CJ de Mooi's Revenge of the Egghead

That clip is a lot funnier than most of what you see on Eggheads. Simultaneously, it wasn't very funny at all.


I don't know what you're saying in that second sentence, but I am presuming you're saying that the Chasers are sore losers. I've never noticed that at all - conversely, I'd say that most of the Eggheads don't seem to have much personality. Kevin was the only one I ever liked.


Although I wasn't saying they were fast paced in general, just faster than Eggheads, I have to say it's hard to think of many game shows where the questions are packed in like they are for those two.

Whereas you seem to soak it up and regurgitate it into an unintelligible mess. But I'm sure disliking Eggheads and preferring shows like Mastermind, University Challenge, Only Connect, etc. is a sign of stupidity and ignorance.

I disagree - the original Millionaire bandwagon programmes (People Versus, Weakest Link, Shafted) didn't have much of a problem with speed of questions (the first couple of episodes of People Versus partially excepted).


This "I know it's not A because x, and I know it's not B because y and that means it must be C but I knew that anyway because z" is just a 12 yard thing.

I don't see how Millionaire can be blamed. Surely one of the most groundbreaking rules of it was that you could take as much time on an answer as you want, with no time limit.

That's exactly why Millionaire is blamed. Subsequent gameshows have copied (and amplified) that element, sometimes almost in isolation.

Exactly - and they did it well. If you knew the answer, you gave it and carried on, if you didn't, you could sit and ponder it. There's so many quiz formats these days that expect you to explain and consider your answer in an attempt to build up the tension of actually answering a question.

I blame Millionaire for this because they did it so well, others are trying to emulate it but all they've succeeded in doing is slowing down their programmes.

I was referring to people disliking CJ De Mooi because he seems to revel, as I and many others do, in knowledge for knowledge's sake, rather than focussing on the superficial, irrelevant aspects of quiz shows. I like Pointless. And University Challenge. And 100%. And Blockbusters. Care to make a judgement now?

I dislike CJ de Mooi because he's arrogant, smug, and a charlatan. I've not heard any people say they dislike him for any other reasons than one or more of those. Some in the quizzing community would vehemently agree.

The thing is, vague comments are going to get disparaging responses (though your track history doesn't help).

I was trying to say and my sentence didn't make much sense that majority of the original Eggheads clearly didn't like losing and couldn't be as humble about it as the Chasers which was always an interesting element. There was something really novel about an older lady being so competitive and so clearly bothered at the thought of losing. We always found CJ's facial expressions really amusing too. But people watch Eggheads not because they like the characters they like to see if they can be beaten because they really do care, in addition to the play along quiz element.

The Chasers really want to win as well, but they seem much more knowing of the fact it's just a game and can take it on the chin.

A charlatan? How would you back up that comment?

I won't go into it too far, but that's been used to describe him from within the quizzing community.

I would imagine there is some bitterness within that community as he doesn't have some of the titles of some of the other Eggheads and there are probably better quizzers who wouldn't add so much to the TV show who aren't on it. But CJ's clearly there because he's a good quizzer compared to the average person and he's been on a few shows on the circuit but mainly due to the character he puts over on screen.

The only other thing I can say is that the person I'm talking about is someone who would have little reason for jealousy.

He's probably there because he is so desperate to be on TV and at the time it was commissioned back in 1876 every TV show had to have a villian.

Hopefully this will bomb in the ratings but it probably won't - BBC viewers tend to lap up lacklustre quiz shows with mediocre personalities.