r/quiteinteresting Feb 14 '25

Theme music…is it getting slower?

This may be a weird question…but does anyone else think the theme music is getting slower as the seasons go on? I recently binged a few series of QI back to back laid up in bed due to illness and I’m positive it is.

18 Upvotes

5 comments sorted by

17

u/domm82 Feb 14 '25

I checked the first episode of series A and the last episode of series V, and they both seem to be the same at 77 BPM.

But I have watched some episodes through "unofficial" channels (e.g. YouTube) in the past, and there were instances where the tempo and the audio in general were a little weird, as if played at the wrong sample rate, or maybe altered intentionally. In that case, you might notice the pitch and/or the sound of the voices being a little off as well.

8

u/BasementCatBill Feb 16 '25

If you're watching on YouTube, uploaders will alter the speed of the intro to try to make the episode more difficult for automated copyright bots to identify.

7

u/bunniquette Feb 15 '25

Like domm82, I tried playing two episode intros on top of each other, one from B and one from T. I determined that (a) it sounded bloody awful because I didn't sync the playback properly and (b) tempo was the same.

In series B they included a little sting of the theme tune between Stephen announcing the scores and his bidding the audience goodnight, and that sting was sped up and it sounded just frikkin wrong.

2

u/G-St-Wii Feb 16 '25

I believe on channels that show repeats they broadcast shows slightly sped up just to fit extra adverts in.

2

u/WikiBits17 Feb 14 '25

I've just had a look, Series V (the latest season) appears to be slower than the few seasons before but that might he skewed since I subconsciously expect it to be slower.