We Need Jungle, I'm Afraid

University Challenge went viral this week, as it is occasionally wont to do, for reasons tangentially related to the actual quizzing. If you haven't seen anything about the 'We Need Jungle' remix craze then I'll summarise here.

In the music round of Sheffield vs Aberdeen a few weeks ago, Rajan asked for the name of the dance music genre that had developed from the 1990s rave scene and reggae sound system culture. Aberdeen skipper Osborne guessed drum'n'bass, but Rajan shut her down by uttering the soon-to-be immortal (if he gets his way) line 'I can't accept drum'n'bass. We need jungle, I'm afraid'

We need jungle, I'm afraid.

Author and X (formerly Twitter) user Nathan Filer tweeted out a clip, requesting that the moment be sampled, and X (formerly Twitter) duly complied.

There were Guardian articles about it. Rajan wrote one himself too, and did the rounds on all the radio stations talking about how he was a big raver back in the day.

Not to disbelieve him, because he would have no reason to make this up, but his energy throughout all of this has been that of your mate who went to Uni and completely altered their personality. You'd go and see them and they'd suddenly be really into skiing, as if their family owned a chalet, but you'd never even seen them ride a bike down a hill.

You look around at your other mates, mouthing 'who is this guy?'

And obviously everyone is entitled to change, and people do change when they go to Uni (and after they leave). But, having known them for years, something feels off about this persona they have crafted, an uncanny valley version of trying to fit in.

I feel like a bit of a dick writing that, but I also feel like if the remix trend had been about jazz music there would have been an article from Rajan talking about his love for the mixolydian mode. So perhaps I'm just being cynical, but there was an air of opportunism about his response to the whole thing, which, even if his love of the Jungle scene is completely genuine, made it all seem a bit less cool.

Much cooler is the fact that an Aberdeen club (at which I went to my first gig. Not a rave, sadly) is hosting a Jungle night featuring Uni Challenge skipper Emily Osborne.

Anyway, this review is about the episode which followed the one which sparked the virality - Lincoln vs Imperial. Here's your first starter for ten.

Tatoglu, who scored an impressive 8 starters in their first round match, looked to pick up where he left off, and buzzed in early, but he gave salvation rather than liberation theology, losing five points and letting Imperial in through Jones. They took one bonus on UK geography, before Lee grabbed the next starter with Kwame Nkrumah.

Two more for Jones put Imperial firmly in control, with a lead of 75 points ahead of the first picture starter.

Lincoln's first points came at this stage, courtesy of Tatoglu, who recognises the flag of the short-lived South-American state Grand Colombia. A full set of flags on the bonuses got them going, but Jones stole the next starter from under the nose of Warde, who hesitated a second too long after buzzing.

Proving himself fallible, a neg from the impressive Jones gave Tatoglu another 10 points, and two bonuses closed the gap to less than fifty. You can't keep a good man down though, and a brilliant buzz of Rossum's Universal Robots gets Jones back on the horse.

This is turning into one of those matches where you are surprised when a starter doesn't go to a particular contestant. That's five for Jones and we're not at the halfway stage - if he keeps this up we're on for an all-timer of a performance.

The scores at 125-60, Lee takes the music starter for Imperial with Kurt Weill (the only 20th century German composer who shares a name homophonically with a former lead gutarist of the band The War on Drugs).

Imperial raced away at this point, sharing the starters around a bit more. A couple of blunders on the bonuses - coming in early with dose when the rest of the question specified a two word term; and mishearing Avogadro as avocado - barely matter as their score sashayed into the 200s.

Warde buzzed in with another incorrect interruption, not trying to offer a guess this time (I'm sorry, I don't know), but she is undeterred and redeems herself with Kirchoff on the very next question. Lincoln are going home, but that will make her feel a lot better.

With a few minutes remaining, the only real question left is whether or not Jones will manage to get into double figures himself. A pair in succession put him on nine, leaving him tantalisingly close. Warde and Baker thwarted him, dragging Lincoln into a respectable three figures, but nine is nothing to be sniffed at, and he'll have a few more bites at the apple, with Imperial completing the quarter-final line up.

Lincoln 120 - 250 Imperial

A dominant performance from Imperial, there, who look among the favourites going into the quarter finals. Lincoln looked good in the first round, but they were against weaker opposition, and had no answer for Jones' speed on the buzzer.

Only one Oxford and one Cambridge college made it through to the last eight this year, along with three London Unis. Manchester, Sheffield and Open round out a stellar line up.

Trinity, Cam

Open

Christ Church, Ox

UCL

Manchester

Birkbeck

Sheffield

Imperial

My prediction for the semis would be Open, Trinity, Manchester and Imperial, but what do I know?

See you later for Manchester vs Birkbeck.