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The story of a gang that systematically exploited a quiz show.
Check out Liam Shaw's brilliant article here: / a-statistical-analysis...
Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1J...
Music:
EpidemicSound:
Anthony Earls - Hearing Aid
Auxjack - Gravity Loss
Bill Ferngren - Crooked Teeth
Brendon Moeller - Following On
Cobby Costa - Duality
Craft Case - Nerve Twinge
Ethan Sloan - Bionic
Ethan Sloan - Catacomb
Ethan Sloan - Qubit
Gerhard Feng - For the Business
Gerhard Feng - No Talk
Howard Harper-Barnes - Fatal Flaws
Marten Moses - Unfriendly Users
Michael Rothery - It's Perilous
Artlist:
Articulated Sounds - Occult Master - Energy Stone Magic Drone
Alex Cummings - Critical Tension - Digital Rainforest Atmosphere
Lens Distortions:
Given Up
Clean Bass
Washing Money A - Silk
Tonalities
_____
Armchair documentaries, almost weekly
Ok, none of these people should be harassed, but naming your cough medicine after the guy is legendary
E
That's the best part of this story 😂👌
I find it super weird that all that harassment was the actual reaction of the population. I would have totally expected him being viewed as some sort of Robin Hood type folk hero. I mean, pretty much a "victimless crime" like it was mentioned, *especially* for people to flip out about it like that,; like wtaf🤷♂🤷♂ But not even judging what was right or wrong here, in terms of what was done and the reactions to it, I would have just thought I'd been around humans long enough to have figured out how they would generally react in a given situation, and even though I believe I mostly can, this is completely surprising to me. Sure the media plays a part here, but still. 🤷♂ Like, the "model" I would use to understand people's minds works in most cases, but is actually quite off to the side? Lol I notice that sometimes, does anyone else share that feeling? People are weird.
@@edgarneto1154i think it's because they feel like he stole the chance for someone else to win. Plus the sheep mentality is really unpredictable
@@edgarneto1154 they could pay out 2 Millionaires each show, and still make a profit. They make absolute bullshit money on advertisement money in this show. I am 100% on the cheaters side here.
imagine someone in the crowd had allergies and completely messed up his entire plan just by coughing 😂
E
He repeated answers often and often got the same cough on the same answer.
who coughs with allergies tf😂
Patient zero of COVID in England just messes the whole plan up!
@@grundywins1775 I do, it's called "chronic dry cough" and it's an extremely common comorbidity with allergies, especially the year-round-seasonal kind.
Possible the most legendary episode was when a guy named John Carpenter competed. At the start, people booed him when he said he worked for the IRS. He got to the 1 million dollar question without using any lifelines, and on the final question he used Phone A Friend... to call his dad and tell him he was gonna win because he already knew the answer. Absolute legend.
Well that sounds like another fraud, but a smart one who hid his tricks successfully 🙂↔️
We've all seen the video
Yea I love that guy ,that shit at the end was amazing 🥹🥹
@@DuongLeAccountingAutomateis everything fraud for you? Do you believe birds are real?
Every time I've ever called the IRS the people there were super nice and professional. Don't understand the hate. Hate the congressmen that continue it.
I really hate how abusive and violent some people get over things that have nothing to do with them. So these three people probably tried to scam a million out of a TV show - does that mean you're entitled to kill their cat, throw vomit at and smash their windows, force them out of their jobs and schools? Get a life!
They didn't scam anyone, they were the ones who got scammed. Corporations are all powerful in the West
the poor cat bruh
Yeee.
Nah the cat actually survived!!!! There was a tv series called Quiz that came out in 2020 that was based on the Ingrams and in that show they had Buffy (the cat's name) as a dog which died from the shooting. But when fans asked Charles if it was true, he confirmed on twitter that Buffy was actually a cat and had survived in real life.
Your right no one deserves that treatment, he should be compensated at least 10 Million for the ordeal his family went through
that 1 million question is the easiest i have ever seen lmao
You gotta keep in mind that this was in 2001. Today, a lot of people have heard about this trivia because Google named themselves after it but at that time, why would anyone know about this?
