‘Brain fry’ in Just a Minute: the challenges of talking without hesitation, repetition or deviation

Figures & data

Example 1: Deviation from the English language.⁵

Paul Merton	Second-hand car salesmen can be rather dodgy characters because if you bo into a showroom…. bo into a showroom?
	BUZZ
	I thought I’d better chuck a bit of Icelandic in there!
Nicholas Parsons	Yes, right, Kit you challenged.
Kit Hesketh-Harvey	I challenged because of deviation from sense.

Table 1. Example resources for sustaining fluency.

Challenge to fluency	Solution	Examples	Susceptibility to JaM rule breach
Failure to find a content word	Use a proform in place of the word	thingamajig; whatdyacallit; that; them	deviation
Interrupted flow of ideas	Automatic word or phrase to fill gap while planning	er; um; you know; I mean; like; actually; basically; I suppose; I really mean that; at the end of the day	hesitation; repetition; deviation
	Repeat information while planning	it was a great day, a really great day, really it was	repetition
	Fill in with less relevant information while planning	…who by the way says hello; and wow, that building is old	deviation
	Lend the turn to the hearer without relinquishing it	you see what I mean? Aren’t they?	hesitation
	Cough, laugh, etc	So she says (coughs) I don’t (laughs)…	hesitation
Change of direction in ideas	Restart the sentence	I was going to go to… I was going to… I thought of going to	repetition

Example 2: Repeating and avoiding repeating.⁶

Jan Ravens	Abba first came to our attention in 1974 at the Eurovision Song Contest with their fabulous song Waterloo.
	BUZZ
Nicholas Parsons	Paul, you challenged.
Paul Merton	Repetition of ‘song’. ‘Eurovision Song Contest’…
Parsons	Fifty-one seconds for you, taking over the subject of Abba, starting now.
Merton	There are some song titles of Abba that you can’t mention in the context of the rules of this game. For example, ‘Knowing me ditto you’, ‘S O First letter the same again.’

Example 3: Exceptional challenging of a function word.⁸

Linda Smith	Sorry, it does seem like shooting baby seals, I must admit. There were several ands
Nicholas Parsons	Yeah, there were four or five ands
Chris Neill	I was hoping that wouldn’t be included, the word and
	[…]
Parsons	You see, they often let one or two ands go… but half a dozen… is stretching it a bit

Figure 1. Causes of brain-fry.

Figure 2. Contributors to failure and success in Just a Minute.

Example 4: Nick-baiting 1, 2007.¹³

Paul Merton

Down the back of my sofa are many extraordinary things. I’ve got an original Nicholas Parsons from the nineteenth century. And if you buff it up, it looks as good as gold.

Example 5: Nick-baiting 2, 2004.¹⁴

Kit Hesketh-Harvey

Elderly incontinent gentleman seeks aardvark for erotic adventure, apply Nicholas Parsons OBE…