Yesterday’s “medieval job” insult became an actual game
The previous programme had accidentally offended people working in traditional professions.
Chris had referred to jobs involving soldering, blacksmithing, shepherding and other old crafts as medieval.
Listeners currently doing those jobs did not necessarily appreciate being described as historical artefacts.
Rather than abandon the phrase, the show turned it into a game.
Listeners came on without immediately revealing their work.
Scott and Chris asked questions and tried to identify the profession.
Traditional did not mean obsolete
The callers made the point perfectly.
Some used techniques with centuries of history.
That did not make the work outdated.
Jewellers still soldered.
Craft workers still made things by hand.
People still worked with animals, metal, wood and glass in ways their ancestors would recognise.
Scott enjoyed how a throwaway description had uncovered a group of Radio 1 listeners whose working lives looked very different from an office or studio.
Chris kept using deliberately old-fashioned language, including “by my troth”, to make the entire feature even less subtle.
Guessing the jobs was harder than expected
The pair tried narrowing down each caller’s work through questions about whether it happened indoors, involved heavy lifting, used specialist tools or produced something people could buy.
The answers frequently sounded more modern than the eventual profession.
That became the joke.
A job could have deep historical roots while the person doing it listened to Radio 1, used contemporary equipment and ran a modern business.
Do dogs have eyebrows?
Don’t Look It Up moved into animal anatomy.
One question asked whether dogs have eyebrows.
Scott and Chris both had to stop and mentally picture a dog’s face.
Dogs obviously make expressions involving the area above the eyes.
But do they possess eyebrows in the human sense?
The question was absurdly basic and unexpectedly difficult.
Scott immediately wanted to see pigs with eyebrows too.
The quiz had found another category where everyday familiarity did not translate into certainty.
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