List of Games On I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue - Pick-up Song

Pick-up Song

The panellist sings along to a well-known song. The sound of the song is turned off for a period while the panellist continues to sing. The aim is to be as close as possible to the original when it's turned on again. This round is rarely included on the BBC Radio Collection CDs of the series, owing to reproduction rights on the original recordings. It appeared on CD for the first time on the 2008 release I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue Live 2.

Along with Mornington Crescent and Sound Charades, this is one of the games where the introduction has acquired a life of its own, and is the only segment in which points are discussed by Humph, who promises to award points to anyone who is "Within a gnat's crotchet" or "a midge's minim". He then recites Bruce Forsyth's catchphrase from Play Your Cards Right: "Points mean prizes – what do points mean?", to which the audience yells, "Prizes!" As time has moved on, Humph has begun to replace "prizes" with more elaborate descriptions ("Points mean surprises", "Points mean sumptuous extravagant prizes", or "Points mean the junctions on railway lines"). When asked "What do points mean?", some of the audience responds by shouting what Humph has just said, and the rest shout "Prizes!" regardless. Alternatives include "Pets Win Prizes, what do pets win?", and "I've seen prizes, what have I seen?". (On one occasion, the line became "Points mean prizes – what does moronic bellowing mean?" The audience obligingly roared, "Prizes!") In a 2007 episode, Humph began the usual introduction, before interrupting with "what we used to do, in the old days, was I then said something about points being awarded, and I used to say 'What do points mean?' (Audience obligingly roars "Prizes!") But we don't do that anymore"; and on another occasion, he responded to the roar of "Prizes!" by telling the audience to "go off and invade Czechoslovakia."

Prizes include such luxury items as a reptile that wakes you up in the morning (an alarm croc) or lawn seed to help make your garden look bigger (magnifying grass).

In the game itself, the panel, and in some cases the audience, participate in some of the musical renditions. As few of the participants can really sing, the round can have additional humour value. However, the applause when someone actually comes close to keeping up with the original song is clearly a genuine recognition of achievement. Rob Brydon's ability to mimic Tom Jones and to keep up exactly with his song "Delilah" on the Monday 26 June 2006 programme received one of the loudest and longest ovations in the programme's recent history. Despite playing the game to perfection, Humph nonetheless failed to award Brydon any points. On one occasion when Barry Cryer kept up exactly, despite having broken into fits of giggles halfway through, he was told by Humph "In snooker, it's usual to apologise for a fluke."

In the last episode of the 2006 series helium was used to aid Tony Hawks in impersonating Pinky and Perky, and Tim in impersonating Ann Stephens. When the sound was brought up on the Ann Stephens recording, however, the needle turned out to be stuck. In the same episode, Graeme was asked to sing along to "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" by Scissor Sisters. Graeme's son John "JJ" Garden performs occasionally with the group at live gigs.

A variation on this game, announced as "Radioke" (a combination of radio and karaoke), was for panellists to read along to a radio recording such as a wartime speech by Winston Churchill or the football results by James Alexander Gordon.

On a few rare occasions it was found that when the song was faded back in, that the record had in fact moved onto the next track.

The panelists are far more likely to be too fast than too slow.