@@ThePhoenix107if this guy had any critical thinking, he would know that at the time it was a rare trivia question 🤭
@@ThePhoenix107 well with middle school knowledge you would know what a mol and hence nanomol is. Gigabit is also a known unit and falls under the same pattern. Also, you can know that nano is small and giga big, but not that big, so even two reasons to cancel these out. And then there is megatron. Even if this was before transformers made blockbusters, it sounds more fictional than Googol. You're right, back then it was not as easy as today, but I would still argue there were more complicated questions along the way.
@@TMtheScratcher Yeah probably. Hard to tell from today's perspective though.
@@TMtheScratcher I mean I wouldnt choose nanomole either and would've said Googol because it made the most sense for me. Gigabit idk about 2001, but most people didn't even have internet at this point and internet was fking slow too and most stuff was small.
That was the most brilliant sponsor integration I've seen a while
brilliant 😉
E
I see what you did there
it was indeed quite brilliant
As a user of Sp0nsorbl0ck, I am happy to report I never see these things. Being able to avoid ads is beautiful.
“It’s September 9, 2001” Boy oh boy is this news gonna get overshadowed reeeeal fast
Another plausible answer to this mystery could be that every single question was relatable to a specific event in this poor man’s life.
WHO WANTS TO BE A SLUMDOG MILLUNAIRRRRRRR?!!!!
I saw that movie. I'm pretty sure it was called Slumdog Millionaire. Just thought I'd put that out there.
@@newshodgepodge6329 Try reading the book instead 🤪
💀
I love you for bringing this up cause as soon as i started watching this video that movie was the only thing that came to mind😂😂
I mean, someone shooting the cat with an airgun is the most unacceptable thing ever, whomever did that can rot in hell... But the cough drops company naming their products after them is absolutely hilarious
brits are truly something else
Yeah i was thinking how disgusting it was to do that, the cat wasn't involved or even aware of anything from one day to the next... but the cough medicine thing is honestly just classy, talk about good marketing as the public would laugh that up so much.
@@DarkCobra88 Furthermore, civilised people don't hurt the loved ones (I include pets as loved ones) of those who have done them wrong as a form of retribution.
You focus on the cat? All of the harassment is despicable…
@@JosephQPublicHe had it coming for trying to steal $1m.
10:47 as a Brit who is fluent in “Bri’ish” I can confirm the [inaudible] statement is “I’m absolutely gobsmacked” 😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I had to read your comment to understand/hear what was being said 😂😂😂
@@DigitalDart You're welcome 😂
I guess our language is harder to understand than I thought.
I'm not British, and I even got that. lol.
Seriously, They killed his cat? Quite sad some would hurt an innocent animal over this.
Bullying kids is no big deal? Or throw bags of vomit?
@@PhilipMarcYT It is absolutely but an innocent helpless animal DIED sooooo yeah that was the main thing that upset me. Had a kid died then I would be upset over that.
@@PhilipMarcYT The kids weren't shot at.
@@PhilipMarcYTtypical strawman argument i bet you have So many friends that like talking to you and inviting u places btw
@@BryRod Except the cat didn't die xD Charles confirmed it on twitter, lol.
Plot twist : Sound engineers added the coughs later to deny his prize
With the way english courts work, i wouldnt even be surprised
English courts are horrible
although he probably cheated
0:56 in English, they are called "lifelines" not "jokers" like in the German version
E
Jokers is kind of cool, like wildcards
Which make sense, since the creator is from Netherlands
@HNBGamer they are Germans. Just currently living in the Netherlands.
WHY JUST WHY NOOO
September 9th 2001? eh, the next tuesday is gonna be crazy
🙂
@@jamesbissonetteYo it’s the legend himself! James Bissonette!
E
@@jamesbissonette Holy shit it's THE james bissonette
Me a New Yorker:
Someone killing their pet is just plain sick.
Dude but think about it , picking the option you’ve never heard of is a strategy because you know the meaning of every other option
It works in school tests fs
This has to be the worst thing to have happened in September, 2001.
Best comment on this platform
@@vd9570Best Platform on this comment
you may want to sit down before I tell you something..
Probably.
