Mastermind man complained to Ofcom

A quiz contestant complained to communications watchdog Ofcom after Little Britain star David Walliams made fun of his disastrous appearance on Mastermind.

Simon Curtis, who only scored one point in the specialist subject round on the long-running BBC quiz, said he was treated unfairly on an episode of David Walliams’ Awfully Good.

The programme, which was shown on Channel 4 in January, included a clip of Mr Curtis on Mastermind which was introduced by Walliams who said: “Sometimes in life, you have to know your limitations…if you’re not, let’s say, very bright, it’s probably not a good idea to go on a quiz show that tests your mental agility. And by not very bright I mean, astoundingly thick.”

He then gave a running commentary as Mr Curtis, whose specialist subject was the films of Jim Carrey, passed on the first questions.

Mr Curtis complained the programme gave the impression he was “of low intelligence” and not very good at quizzes, but failed to mention he had won another episode of the show and also won £250,000 on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Channel 4 said Walliams’ comments were “not a literal assessment” of Mr Curtis’ IQ and viewers would “be well aware that Mr Curtis was above average IQ in order to appear on such a high-profile show in the first place”.

Ofcom did not uphold the complaint.

Via

Poor chap, perhaps he should have chosen a specialist subject that he knew something about 😀