KEVIN KING: Long may stupid answers on game shows continue

Along with the established stalwarts such as Countdown and Deal Or No Deal, there’s been Perfection, Tipping Point and more recently The Link hosted by the brilliant comic actor Mark Williams and the rather extraordinary Ejector Seat. This is where contestants have to answer general knowledge questions posed by Andi Peters (who appears to have discovered the elixir of youth and has not aged at all) before they are literally ejected from their seat. With the pressure of trying to answer correctly before an ignominious end causes some of the players to panic and blurt out entertainingly joyful errors. One example was with the question ‘name the author of the classic The Jungle Book?’ but with the fear of being thrown from their chair looming large the contestant without any hesitation shouted ‘E.L. James’. Not surprisingly, that was his swansong as he disappeared unceremoniously over the top of the seat. I was impressed how Andi kept a straight face when he simply said ‘no, it was Rudyard Kipling’ and how he didn’t make any reference to a possible 50 Shades of Mowgli gives testament to his demeanour.

Of course, there’s nothing new in stupid answers on TV game shows and the classic Family Fortunes is a veritable goldmine of daftness. Who can forget the question posed ‘name a bird with a long neck’ to which the answer came back ‘Naomi Campbell’. There was the classic ‘can you name a yellow fruit?’ where the rather embarrassed player blurted out ‘orange’. I think my favourite was when Les Dennis said: “We asked 100 people to name something red?” The instant reply was ‘my jumper’.

Ostensibly these shows are variations on the same theme with different props but while the pressure remains for quick answers long may they continue to be stupid.

n Now here’s my joke of the week.