@@andrerodrigues8024 yeah, this is the second worst thing that happened on september 2001, the worst thing is my cat getting hit by a car
That million pound question was fucking sad tbh lol. Megatron? lmao
Google got named after Googol
From our current standpoint it's laughable but considering the company Google was founded in late 1998 and the show was filmed in 2001 I suppose the term was not as populatized as it is now. Same for Gigabit and Nano-whatevers 😅😅
I'd be a millionaire :(
@@theextremegigachad Anyone who is old enough and smart enough to be sitting there would be. Even if you hadn't heard of a googol the alternatives are so obviously not the right answers that it's laughable lol
@@Modenut"So obvious" Yeah looking back everything seems obvious doesn't it. Actually being there is a different story.
18:30 Guys, THE CAT SURVIVED. There was a tv series called Quiz that came out in 2020 that was based on the Ingrams and in that show they had Buffy (the cat's name) as a dog which died from the shooting. But when fans asked Charles if it was true, he confirmed on twitter that Buffy was actually a cat and had actually survived in real life.
Creating an international crime syndicate built purely around gaming Who Wants to Be a Millionaire sounds like it could be an episode of Rick and Morty or Community.
It was a clever plan in a way, but the execution of it was piss poor. By dismissing answers, and then having to backtrack, he just made it so obvious he was cheating. And by going back for confirmatory coughs he just made it even worse.
The problem is the way he spoke during the game,that's where he incriminated himself" I've never heard of Google" "Google is my final answer" plus the dude didn't know any answer,lets say I would if I knew the answer start saying as he reads the question, "oh i know this answer" so the coughers stop coughing at all.. guy if he knew at least 3,4 questions ,they would've been safe 😅
Set*
Exactly. Even without the coughing it is obvious he is cheating. Nobody risks so much money on a random guess on something they have never heard of.
They should have had sneezing and nose blowing too, shake it up a bit, make it more likely someone had a cold. Perhaps feel out the audience in the early easier questions to make sure nobody else was also sniffing and spluttering, with a plan B if someone was genuinely sick.
@@spriestchump1531 he was definitely a poor choice to sit in the hot seat, he enjoyed the duping too much and was not a good actor. But it seemed to be that the others had already been on the show before so he may have been their only option.
Someone killed their family cat?!? That is definitely the worst part of the whole fiasco
Agree. That is so sad
Nah! The worst part is how they traded their dignity and rightousness just for a few bucks. If you want to get disgusted remember who made that happen.
@@paulofelipebbraga9634 I think that says more about the world we live in than the individuals.
@@paulofelipebbraga9634getting money on a TV game show (that would have just kept the money if nobody won it) is 100% not worth their cat's life. You see everyday at least 1 person who hasn't done better than them if you live in a city it's not like it's rare to see corrupt politicians and other. They're invisible till they're exposed
@@paulofelipebbraga9634 that is absolutely in no way worse than what happened to the cat
How you integrated the sponsor was BRILLIANT 😂 first time in a very long time I've seen that type of creativity
People saying “Googol” is the easiest answer ever, this show was from 2001
That Brilliant commercial was in fact, Brilliant. I had already named it Brilliant as soon as i saw it, and then realized it was a joke and the advertising to the video. Hilarious.
Just another shill of useless crap
that was very creative
Except there was no cough
"[...] he had to trademark his name, to stop a company naming cough medicine after him." Sorry but that's just hilarious xD
I know right.
Which you can't even do unless you legitimately use your name in commerce, and in the same area (such as medicine). They were in the clear to mock him
The real question is how she knew the answer...
“That’s how a question works” is amazing
"He had to trademark his name to stop a company from naming cough medicine after him" 💀
The transition into the sponsor was dare i say, brilliant
You could tell immediately he was an idiot. Even his wife knew it which is why she looked so frustrated with him not knowing the answers to any of the questions.
That final 1M GBP question was written on the wall as a huge poster in my elementary school class, a number with hundred zeroes. Strikes me as odd that that answer is worth 1M GBP :D.
