List of Games On I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue - Straight Face

Straight Face

In this game, panellists in turn announce words, and the audience is used to judge whether the word is funny. If the audience laughs, "even the merest hint of a titter", then the player who provided the offending word is eliminated. Often, the chairman will ignore words that produce enormous laughs, but will eliminate players whose words produce a barely audible laugh. The last player remaining wins. Humph often notes that, as a game in which the players must avoid making the audience laugh, Barry Cryer has a huge advantage. Indeed, it has been claimed that Barry has spent most of his life practising this game.

It is possible to predict quite accurately which words will raise a laugh. Arguably this is because some words are inherently funny. Panellists actually take quite daring risks, skating the line between boring and funny words at the risk of elimination. This game can thus be played in a manner that involves considerable comedic skill, not only in judging inherent funniness but also in reading the audience and adjusting the timing and delivery of the word to get the intended effect. It can be viewed as stand-up comedy minus the jokes. One of Humphrey Lyttelton's favourite memories is from this game when "as only he could, Stephen Fry brought the house down with 'moistly'".

In the first episode of the autumn 2006 series, the panellists had to give the punchlines of jokes, with the laughs being inspired either because the audience knew them, or if not, their imaginations provided amusing scenarios.