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Awarding Bonus Points

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Robert L. TorresFeb 29, 2008
 

 
This is something that I feel is close to my heart, being a fan of
the series, and listening to it grow and evolve over the years, and
going through episodes from the late 60's to today, and the one thing
that has both amused me and also irritated me are those occasions
when Nicholas awards people bonus points.

This would be something he rarely did during the early years of the
show, and even then it would be very rare occasions indeed. but
those occasions usually entailed a clever interpretation of the
challenges on the violation of the rules or for making a very amusing
comment. But during those early days, there would be plent y of
people that would make those sorts of clever challenges or humorous
interruptions, and wouldn't receive a thing, except a lot of stick
from Schoolmaster Nick, who couldn't see past the rules to appreciate
the contribution. During those occasions, no points would be awarded
at all, which very often got on my nerves, especially since he would
later say that its the contribution that matters, the points are
secondary, and yet would make this entire display about how someone
can speak for 58 seconds, not get any points, and someone interrupts
them and they are the ones who get the bloody points.

as the series progressed, it seemed like he would dole out bonus
points to those who deserved them, sometimes they'd be given to
people who never deserved them.

Then there came a point where he would give bonus points for amusing
joke challenges or for just the overall sense of amusing the audience
as a whole.

but, nowadays, the whole notion of awarding bonus points has reached
a level of complete and utter ludicrousness. this can be traced back
to an episode from 2004 or 2005, I think the panelists were Linda
Smith, Tim Rice, Tony Hawks and Chris Neil. Chris began to develop a
niche for himself, by which he was able to garner loads of bonus
points for his joke challenges, since he pretty much admitted that
he'd never be able to get any points for actually talking on the
subject.

then something happens at one point to which Tim challenges someone,
I forget who, he makes a humorous comment, then asks Nicholas: 'Bonus
point?' and he gets one. But here's the bit that really irks me, by
Nicholas' own admission, he gave Tim the bonus point NOT for his
challenge, but for the fact that he said 'bonus point'.

In another episode he gave Graham Norton a point for 'having a face',
in another show he gave a bonus point to Pauline McLynn because
he 'felt sorry for her'.

and this is just something that really gets up my nose, because it
seems like you don't even need to be clever or amusing to get bonus
points anymore. It seems like nowadays all you have to do is sneeze
and you get a bonus point. meanwhile the panelists on the show bust
their asses actually being funny, clever and amusing don't get any
bonus points, because Nicholas is 'resisting the temptation' or that
he 'can't afford to give anymore bonus points', like he's on some
sort of budget.

And the way he even says it, that he 'can't' give someone anymore
bonus points, I mean come on. Is someone holding a gun to his head
saying, 'if you give out any more bonus points I'll blow your brains
out?'

its part of the reason why I think there should be another regular
pisstaker on the show to point these things out. Peter Jones was a
master of this, because it pointed out all of Nicholas'
inconsistencies and even the way he would say things. Linda Smith
was fantastic at this as well, even Rob Brydon during his brief
stint.

I know if I were on the show I'd interrupt during each round by
making up something incongrous like 'I've got cancer, gimme a bonus
point' 'My mother passed away, gimme a bonus point' 'I had Chinese
takeaway last night, gimme a bonus point', and so on.

even people who try to be clever on the program nowadays aren't
recognized for their cleverness, why? Because Nicholas has to
be 'fair within the rules of the game'.

THe man would rather be fair to a set of abstract concepts than to
actual flesh and blood human beings. that's the sort of chairman
this show has.

 
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