Stimpy isn't a children's cartoon and they haven't made any new episodes for about 15 years! But at least you still have children's TV in the US. There's barely any in Britain now. Both the BBC and ITV have scaled their output back massively. A couple of good shows survive though.
@33six The problem with Microsoft and Windows is it's still largely in the same mind set it has been for the last 20 years. It's a case of "it'll do". WIndows 7 and WIndows Phone 7 are a nice step in the right direction, but on the desktop we're still stuck with a lot of different UI elements and designs dating back over several versions of Windows which have yet to be updated to be consistent with the newer look. Their other software also isn't consistent in UI and so on.
@Nerfi Phineas and Ferb is a pretty good show. And Little Einsteins, for the younger crowd. Interesting for the kids, and not so mind numbing as to force parents to leave the room.
@Craxblorg Getting back to the US/UK comparison, I will say that I think we have the better set-up with regards to TV and film being less industrialised over here. Most shows aren't controlled by the stations, they don't have 'seasons' - even Doctor Who is allowed to have a year off if it wants - and they don't generally have 'teams' of writers, directors and producers like yours have. There are still content-supervising busybodies of course, but nothing's perfect.
What a fantastic show. I would love to have a version of this made here in the U.S. Somehow I envision Dennis Miller being the host of it. And the guest on the first episode should be Lewis Black, to show everyone how it's done. XD
@lewisner I'm talking about the current state of TV. If you think My Family is all we have left, then you're wrong. Admittedly, most good comedy on British TV now is in the form of panel shows, chat shows and stand-up - which are so popular now because we live in the age of reality TV, but that's another discussion - so perhaps Americans are currently doing better at sitcoms. But there's still Lead Balloon, Peep Show, Not Going Out, Miranda and more recently Roger & Val and Grandma's House.
He's so right about Kathy Burke, and only someone as wonderful as Stephen Fry would see how wonderful someone as wonderful as Kathy Burke actually is.
More room lovely please… sunny autumn days… comfortable socks… peace and quiet.
+MrBarrytone i cant imagine a more British tv show than that haha
Sex is lovely, vaginas and penises themselves are pretty rancid. I just tend to think of the theme music from The Good Life while making love instead. Much lovelier.
porn
putting room 101 in room 101 is the best ever choice. lol
Stephen just articulated everything I adore about libraries far more eloquently that I ever could. Love him!!
some of us are no longer free to go into them though sadly
You have to love the way Stephen Fry shows his appreciation every time Merton say's something clever. Such a genuinely nice, brilliant man.
Thank you so much! I'm from the U.S., and EastEnders isn't even on BBC America here, so I had no clue who these people were. :)
Man, if Stephen Fry ever called me a role model I would die happy. Kathy Burke must be so proud, and quite right too, I love them both :)
Just did a 30 minute workout to this, now I feel stronger and brainier. ;)
I love how as soon Stephen Fry said libraries the camera cuts to a picture of some books. Was there really someone in the editing room thinking "Oh fuck what if the BBC 2 audience doesn't know what a library is We better find a picture of some books"
"Yo dawg i head you like room 101, so we put room 101 inside of room 101"
Room 101ception.
How great it is when Fry is spontaneously asked what he would put in his "Room Lovely" - he even makes it look like he's really thinking trying to come up with some examples - and when he happens to mention the Mac computer they at once have one on their screen in the studio - non-scripted spontaneity at its best :D
I feel like applauding every time Stephen Fry finishes a sentence. What a spectacular person.
I love that when Stephen says "libraries", the BBC felt it necessary to show a picture of some shelves with books on. For the benefit of their younger viewers no doubt.
The part where they discuss speech particularly 'you can't turn round to me....' almost made me spit a mouthful of beer at my computer. I could not agree more.
Brilliant as always.
Gosh... he actually put his own show in the bins... How cool is Paul Merton?
And Stephen Fry is just awesome. He's one of those people I'd love to sit and have a conversation with. Someone genuinely intelligent.
I would love to see more episodes of "Room Lovely"
Stephen is such a lovely person.
It's a man called Alan Titchmarsh. He did a gardening show and he was lovely.
