Who else noticed Grub Smith of sin cities, poker stars etc etc winning pointless tonight under his real name ‘Michael’?
When asked what he did for a living he told Alexander he ran training days for companies.
He and his partner mullered it!
Brilliant!!

i saw it but didnt realise it was him.

Whooooooo?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grub_Smith

Him, he used to write for FHM too

I don’t get that program. It’s clearly too clever for me.

My suspicion is that no-one actually understands it but go ahead, prove you do.

Actually I’ll go further. It’s worse than that stupid Noel edmonds program. It’s even worse than a completely random throwing of a dice that has made Noel rich. Pointless is, as far as I can tell, choosing that answer that 100 people haven’t chosen, but someone in the BBC production team has. How mad is that?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grub_Smith

Him, he used to write for FHM too

Never heard of him.

Actually I’ll go further. It’s worse than that stupid Noel edmonds program. It’s even worse than a completely random throwing of a dice that has made Noel rich. Pointless is, as far as I can tell, choosing that answer that 100 people haven’t chosen, but someone in the BBC production team has. How mad is that?

Do you actually not? It’s very simple indeed. It’s just the opposite of Family Fortunes – 100 folk surveyed, you want the answers none of them gave. Someone says “name a Tour de France winner”, you don’t go Chris Froome or Bradley Wiggins, you go for Antonin Magne or sommat.

Good show.

I agree njee it’s a good show

Splendid, as I thought.

So the question is, name a Tour de France winner.

a) Bradley Wiggins
b) Lance Armstrong
c) Eddy Merckx
d) René Pottier

Yep? Now we know a, b and c will all gain high marks. d is the obvious pointless answer. Who has chosen that? Not the hundred people who were questioned, because it’s pointless. With me still?

Right.

a) Bradley Wiggins
b) Lance Armstrong
c) Eddy Merckx
d) René Pottier
e) Henri Cornet

What’s the pointless answer now? It’s stupid.

Not every round has a pointless answer.

The concept he game is very simple

Get the answer the fewest people said.

Win by knowing the most obscure answer to a question, can’t understand why STW would hate it 😉

You’re guessing the less popular answer between a member of the survey group and a member of the pointless production team.

There’s a hundred pointless answers. Someone chooses it though. All the contestants are doing is trying to choose the answer that no-one in the survey group answered but someone in the production team did.

You’re not getting this. Surely any answer that is a, correct, and b, not chosen by any of the people surveyed is a pointless answer, unless c, the producers can decide who wins le Tour?

*I don’t actually watch this show.

No.
You just need a correct answer that is pointless.

Edit – as above

The contestants are presented with 5 answers or so.
These will be the answers provided by the survey group. One of the answers won’t have been provided by the survey group, that’s the pointless answer.

Who provides the pointless answer?

there qare two types of questions

1. Who won the TdF = lots o fpointless answers

or

Won the tour five times and considered the best rider of all time

First British Winner

Cheating american 7 time winner

Italian winner nicknamed the pirate

etc

IIRC it gives 6 and you pick the lowest one and give the answer as well

There is not always a pointless answer but in the example above they ask all 100 each question and the one no one answers is pointless

having watched it over christmas (folks had it one) a bunch of the rounds have open ended questions (like the final money round) so any TdF winner is correct, the production team don’t specify options.

So can the contestant provide an answer that’s not in the list? Because otherwise it’s a pile of knob.

No, if they can provide answer that’s not in the list it’s even more stupid. Because there could be 47 answers not in the list, unless they’ve researched it and know there’s only one answer not in the list. Is that it?

samuri – Member
You’re guessing the less popular answer between a member of the survey group and a member of the pointless production team.

There’s a hundred pointless answers. Someone chooses it though. All the contestants are doing is trying to choose the answer that no-one in the survey group answered but someone in the production team did.
There could be a thousand pointless answers, there might be one, on several occasions there have not been any pointless answers.
That whooshing noise is the point (ha!) going right over your pointy (ha! again) little head!
I really enjoy it, I like the interplay between Richard and Xander, and I really enjoy trying to work out the lowest scoring answer, it appeals to my fondness for obscure, possibly useless knowledge.
There was a subject the other evening, IIRC about the 17th Century, and I thought, crap, I’m stuffed on this one, and I got every single answer, other times it’s a subject I really ought to know and I get one or two.
It’s fun.
You do know what fun is, don’t you?

I do know what fun is, yes thanks.

For me though it’s not taking a multiple choice questionnaire. Clearly your mileage varies.

As it happens the TdF question did come up once. The contestants had to name post-war TdF winners (that the 100 surveyed hadn’t named). Not sure where the multiple choice is in that. I’d have got a pointless answer with Fausto Coppi.

samuri – Member

So can the contestant provide an answer that’s not in the list? Because otherwise it’s a pile of knob.

