Funny You Should Ask . . .: Your Questions Answered by the QI Elves

by The QI Elves

The EU spent three decades trying to persuade the UK to adapt, but in the face of staunch opposition, including from a pressure group called the ‘Metric Martyrs’, in 2007 it agreed that pints of beer could stay.

Ireland also have pints. Many of the whinges are because the EU wanted those selling Imperial measures to give metric information as well. Since US pints are around 20% smaller than UK ones, doesn't it make sense to specify how many ml to expect?

Pretty much all apple trees are grown by grafting because, for some unknown reason, if you plant an apple seed, the tree that grows will produce apples that are completely different from the one that was planted.

William I, better known as William the Conqueror (or as William the Bastard in Normandy), is the last English monarch to be remembered by his nickname.

William Rufus, John Lackland, Bloody Mary?

There are two main differences between speaking and singing.

Also - you don't stammer when singing.

In the vast emptiness of space, there is no air – and no gravity – so in theory it would just stay where you left it.

One side would be exposed to the heat of the sun, though. Would that affect things?

and our favourite, a ‘blessing’ of unicorns, is only around 20 years old – before that they were a plain old ‘herd’.

Flange of baboons was invented for Not the Nine O'Clock News by QI's John Lloyd in 1980.

In 2013, an American food company launched a bacon-scented deodorant ‘for people who sweat like pigs’.

Pigs don't sweat, which is why they have to cool themselves in mud.

The word ‘scientist’ was coined in 1834 to describe Mary Somerville

The earliest known reference to cream tea dates back to AD 997 and it comes from Devon, not Cornwall.

a librarian in Hong Kong was arrested for falsely reporting library cards as missing so that borrowers would have to return books that she wanted to read.

The best thing a man can do with baldness is accept it. Take Bruce Willis as a role model and just tell people you have too much testosterone.

On The Bonfire of the Vanities, Willis had a special assistant dedicated to covering his bald spot with makeup. He also asked the director to backlight him to hide his hair loss. He may have embraced his baldness later, but he was a pain about it then!