Stephen Fry !!! - I could listen to him all day - he is fabulous although he would probably correct me on my grammar :)
Holy crap this is 10years ago it seems so recent I miss this era
is there anyone in this world who does not just ADORE stephen fry?
"Thats a bit much to say about comedians"
I couldn't agree more, comedians actually exist.
Fair play to Stephen Fry- he criticised negative, snarky TV that focuses on the things we hate in the world, then he put his money where his mouth is and made QI- the polar opposite. Got to give him credit for that.
+samwiseshanti Yes, but like all people who espouse the idea of indiscriminate niceness, he inevitably had to achieve it via projecting hatred towards something else (PCs, Windows).
Nobody is universally nice.
@@waynemarsh8732 The problem with this comment is that the premise is flawed. By its definition it was a discriminating niceness.
No, because this isn't the last episode. Ian Hislop was the last guest of this format of Room 101. He's the only person to ever do the show twice. That had a proper send off. It's on youtube if you have a look.
he's so lovely.
Yes, Ian Hislop was Paul Merton's last guest on Room 101, you should look that episode up, it is absolutely hilarious!!
Stephen Fry is wonderful!!
It just goes to show you that if you make a good argument you can convince people of your views. Stephen got nearly all his items in room 101.
Yet it would be very easy to argue against his choices as well.
1. Movie critics play a vital role in dissecting the art that is most pervasive in our current day and age. By dissecting it, we can glimpse what is possible or rather what could be possible, as well as analyzing long standing issues with media. Disassembling sexist or homophobic tropes can only be done by vigorously and sometimes too harshly looking at entertainment. It is - or at least can be - done for the improvement of media as a whole, which is a valid goal.
2. Art is subjective and policing other people's tastes is already a step towars authoritarianism. Noone harms others by owning, purchasing or producing shallow pieces of art. While one could argue that cheaply written novels would influence people toward unrealistic views of the world that can be harmful, a painted plate alone has no such power, so there is no benefit in taking away things from those that have a different taste.
3. A symbol itself does not constitute harmful cultural appropriation and a belief in extra-scientific approaches is not inherently evil either. The dream catcher as an example falls particularly flat, given that with dreams an important part of it is psychological, so believing in a magical item that keeps away bad dreams might very well put you at ease enough to actually take care of said dreams. Additionally, adopting a belief held by a culture that was ravaged by people of one's own culture at least gives the culture some space to stay alive. Having a dream catcher because it "looks cool", would fulfill the criteria for cultural appropriation, it disregards the origin and thus trivializes the culture. Giving something outside one's culture the benefit of the doubt is a positive trait. It's the opposite of "they do x, so we are in our right to commit genocide". Also, why are we so lenient with home grown anti-scientific ridiculousness but fail to show that leniency when it comes to foreign things? Wouldn't prayers more firmly belong into "Room 101", given how they are much more pervasive and harmful in modern Britain?
4. This one is easy. Language changes and evolves. We laugh at those in history who tried to stop language from changing, because they look like utter fools, very much like humans of the future will look back at those of us who fight tooth and nails to keep everything the same, to conserve everything. Being conservative (lower case, mind you), is what makes humanity suffer. It is what makes LGBTQIA+ people suffer, it is what makes people of colour suffer, it is what makes women suffer and it is what makes everyone suffer who has even a shred of creativity or abilitiy to think freely. Traditions - of language, societal roles, etc. - need to be questions. Do they need to be questioned at every single step on every single topic? Certainly not, but standing in the way of progress just because it hurts one's sense of familiarity will be the wrong thing to do 99 times out of 100.
5. Evolutionarily speaking, the dislike for something is the strongest uniting force and it always has been. It made sense in the day of nomadic clans of humans or pre-humans, and while we want to get rid of it rather desperately, the fact that it's hard coded into our brains makes it hard to shake. There are different approaches to hate, though, which are crucially divergent from one another. Hatred because of deeply rooted beliefs will make us hate other humans. Hatred because of something which is exactly as arbitrary but more easily seen as arbitrary will make us groan, roll our eyes and hate other humans - for 3 seconds, before we move on. Coming together to hate the fans of the opposing sports team (in a non-hooligan kind of way, of course) for two hours will bring the most unlikely people together in their artificial hatred. This unity can last, yet outside of match day, the sane people will still happily mix with the opposing fans and might unite for different causes. Hating banal things together makes us feel connected. Noone will start hating a person collecting painted plates because of this show, but our collective hatred of said plates can give us a sense of having something in common. The truth of the world is that for every two people on this planet, they will easily find dozens of things they have in common, and focusing on that common hatred for small things might make us less prone to hate people for who they are. Because they hate astrology as much as we do.
