Humorous Communication Errors - QI

Last week's episode of the BBC comedy QI included a couple of classic stories from the panel.

Alan Davies explained how he had the opportunity to go behind the scenes at London Zoo, and took his young nieces along. At the lion enclosure the keeper gave very clear instructions that standing near the smaller mesh was safe but near the bigger mesh was not (of vice verse). When asked if they understood, the young girls said yes. On entering proceeding, one of the girls asked Alan "what is mesh?"

On a similar note, Bill Bailey recounted an opportunity he had to go into a big cat enclosure in a Brazilian zoo. The keeper said "always approach the cat from the front." As Bill made his way into the enclosure the keeper said "sorry, I meant to say never approach from the front."

They made me laugh

Andy Brazier