I knew about the first group of people you talked about, but I had never heard of the consortium. That is impressive that they were able to do that.
u know kiwi farms?
literally the best sponsor ad incorporation i've ever seen
It was brilliant 😂😂
Wow! After knowing the Simpli video (and I watched it once more today), this is a nice add. I thought, it is another copy, which is fine. But no, this video is totally different, showing several other and new facets! Really good job!!!
I get so happy when I see there is a new video posted, doesnt matter the topic. they are all amazing! great work
The saddest part is if he would of stopped at like... 16,000... maybe even 32,000, he could of gotten away with it, or at least not live in infamy. instead, greed took over.
Why stop there if you can have it all?
He didn’t cheat
@@pnuttyinthacutty No question he did. he can deny it all he wants. the 32,000 question there is no way he wasn't cheating on that one. 'i'm not sure' I think it's A1,' 'i never heard of craig david', no clue, his wife coughing at the time, and then just goes for the answer he A, never heard of the artist and B, the answer he wasn't leaning to? It's absolutely unnatural behavior.
@@drpopandfizz watch quiz it's a fantastic retelling of the story that puts things into new light he is smart man and people seem to forget that every time this story is brought up i Don't know if he cheated or not but there is just a big of a reason to believe either side of the story after watching quiz. The only one who truly knows is him and we just have to accept that.
@drpopandfizz if he knew A1 but the question doesn't line up with what he knows about A1 then by default its Craig David
The question for million is the simplest question I think I ever seen here
It's only simple because of the search engine. I doubt you know the name of the number with a 1 and a thousand 0's after it.
@@BigBoyJay_69 It's pretty easy through process of elimination assuming you have basic knowledge of some things. The options are megatron, gigabit, nanomole, and googol. Transformers was like 20 years old at that point, so it makes sense someone would recognize Megatron. Personal computers already had multiple gigabyte hard drives by 2000. Nano means one billionth and most people have heard of nanoseconds. Even if you'd never heard of googol you can figure it out through process of elimination
@@matthewdurkin9543exactly. also mol is a si unit in chemics. if this wasnt multiple choice, yes the question would have been really hard. but with those tupid other options its pretty obvious even if you never heard of google
@@BigBoyJay_69 Googolplex. There's also a Googolplex-plex but I forget the number of 0's. Ten thousand?
U forget that nobody and their mother heard of google in 2001, its like asking you what a number with 10 thousand 0 in it is called, u wouldn’t know it
The way you merged your sponsor was amazing! I was like "wait, what?". Amazing content btw. Thanks
He doesn’t sound upset enough for a “winner” being called a cheater 😂
I thought the phone call with the producers was pretty telling. If you knew you hadn't cheated you'd be asking how long is this going to take to get cleared up? And when am I going to get my money? He didn't ask any of those obvious questions, because he knew he'd been busted.
Yeah, you can tell he was like “damn it” since he just said how terrible that is yet never asked any questions
True, and he said that he obviously "refutes" it, even if the caller didn't even say he was accused of cheating. If you're innocent, you'd first ask what's wrong and be in disbelief if told you were being investigated for cheating.
Complete bullshit. Why are you so hateful?
"Named a cough syrup after that guy". Give that marketing executive a f*cking raise!! @fern - Search for this guy called Shashwat on India's who wants to be a millionaire and what he did on the final question. Broke the system and exposed the rules so much that makers changed it next season. Should make a video on that to be a sequel to this masterpiece video you have created.
What’s the guy’s full name? I tried to Google him but couldn’t find anything like you described
Found him, Shashwat Goel, but I didn’t understand a word so I’ve no clue what he did to break the system haha
@@mlydian8840 is the video in hindi?
All I could find is that he made it to the final question but answered it incorrectly. Also he used to watch the show with his mom but she died like a year before he made it on the show, and he chose not to bring a companion on the show because he left it open for her memory. Also he said if he was about about to win that he would donate most of the winnings but then he ended up answering incorrectly. I can't seem to find what you seem to be referencing about him 'breaking the system'....could you just summarize it for us since we can't find it on the internet?
"He is quite possibly the biggest fraud on TV." Dr Phil sweats nervously
Fern, the way you did the ad was truly brilliant! 😊 I love your work!
Good work man! iv seen this story on a bunch of other channels before, but your vid was my favorite because it felt like Lemmino had remembered his password
It takes balls of steel to cheat in such a high stakes game.
