Rubbish

Rubbish is the fifth episode of Series R, first aired on 25th June 2020. It featured Bridget Christie, Holly Walsh and Johnny Vegas as guest panellists.

No Audience
This is the first episode of QI not to be filmed with a studio audience. The show opened to Sandi stood in front of empty audience seats as she explained that the show was filmed in March 2020 during the coronavirus outbreak. In order to comply with social distancing and in the interest of everyone's safety, no audience was brought in and Sandi was unable to hug the crew and guests as she usually does.

Rubbish Set
Keeping with the theme of rubbish, the set was literally covered with bags of rubbish. At the end of the show, Sandi revealed that the amount of rubbish on the set was the average one person in the UK produces in a year. Behind Sandi's chair are some signs relating to rubbish, including the recycle symbol and "no fly tipping."

Introductions & Buzzers
"Kicking up a stink" Johnny Vegas: [Sound of a deer followed by a dog barking]

"Down in the dump" Bridget Christie: [Swarm of bees buzzing]

"There's something fishy about" Holly Walsh: [Rock music]

"We don't know what it is, but we found it down the back of the fridge" Alan Davies: [High pitch tone/Classical music]

What do your buzzers repel?
Sandi explains that each of the panellists buzzers is a noise which repels something and asks them each what it repels. Johnny's buzzer is of a deer followed by a dogs bark which is played by trains in Japan to keep deer off the track. The sound of a deer would get their attention while the dog bark would scare them away.