Just listened to another of the great BBC quiz shows. One thing they have in common that you just don't really get from equivalent programs from the U.S. is...
..that it's not about winning.
The U.S. is so competitive. Sports, business, career, you name it. Anything you can do in the U.S. someone else can try to do it better. It's what makes us (yes, I'm still American) so good at so many things. The Olympics, the computer industry...
But the British gameshows make the competitive side a silly joke. They have teams and they announce points for the two sides. At the end of each show they announce the winner, but IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER. Who's Line Is It Anyway, QI, The News Quiz, Nevermind the Buzzcocks, they're all wonderfully uninterested in who wins. It's the taking part that matters.
Even answering the questions is just an excuse for the panelists to go off on tangents, make jokes and make us as the audience laugh (which is the real point of these shows).
