Editing I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (section)

==Humour==
Most of the humour is detached from the real world. [[Steve Punt]] cites it as one of his favourite radio shows because "there's no points being made or targets being attacked."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/interact/myradfour/4you_myradio4_punt31.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041024042346/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/interact/myradfour/4you_myradio4_punt31.shtml |archive-date=2004-10-24|title=Steve Punt: My Radio 4|publisher=BBC (via [[Internet Archive]])}}</ref> Contemporary references occasionally made by participants are usually asides. The show does occasionally comment on the outside world, though from an innocent perspective. The game "Complete [[George W. Bush|George Bush]] Quotes" was once played, in which the teams had to supply endings for phrases that George Bush had begun (see [[Bushism]]), the teams complaining that they couldn't be any funnier than the original; similar rounds with guessing or completing quotes of other well-known public figures and personalities have also been played.

The regular panellists are represented by the chairman to be unfunny, struggling comedians who have been doing the same act for many years. The supposed personalities of the panellists as demonstrated by the chairman, fictitious but drawn from their public personas, is also a recurring theme. Barry Cryer was often represented as a tight-fisted alcoholic who could not wait to get to the pub (but who never bought a [[round of drinks]]), while Tim Brooke-Taylor was often represented as willing to take any small performance job in his quiet career and always campaigning for repeats of ''[[The Goodies (TV series)|The Goodies]]'' (something which Brooke-Taylor himself played upon in many rounds). Humphrey Lyttelton often delivered mock comments of how boring and low quality the show was and, particularly in his later years on the show, preferring to doze off rather than listen to the rounds. Pianist Colin Sell, meanwhile, is often the butt of jokes regarding his supposedly terrible musical skills (despite in reality being an accomplished musician). 

According to Willie Rushton, "The show gets quite filthy at times, but the audience love it."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
After fifty years on the air, one of the most important aspects of the show is its huge stock of [[running gag]]s which, if not always funny in themselves, can elicit huge anticipatory laughter from the studio audience. The mere mention of [[Lionel Blair]] often brought roars of laughter in anticipation of an outrageous double-entendre based on his supposed homosexuality (he was not gay).<ref name= "Guardian 2022">{{cite web| last= Lawson| first=Mark|authorlink= Mark Lawson| title= I'm Sorry, I [Still] Haven't a Clue … how radio's smuttiest show has beaten the censors for 50 years| url= https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/apr/11/im-sorry-i-havent-a-clue-how-radio-smuttiest-show-bbc-50-years | date= 11 April 2022| work= [[The Guardian]]| accessdate= 11 April 2022 }}</ref> Similarly, particular mention of points scorer Samantha or her male replacement Sven (neither of whom actually exists) will typically bring anticipatory laughter in anticipation of a sexual double-entendre.

In the "Film Club" round, any reference by Graeme Garden to ''[[Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia]]'' is sure to cause a similar response. The game "Wobbling Bunnies" was introduced several times by Humph, often with eager anticipation by the panel and audience, but time pressures always meant the game was never actually played. Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer frequently played the characters of two Scots, Hamish and Dougal, whose skits usually began with the phrase "You'll have had your tea?", as a [[stereotype|stereotypical]] Scots [[miser]] when receiving a guest never offers any food or drink. The characters were developed into their own Radio 4 show, ''[[Hamish and Dougal]]'', which also featured [[Jeremy Hardy]]. Another long-running gag involves one of the panellists putting forward a challenge of "hesitation" when another panellist leaves a long pause in the middle of speaking, a reference to another long-running Radio 4 panel show, ''[[Just a Minute]]''. (Likewise, occasionally on ''Just a Minute'', a panellist will make a challenge of "Mornington Crescent".) Chairman Humphrey Lyttelton frequently poked fun at ''Just a Minute'' and its chairman [[Nicholas Parsons]]. Lyttelton's successor, Jack Dee, continued with and expanded upon this, mimicking Parsons while he was still alive by constantly emphasising the long experience of some panellists, and the fact that the programme can be heard all over the world.