Quite Interesting Limited is a British research company, most notable for providing the research for the British

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

panel game A panel show or panel game is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participate. Celebrity panelists may compete with each other, such as on '' The News Quiz''; facilitate play by non-celebrity contestants, such as on ' ...

'' QI'' (itself an abbreviation of ''Quite Interesting'') and the Swedish version '' Intresseklubben'', as well as other ''QI''–related programmes and products. The company founder and

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

is John Lloyd, the creator and producer of ''QI'', and host of the

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panel game ''

The Museum of Curiosity ''The Museum of Curiosity'' is a comedy talk show on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It is hosted by John Lloyd (producer), John Lloyd (Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham, and later at Solent Unive ...

'', which also uses Quite Interesting Limited for its research. John Mitchinson is the company's director and also works as head of research for ''QI''.

About

Lloyd founded Quite Interesting Limited in 1999. It is claimed that the idea of founding the company came on Christmas Eve 1993. According to his profile on QI.com, "he came to the sudden and alarming realisation that he didn't really know anything. Changing gear again, he started reading books for the first time since he was 17. To his horror, he discovered that he hadn't been paying attention and, with painful slowness, unearthed the closely guarded secret that the universe is astoundingly quite interesting." The philosophy of the company is that it claims that there are four primal drives:

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, sex, shelter and

curiosity Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps Developmental psyc ...

. Out of these, curiosity is supposedly the most important because, "unlike the other three drives, it is what makes us uniquely human." The company claims that, "Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way." Those who carry out research are known as the "QI Elves". Notable elves include Justin Pollard and Vitali Vitaliev. They are also responsible for helping to write the questions used on ''QI''. People wishing to become elves are recommended to start by commenting on the forums of the ''QI'' website.

Products

DVDs

Books

References

{{QI QI Companies based in Oxford British companies established in 1999 Privately held companies of the United Kingdom