There isn’t always a list. When there’s a list, you’re picking the most obscure answer from the list. When there’s not a list, you’re not picking from the list, because there isn’t one.

I quite like the format but it doesn’t matter that much, Richard Osman and Alexander Armstrong are great hosts, and I love its knowing crapness- like the bits when the music plays, the lights all go mad and everyone on the teams has to change places with their partners, that cracks me up. It’s got proper rubbish prizes too, like going for gold.

Tie breaks on Pointless are the best thing in quiz history. 2 teams don’t know the answer. They guess wrongly and both get 100 points. So now they have to break the tie- by asking the same question again, which they still don’t know the answer to. It’s like that episode of father ted when mrs doyle tries to guess father todd unctious’s name.

It is a bit numberwang though.

I don’t choose to watch it, but when I occasionally I turn on the telly and it’s on it seems ok for a telly quiz show.

Samurai – you are having a dim moment. The penny will drop shortly. The Noel Edmonds thing is just a game of luck for simpletons, some general knowledge is required to win pointless.

So in that case there’s loads of pointless answers that can be provided?

I’m quite happy if that’s the case but so far no-one here who likes the program and claims to understand it has said that.

The Noel Edmonds thing is just a game of luck for simpletons, some general knowledge is required to win pointless.

As far as I can tell, choosing the stupidest answer is also a game for simpletons.

Then you would love it and excel at it 😀

Samurai it depends some are a list of six questions [ see above where you pick the lowest score which may or may not be pointless] and some are an open ended question Name Post war TdF winners which always have a pointless answer

I gave you examples
FFS the show is simpler than trying to explain it to you 😉

As far as I can tell, choosing the stupidest answer is also a game for simpletons.

If by stupid answer you mean made up (eg “Barnsley” to the question “cities that have hosted the olympic games”) then that would be an incorrect answer and you would loose big time.

samuri – Member

I’m quite happy if that’s the case but so far no-one here who likes the program and claims to understand it has said that.

Except for Junkyard, Mikewsmith and Rio. And possibly Countzero too. Njee didn’t but only because he didn’t get into the multiple choice thing at all because you hadn’t gone mad yet

OK (junkyard), so for your first example if there is a pointless answer, someone has chosen it. It won’t be someone in the survey group but someone has chosen it.

I’m ok with the open ended question, that makes sense but I must admit, I’ve never seen them do that, I’ve only ever seen them ask from a list of answers which appears to be trying to emulate the dullest people in the survey group.

You’re right countzero, this *is* fun.

The are different question types. For example, one type has clues and the contestants need to give answers, and they score points that match the number of people out of the 100 that got it correct. Today they had a round on politicians spouses. They had to give the correct name of the spouse of either

Tony Blair
FDR
John Major
Clement Atlee
Hilary Clinton
David Cameron
Ed Miliband

The trick is to give the correct answer, but the one you think the least people would know. So saying Samantha is David’s spouse as your answer is correct but will score lots. Say 50 points. If you get it wrong, you score 100. If you happen to know the name of Atlee’s wife it’s likely to score very few points as not many people will know that.

They don’t just say a name from the board – they have to answer the question correctly too.

Basically, to do well you need to give a correct answer that not many people will know. Not every question will have pointless answers, and if you give an incorrect answer you score 100 for that go.

Except for Junkyard, Mikewsmith and Rio. And possibly Countzero too.

No, Countzero thinks it’s an entertainment program which it clearly isn’t. I think you get it because you said it doesn’t matter that much.
I’m giving Junkyard the benefit of the doubt because I like him and he’s probably the closest to explaining how it works (but he’s not there yet) and Mike was right off course because he said it’s the most obscure answer and that’s not correct. Rio thinks there’s no multiple choice which there is.

You read poorly, sir.

It won’t be someone in the survey group but someone has chosen it.

Yes someone has written the questions and all the questions asked have an answer. If any of the 100 people asked answer it then it is not pointless. if no one answers it correctly it is pointless.

PS i feel it only fair to declare I have seen it but find it dull and it should last 12 minutes but they pad it out with dull ish bon homie

I dont watch it but I dont really watch tv. My kids talked about it so I watched it a few times with them.

Samurai, they don’t just pick answers. Those aren’t answers on the board, those are questions or clues.

And it’s not a pointless answer that the production team have chosen. It’s a question that no one out of the 100 could give the correct answer to.

I love Pointless!

samuri, rather than us explain it spend 25 mins watching it tomorrow then come back and explain it to us.
Yes my explanation used the word obscure instead of answer that nobody else picked from a survey group. They are close to the same thing really but I should have remembered that here in pedant central we need to be full legal definition correct in what we say to avoid any confusion.

No-one else has said that. I stand by my original point. Lots of answers, no-one agrees.

It’s just like an episode of Pointless. Yes, I get it now.

mrs tts LOOOOVES it.. on that basis alone it has my approval as it has brought hours of peace and tranquility to my life..