WATCH: Celebrity Comedians Roast Maltese Musician On Legendary BBC Quiz Show
Francesco Sultana is the multi-instrumentalist behind Maltese alternative sweethearts Plato’s Dream Machine. But for fans of legendary British quiz show Q.I., he might have a new nickname; vegetarian goatsucker.
Halfway through last week’s episode (aired on the 2nd of February), a photo of Francesco came up on the Q.I. screen following a cheeky question by host Sandi Toksvig about vegetarian goatsuckers. As is customary in the show (which is now in its 15th year), the photo had very little to do with the question, which ended up being about a breed of birds also known as nightjars. But of course, that didn’t stop the panel of celebrity comedians from roasting Francesco for a couple of minutes.
Celebrity comedian Jimmy Carr, as always, was the first to interject, asking Toskvig, “Can you show that on television?” Her reply was an equally hilarious, “I think that’s taking vaping too far.”
Q.I. staple Alan Davies joined in on the fun, and while he did successfully identify Francesco’ instrument as a goat bagpipe, that didn’t stop him from laughing at the photo. But the panel wasn’t quite done with the Maltese musician yet.
“There’s just something odd to his hair,” Toskvig started, to which standup comedian and TV presenter Jason Manford replied, “Yeah his hair, that’s the problem with that picture.” Manford went on to say that Francesco “must eat the rest of the goat, surely, before it becomes his instrument”.
Francesco’s big moment comes in at 17:29
It turns out that the photo of Francesco is a stock image from 28th November 2015.
Playing the żaqq, or ċirimella (which is a traditional Maltese instrument similar to bagpipes but made from the carcass of a dead goat), Francesco had performed for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at the Kalkara Heritage site on their final day of their visit to the islands. Malta was then hosting the Commonwealth Heads of State Summit.
“I actually hadn’t heard of the programme before,” Francesco told Lovin Malta. “But when my friends posted a screenshot on my wall, it didn’t take long for it to be on my radar. The photo is on Getty as public domain, but I have no idea how they managed to find it. I Googled ‘goat bagpipe, ‘goat sucker’, ‘sucking a goat’… I even searched for ‘goat vaping’.”
Since that fateful photo was taken all the way back in 2015, Francesco cut his hair way shorter, but has recently considered growing it longer again. “Now that I heard what they had to say about my hairstyle, I’m having second thoughts,” he told Lovin Malta.
“One thing’s for sure,” Francesco said. “I’m glad I seem to have created the new trend of goat vaping!”
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