h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As I am nitpicking a little.
But I do believe that a challenger is awarded a point for interrupting with a pithy remark which 'the audience enjoys'. This is highly subjective as it depends entirely on whether they laugh or not (so you have to pray you get a good one ). This isn't exactly worth adding into the entry, but I thought I'd just say so someone could come and tell me to shut up .

Grrr!!! But not according to the official rules. There are days you just hate Nicolas Parsons and this is one of them.

Ah, I didn't think about the officiality of it . I didn't actually know that that wasn't in the official rules. Well, you learn something new every day.

Current series has also finished...which is annoying.

Perhaps the point about audience appreciation could be slotted in as an unofficial rule?

This response will no doubt infuriate you as well, but it's the way it is and it's important.

In Just a Minute, the rules are intended to merely serve as guidelines. The primary focus of the game is neither points, competition, nor winning; it's all meant to *entertain* above any other priority. Officious nitpicking about who broke what rule is irrelevant. In fact the players themselves rarely object to NP's rulings, unless their objections are themselves entertaining and worthy of airtime seconds.

So irrelevant is keeping score, indeed, that although winners are announced, the final score of each episode is never given.

It's simply not about the points. It's about making people laugh, and being clever. And NP is the cleverest of the lot; he has to interpret the game and its rules not only in the interest of fairness, but also of audience value. Often he'll award someone a point solely to allow them to speak, regardless of any infraction claimed. He works a magic balance.

But the rules? It's not a sport; it's theatre. And the rules are a prop like any other.

That didn't infuriate me at all. Surely the rule (unofficial or not) that a player receives a point if he or she is entertaining the audience is proof what you have said. I just thought I'd bring it up, really, since it is one of the ways in which points are awarded.

I'd quite like to go and see an episode of Just A Minute being recorded, actually. It's all very well listening to it on the radio, but, as you say, it's theatre, and is doubtless at its best when you can see what's going on.