Naked Penguins

Last Saturday, I saw a man dressed as a naked penguin performing a show at the Edinburgh Fringe. How can a man both be naked and dressed as a penguin, I hear you ask. Well, it’s possible, I’ll tell you that much. We knew going in that there was going to be nudity, but not quite how much. That’s not the point. The point is that what he did with the actual show (other than the being dressed as a naked penguin) is what I sometimes try to do with this blog (not that I have ever been setting out to emulate a naked penguin).

If anyone is planning on going to see the naked penguin, spoilers ahead.

The main schtick (other than, as I have mentioned, the fact he’s dressed as a naked penguin) is that he is trying to act out as many classic Penguin novels as possible within the hour. This involves farting into a plant (The Wind in the Willows), and an astonishing bit where he drinks a bottle of blood (Dracula), then becomes so bloated that he resembles a pregnant lady, at which point he puts on a bonnet (The Handmaid’s Tale).

It is this kind of silly commentary that I try and do with the University Challenge answers sometimes. Taking the words of the answers and playing around with them a bit. I’m not sure how much that comes across, and am now questioning whether it is clear enough to justify the comparisons you will all henceforth have between me and a man dressed as a naked penguin.

Anyway, here’s your first farter for ten.

Something I missed the first time I watched this - McCully Stewart is dressed as a strawberry. No other contestants are dressed as pieces of fruit, or, blessedly, naked penguins.

The first points go to the strawberry, and Newcastle grabbed two bonuses on books read by Frankenstein's monster in the book Frankenstein (which was also one of the books in the naked penguin show).

Groth then loses five points for Newcastle with an early guess of ice skating. The correct answer is figure skating, but Easwar fumbles the steal for Edinburgh, buzzing with ice dancing instead.

Amjad gets the Scots going on the next starter, and they took the lead with a hat-trick on capital cities which are spelled the same as foreign words. Richards picks up another Newcastle neg, and Edinburgh start streaking ahead (no penguin pun intended).

Emboldened by some good buzzes, Easwar goes early with a guess on the next starter, but he is wrong, and it is Newcastle's turn to steal some points. They can't build any momentum, however, and an assured buzz of Yeats from Amjad gets Edinburgh going again.

Hill hears two seconds of Take Five and buzzes with Art Brubeck on the music starter, but he's given too much information, and some of it wrong. Amjad picks up the pieces with Dave Brubeck. Google's AI tries to convince me that Art Brubeck is Dave Brubeck, but this is a load of nonsense.

Rajan consoles Hill by telling him 'them's the breaks', and then he says 'quite literally when it comes to jazz'. Which is what Boris Johnson said when he resigned as Prime Minister. Not the bit about jazz, just the bit about the breaks.

Edinburgh miss all of the bonuses on songs in 5/4 or 5/8 time, but their lead is eighty points and it doesn't seem to be under threat at this stage. When another Hill neg is collected by Amjad, the match is over as a contest.

Newcastle make it to a respectable three figures, but haven't scored enough for a shot at the high-scoring loser play-offs.

Newcastle 105 - 200 Edinburgh

Not a terrible performance by Newcastle, but them's the breaks. Edinburgh look strong, so are a team to watch in the second round.

I've done this review so late that the next episode has already been broadcast, though I am yet to watch it. So that's what I'm going to go and do now - see you later for the review of Manchester vs New, Ox.