Stephen Fry is so, so, lovely (:
@thefudgeone I just love when Stephen Fry says "libraries", or anything. He is wonderful.
if only everyone in the world was as nice as stephen fry
I would totally put libraries in room lovely!
Stephen, I could listen to you all night. You could make a telephone directory sound interesting.
He actually says "people would SAY things like" which makes sense as the words which follow are an example. He is not replacing 'say' or 'said' with 'like'.
I would love to spend an evening suspended in a bubble listening to Stephen Fry talk. Ahhh...
My family does that whole "Turned Around" thing in conversations.
haha hes describing himself there, as soon as theres anything with Stephen Fry in it i think "Great" !! Mr Fry you are a legend :-)
As an Australian, I have never heard "Oi Noi". Stephen Fry is still a genius and a wee wonder.
1:36 - The explanation I've heard for using "like" instead of "said" is that it implies that what is reported is an *approximation* of what was actually said. i.e. "He said something *like* this, but those weren't his exact words."
His brain is so big!! I love Stephen Fry!
Hid did quite a anti-Windows rant on the QI Vodcast for episode 5 (Europe). If you find it on UA-cam it starts around 2 minutes into the video. He also owns enough IPods, IPads and IPhones to open a small store.
Stephen claims to have bought the third Mac in the UK (that would have been back in 1984!). The first two went to his friend Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
Love Paul's sickeningly sweet Room Lovely titles. They should make that show with those titles.
i hate it how ppl say ' he was like hello' but i do it all the time! i cant stop doing it LOL
He said it himself in this episode, he gets upset when he reads negative criticism but he doesn't really mind the positive ones.
1:11 - 1:18 made me laugh very loud! "OYH NOYH!"
How could you have not known that already, he is at the launch of pretty much every new iPad and iPhone and has allways said about how much he likes apple products.
stephen s a man of genius...all i have tosay
Jamie and Sonia. Wow, this is a really old episode, haha.
I think I admire Stephen Fry now, he's just really...good :)
LOL I remember when I was watching Neighbours when I was a kid and someone quite clearly said that someone else had "had a strike". I asked my mum what a strike was, and she said that it was in fact a "stroke". Totally that "Oi noi" syndrome Stephen mentioned here!
@Kobraxias that is a genius observation 0_0 now i can close my eyes and enjoy it even more XD lol
I love Stephen and Kathy
Yay! he likes macs as well! I love him so much.
Stephen Fry is a national treasure!
leave it to Stephen Fry to find a way to blown minds.... I'm sure no one had thought to put Room 101 in Room 101 before...
A brilliant quote, unfortunatly it isn't Fry who came up with that one - but he has used it :)
Stephen Fry would be in my room lovely.
I guess that "Christmas Night With The Stars" monologue about Fry and Laurie standing up against hating shit wasn't for show!
I love him a bit.
Same here, maybe there's a problem with conversion?
The guy in Eastenders there, his Dad is the Singer in Wang Chung.
I'm watching this on a mac!
he is a national treasure. I wish he was my uncle.
Who was on the picture that Paul was holding in tilte sequence of Room Lovely?
anyone got a link for that doc vinyl advert?
I prefer the series you guys have in the USA, but I definitely think we have better talk shows :)
i want the 'room lovely' sign for my bedroom door x
Thou shall not question Stephen Fry (8)
my friend's mum once started talking to us about the word 'like' and how it is overused in conversation and it always make me thing about the word after I've used it.
OoooooH! I love libraries too!
ii adore the word lovely lol
JAMIE!!! I need a moment, Christmas is ruined and it hasn't even happened yet.
