QI did end up having quite a lot of rather dubious facts in the end (or at the very least, a lot of the answers given as correct on the show required a very unintuitive interpretation of the question, despite the nature of the show).
But given that this seems to have continued well after Fry left the show, I can only assume it’s the researchers on the show making the errors, not Fry himself.
"a very un-intuitive interpretation of the question" is often part of the game on QI.
As for the researchers, yes, QI has little to do with the knowledge of the host. The researchers actually got to present their own (extremely low budget) show for a while - it was quite quirky and fun, but you should take QI and their other show more as a bunch of geeks talking about fun stuff and frequently getting caught up in juggling technicalities and stuff they don't necessarily know all that much about.
> "a very un-intuitive interpretation of the question" is often part of the game on QI.
Hence my clarification that this was despite it being the nature of the show.
The question about “who was the first president of the United States” really annoys me, because the definition of ‘president' was so poorly explained on the show yet the (incorrect) answer has probably now become a dinner party anecdote for lots of people.
> you should take QI and their other show more as a bunch of geeks talking about fun stuff and frequently getting caught up in juggling technicalities and stuff they don't necessarily know all that much about.
Which I do, but I’m also aware that it presents itself as being a factual quiz and so I do think there should be some level of fact-checking (or clarification). Random QI Elves writing complex questions on topics they know very little about without consulting experts doesn’t make good TV.
> It's entertainment, after all, not documentaries.
I’m aware it’s for entertainment, but lots of people take everything that’s said on QI at face value and don’t try to find things out for themselves, which is sad.
He presented the show for 13 years, obviously he's going to say something wrong once in a while. Nobody could possibly know every single topic they cover.
For model rockets at least, if the center of pressure is lower than the center of gravity, lift from the fins will straighten up the rocket. it can be confusing because the lift is pushing sideways (aligned with the fin) rather than up. Probably doesn't matter at all for a Saturn 5.
Fins provide drag which moves the center of drag behind the center of gravity. I guess they could provide lift to spin the rocket, but I don't think I've ever seen that on a model that works that way.