E
The stakes aren't that high, though, are they? This is not Poker or Roulette. You don't wager a or bet. The only thing you can lose is a bit of your dignity, but that's just how TV works.
Ego of steel. Selfishness of steel.
bruh there is literally nothing on the table. no risk at all. what do you mean???
Not really. It’s not illegal so either you win or you don’t. No additional loss for cheating or not
The fact that there was a whole underground ring getting people onto a game show is absolutely hilarious.
Amazing video with amazing animation and a brilliant theme. Hyped for the next one.
the date is pretty close to *it*
My parents said if I reach 35K, they'd buy me a professionaI camera for recording... Pls guys I'm literally begging you!!...😮
I wonder if people are bright enough to realise what you meant?
@@gbt722 same
that's the first thing I thought about
HUSH BOT 🤖
Man that must be the worst thing to happen that month
I ain’t even skipping the ad after a segue that smooth 😂
Damn Fern your animations are always top notch and high quality. Looking forward to see more!
I remember years ago back whenever I'd see a WWTBAM clip there'd always be a documentary about this in parts in the recommended and I'd watch it every time
That Brilliant ad integration is flawless, bravo!!
Your channel is such a treasure. I can't wait for it to pick up even more. Are you looking into nebula?
The way you did the switch to the brilliant ad was 🔥 no lie
The production quality on this is insane!🔥🔥🙌🏿
Ive never had anyone offer me channel ad's. And going by the way the ad rev is collapsing it's needed now. I remember this case, and it affected the show where i live even to today where a cough in the audience is pointed out on big money questions.
2:48 idk why but the ringtone made me giggle
Every Nokia phone had it back in the day lol
Old school 😂
@@TheBlakus420 I can even remember the ringtone's name. It's "Kick". 😭
High intelligence specimen:
@@user-tl8le5mg4l you just unlocked a core memory
This might be one of the best ads integration in a youtube video i have seen in a while, absolutely camouflaged in the video 👏🏻
I find it interesting that the host said afterwards that he didn't notice anything odd about Ingram's behavior. It's of course understandable. The host is there to present the show, keep the audience entertained and overall be as charismatic and likeable as possible, and make the show as engaging and interesting as possible. He's not there to observe and scrutinize every single detail of the contestant's behavior, he's there to run the show to the best of his abilities. He has priorities and things in his mind enormously more important than whether a particular contestant behaves a bit different than your typical contestants. But nevertheless, I still find it interesting that apparently he didn't notice anything suspicious.
5:16 that ad transition was so smooth
a fern upload is always good
E
@@EEEEEEEEway too political man
Great video like always! High quality paired with interesting content, thats how it should be.
that ad placement was brilliant (ha), i can't even be mad
maaaan these videos are just insane! The quality is way above youtube standards🔥
That was the cleanest sponsorship I've ever seen. Brilliant!
That was a super easy last question btw. I suck at trivia and had it immediately.
That's because trivia questions get re-used and the show was shot in 2001. Gigabit internet speeds only started to be used in 1999, and Google wasn't a household name yet as it was founded in 99 as well. I only eliminated nanomol because I learned in chemistry that a mol is something to the power 23, but someone who hadn't taken a college level chemistry course back then wouldn't have known that. Context is key, and most people back then wouldn't be 100% sure in their answer which you need to be in order to risk a million dollars on it.
@@TheTTL1997, it’s still a super easy question. - Giga is one followed by nine zeroes. That’s grade school knowledge. - Nano is inverse of giga, so obviously it’s not it either. Again, that’s grade school knowledge. - Megatron is a Transformer. [PS. Not to mention that mega prefix means one milion; again, grade school knowledge.]
We probably all know this fact BECAUSE of this show lol
maybe in the US this is college level chemistry. i learned that in like 8th grade. bit and byte are also known for several decades. no need for internet speed as reference. how about hard drives? and megatron is kinde obvious too. even if you dont know transformers. mega, nano, giga are all already number prefixes one could and should have known back then @@TheTTL1997
asked
THAT AD TRANSITION WAS IMMACULATE AND UNEXPECTED, YOU EARNED A SUB WTH.