@Craxblorg Probably not really a case of him 'letting' it go out on that channel, more that they were just the easiest route towards getting it made. To be honest, Pixar also say that they don't really think about the audience that much. When I saw Toy Story 3, there was barely any children there either! And we went on the weekend after it opened, so the place was packed! Maybe I'm just lucky.
@TalesOfWar Pixar are regarded as more the exception than the rule though. At least as far as most mass audience cinema is concerned. I was referring more to TV though in my point about US industrialisation. (It's also debatable as to whether Pixar have never made a film pitched by an outsider. Brad Bird was originally going to make The Incredibles with Warner Bros. But I don't know if he told Pixar about the idea before or after he accepted their offer to work there.)
I ADORE Stephen Fry!!!...but I wish I knew who Kathy Berk was though. Could someone tell me?
I don't quite know who Jamie and Sonya is either, but I believe Fry said domething about EastEnders, so I take they are from there.
Haha, Jonathan Ive was 34 when this show was broadcast.
Who is in the picture Paul kisses in the "Room Lovely" opening?
5:39
Thanks, I forgot what a library was,
If only more human beings were like him.
Jamie and Sonya! Wow, that takes me back! Jamie was one of my first crushes. :)
Kayleigh
Stephen Fry should go into "room lovely"!
@Soundfrequency
I think he appreciates the attention given to its design. You must admit that overall, Macs are prettier than PCs, OS and casing, whether or not you like to use them.
excellent.
i love Stephen Fry :')
aha we've got our fair share too. where're you from then?
@Craxblorg Ren & Stimpy isn't a children's cartoon and they haven't made any new episodes for about 15 years! But at least you still have children's TV in the US. There's barely any in Britain now. Both the BBC and ITV have scaled their output back massively. A couple of good shows survive though.
Thanks for posting. And thanks UA-cam, its how I get British television. All we've got across the pond is crap. :-)
im australian from Sydney and I dont know ANYONE who speaks the way Stephen mentions. The only thing we do say is "like"... young people especially
@33six The problem with Microsoft and Windows is it's still largely in the same mind set it has been for the last 20 years. It's a case of "it'll do". WIndows 7 and WIndows Phone 7 are a nice step in the right direction, but on the desktop we're still stuck with a lot of different UI elements and designs dating back over several versions of Windows which have yet to be updated to be consistent with the newer look. Their other software also isn't consistent in UI and so on.
@Readd1 "Haitch" is objectively wrong, I'm afraid.
@ShaunOggsBanjo Libraries not Library's. It's not possessive.
@ShaunOggsBanjo - should have read "libraries"
I'm, like, "OMG, that's my worst habit!"
@Nerfi Phineas and Ferb is a pretty good show. And Little Einsteins, for the younger crowd. Interesting for the kids, and not so mind numbing as to force parents to leave the room.
@Craxblorg Getting back to the US/UK comparison, I will say that I think we have the better set-up with regards to TV and film being less industrialised over here. Most shows aren't controlled by the stations, they don't have 'seasons' - even Doctor Who is allowed to have a year off if it wants - and they don't generally have 'teams' of writers, directors and producers like yours have. There are still content-supervising busybodies of course, but nothing's perfect.
What a fantastic show. I would love to have a version of this made here in the U.S. Somehow I envision Dennis Miller being the host of it. And the guest on the first episode should be Lewis Black, to show everyone how it's done. XD
ohhh you need to watch life n times of tim its amazing.
theres a few full eps on youtube.
@356pla but it's never used in that way
youre probably right
theres been a few great micheal scott moments in the last few eps............
Scissor me
@lewisner I'm talking about the current state of TV. If you think My Family is all we have left, then you're wrong. Admittedly, most good comedy on British TV now is in the form of panel shows, chat shows and stand-up - which are so popular now because we live in the age of reality TV, but that's another discussion - so perhaps Americans are currently doing better at sitcoms. But there's still Lead Balloon, Peep Show, Not Going Out, Miranda and more recently Roger & Val and Grandma's House.
Love it :)
2:00 Surely you could just write it out like this: And was, like, "My name is Tom".
+Oain but that doesn't make sense