QI, 7.10 - "Greats" [Open Thread]

I don't have too much to say this week, because I think I've covered most of my feelings towards QI these days, and the guests who featured in this latest episode, "Greats". Jo Brand shoehorned in some gags about being fat or eating a lot[*], Sean Lock was okay but nowhere near as funny as he is on 8 Out Of 10 Cats, and David Mitchell remains the best at balancing genuine knowledge and sharp wit.

The topic of "Greats" threw up some fun trivia, though; everyone in Europe are related to all Europeans who existed in the 13th-century, that tortoises actually taste divine (so much so that early explorers regularly ate them rather than take them back to England for further study), and that most dictators we believe to be diminutive (Napoleon, Stalin) were actually of above-average height for their era. A decent episode, but I still find it gets bogged down at times, and the guests are now too familiar with the format to be tripped up with klaxons unintentionally. Incidentally, does anyone think QI XL (the edition shown on Saturdays with a 15-minute extension) is better then the abridged Friday show?

29 JANUARY 2010: BBC1, 8.30PM

[*] And when Jo Brand did step out of her comfort zone it was to make the astonishingly weak gag that David Mitchell's brothers are Phil and Grant Mitchell from EastEnders. A joke so amateur that David was forced to spin it off into something half-amusing (about fictional people being considered real) just to save Jo's utter embarrassment.