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Meet the three Jews behind the Four Opinions OnlyConnect team
The very Jewish team went viral after their performance on the hit BBC show on Monday night
August 29, 2024 13:13
The very Jewish team went viral after their performance on the hit BBC show on Monday night
August 29, 2024 13:13There are certain jokes that only make sense to Jews, a sort of coded language that only members of the Tribe understand.
And that trademark Jewish humour was on full display this week after a screenshot of a very Jewish team name on the BBC game show Only Connect.
The Four Opinions team - made up of three Jews named Jacob Epstein, Rafi Dover and Aron Carr.
One fan of the show wrote on X/Twitter: “What a name,” while another said “I cannot express how much I love this.”
The team went through to the next round having beat opponents the Bean Farmers.
Only Connect is a British television quiz show presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell, in which teams compete in a tournament to find connections between seemingly unrelated clues.
Mitchell took to X/Twitter to join in with the praise for the team name.
She wrote: “If there was a prize for names alone...”
If there was a prize for names alone...
— Victoria Coren Mitchell (@VictoriaCoren) August 26, 2024
Speaking to the JC about the team's name and appearance Rafi said: “I won’t say too much but i can say based on our win on Monday we will appear at least two more times.”
Filming for the series, which is often the most-watched programme on BBC Two, is still ongoing.
Rafi said: “I am going to take credit for the name. But I will let the others get in touch if they disagree.”
Other social media users joked “4.5 opinions would have been more accurate.”
But not everyone understood, one social media user wrote: “I don’t get it.”
For Four Opinions contestant Rafi coming up with the quiz name was “a way to say something about ourselves. I think we are all quite opinionated and we did want a Jewish name for our all Jewish team.”
Rafi, who is from Manchester and lives in London, met his teammates at the University of Cambridge.
He said: “We had been talking about wanting to go on the show for some time and we had applied before but we couldn’t make it work because filming was over Shabbat.”
This time the BBC “re-arranged” filming so that the team could take part and still observe Shabbat.
"That was nice of them,” Rafi told the JC.
"And we are not the only Jewish contestants in this series either.”
He said the team nearly called themselves “The Jews” but decided that did not “sound right. Imagine Victoria announcing The Jews going up against whoever the other team was.”
He added: “I think our name is subtle and fun enough that it works.”
TheTalmudics was another possible team name having all studied it together.
And team member Jacob was a stand-in for his brother Alex who couldn’t take part as filming clashed with his honeymoon.
Rafi said: “Just as well because Jacob got us out of a big hole on Monday’s show.”
Rafi said: “I think the show is one of those easy to watch things that more people watch that you realise.
"I have had lots of nice messages from people.”
He added: “You don’t really get used to seeing yourself on TV. You overanalyse how you look and sound but I have enjoyed it.”