5:21 This is the smoothest plug in a video I’ve ever watched 😂
that ad transition was cleeean
the production quality of your videos is insane!
This is the worst thing that ever happened in september 2001 😔
that sponsor segment was so good that I actually watched it, you earned it
Three documentaries were made. Thank you 🙏
I could see successfully using process of elimination for some of the questions. This has helped me before when choosing the correct answer on multiple choice tests; if you are familiar with most of the options and can reasonably rule them out as the correct answer, the option that you are left with will likely be the correct answer even if it is unfamiliar to you. But to use process of elimination for every correct answer is a bit further afield. Edit: fixed a few typos that improved the flow.
Absolutely, I didn't remember large numbers but I sure know it isn't Megatron, and I didn't even watch Transformers.)
Rome and Athens are ancient cities, so the only candidates was Berlin and Paris, could be less obvious coughs
Bro that ad Segway was literally genius lmaoo
In Hungary to ever win this game was a postman.
By the way at 10:47 he's clearly saying he's "absolutely gobsmacked", probably a very local phrase.
ah sorry we couldn't figure that out - good to know!
its not, Ive heard it used in the US
Okay, one giant error, that is NOT the position Tecwen was sitting on the FFF row. His seat was in the middle on the same side behind Charles.
giant? that is the most insignificant error, how on earth can you call that a GIANT error? exaggeration much, just enjoy the content. Im sure you were jumping out of your seat to tell him he was wrong about one tiny error. so giant that it RUINED the video right?
abdurd story and insane storytelling quality my man 🙌🏼
10:17 this is such critical evidence. He barely pretends to sound surprised. Imagine being innocent and being told you're not getting your million pounds and being referred to police. You'd be so shocked and angry. They're so guilty
The funny thing is, back in 2001, we basically didn't have the internet as it is now. I am sure that these guys had NO IDEA that 23 years later, the internet would continue to produce videos ripping them to bits.
Yeah, I remember that, good to see new video about this situation.
10:03 I heard it as, "Later, he makes another cough." 🤣🤣
"Good lord I'm absolutely gob smacked" is the inaudible section of that call with him
not the cat
☹️
I literally used this cough strategy when my cousins and I played “Guess the answer(our own game)” 😅
I can easily say that this is the first time I've ever heard of lifelines referred to as "jokers".
You be dropping BANGERS
14:21 The guy looks awfully suspicious indeed, but it's worth pointing out that coughs are not at all uniformly distributed, meaning if the person gets anxious (as she would when the time for answering would come), the likelihood of coughing goes way higher.
This is why I'm afraid of facing a jury. It seems like juries are filled with idiots that only want to punish people
You have the best comment section I've ever seen on KZhead. Every comment I have read has me wishing I would have made it. It's very rare to find a comment section that isn't engulfed with idiotic people using vulgar language. Your subscribers are very intelligent , well spoken and witty which is very refreshing.
the fact i could answer all of these questions correctly within seconds makes me wonder why i never tried to get to such a show
Damn those questions were easy 😳 And I love the show makers being called "Cellar door", makes me think of Donny Darko, a great movie.
These videos are so high quality, you could start a netflix series with this amount of quality, thank you for these amazing videos!
8:13 just wanted to point out a mistake in the animation/simulation. The molten stuff is going right trough the car. My beliefe is (and yes, I use blender. So if you used anything else, it might not apply to what is actually happening here), that they simulated the pound sign melting, but forgot to add the car as an effector. This would have given it collision. Alternatively, they could‘ve placed an outflow item in the car to prevent it from leaking into the car.
This is quite literally one of the best channels on this platform, period.
18:34 bags of vomit thrown at their home? People collected vomit in bags, drove to their home to throw them? Or did they had vomit left over from the last time they used it for something?
its very easy to make yourself vomit and there is probably medicine to make you vomit
What do you mean the Consortium never did anything illegal ? They literally had people answer in the place of others (step 3) and had Google open as a joker (step 5). Creative and hilarious yes, but isn't that at least fraud ?
Sponsor/ad was smooth af …I’m like damn I think I know this one 😂😂