University Challenge is supposed to be the quiz show for clever people, right?
This is Godzilla. He is 100m tall, and is known for smashing up buildings and fighting other giant monsters in Japanese films.
This is Lassie. She is a cute dog that has adventures with kids.
You would think they would not be the sort of things that you would easily get mixed up, right? Especially if you were a clever person. The sort of person who gets to go on University Challenge.
Well, on the Boxing Day celebrity edition of University Challenge, host Jeremy Paxman asked the following question: “King Ghidorah, Megalon and Mothra are amongst creatures to have fought which enduring film character?”
The answer to that is Godzillas, in case you are not a kaiju expert.
However, BBC Sports presenter Richard Askam buzzed in, and answered “Lassie”.
Well, this did me in pic.twitter.com/njBVwTjb3W
— L Johnston (@FinalBullet) December 26, 2020
Lassie, for the record, has never actually fought King Ghidorah, Megalon, or Mothra.
Writer Kate Fox then correctly answered Godzilla. Shocking, Jeremy Paxman did not take the opportunity to mock the ridiculous first answer. He does tend to sneer at people when they mess up on University Challenge.
The clip saw Richard Askam get heavily mocked on social media, but he seems to have taken it all in good humour.
“Can we try that again please? Turns out you can’t edit in the correct answers afterwards!” he tweeted after the show.
Can we try that again please ? Turns out you can’t edit in the correct answers afterwards !!! #lassie ?. Congratulations to @lborouniversity . Thanks to teammates @BBCFrediani @KateisDrawing @Mark_Tatts for making the day such good fun pic.twitter.com/YIUTZQUJ2E
— Richard Askam (@richaskam) December 26, 2020
He also then tweeted a picture of Lassie, with the caption: “Come on girl walkies! Now where’s that muzzle gone?”
Come on girl walkies ! Now where’s that muzzle gone ? #lassiemonster pic.twitter.com/GPL9OEYIA5
— Richard Askam (@richaskam) December 27, 2020
