It's a strange new world out there

[Big Magilla]

The Huffington Post has a collection of stupid TV contestants on YouTube. The dumbest is probably the former AMerican Idol contestant on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader who thought Europe was a country, France wasn't and never heard of Hungary although she had heard of Turkey.

Here's one from Jeopardy I'm surprised they let past the censors:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010....3D&&&&&

[Big Magilla]

I think we've beat this poor horse enough.

I like Jeopardy. I watched tonight's episode in which there were three sharp people, a much more satisfying viewing experience. None got the final jeopardy question right, but it was a difficult one relating to the origin of a word none of them were familiar with.

I wonder if they don't pair smart people with smart people and not so smart ones with not so smart ones. That group last night was not smart about any topic in the last part of the show.

Not knowing who won an Oscar for what is no big deal, but not knowing the difference between a "screen legend" and a minor comic of more recent vintage is sad. It's just sad. It's not as if old movies aren't in constant circulation on DVD, TCM, Cinemax, Starz and so on.

Perhaps the young woman who pulled Rodney Dangerfield's name out of a hat has seen Back to School or Easy Money but not City Lights or The Gold Rush. Perhaps she was raised in a home where back and white movies such homes exist.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1268540886

[Sonic Youth]

Okay. Right. Because they didn't perform as well as you thought they should have, and they didn't know the final answer was Charlie Chaplin. That = moron.

No, it's because they didn't even try as was the case with the other questions in other areas of expertise they were given earlier.

Why go on a game show and not attempt to answer questions or throw out stupid answers like "Rodney Dangerfield"?

If I remember correctly, the Final Jeapordy topic is revealed; then the contestents decide on how much of their winnings they choose to bet; and only then is the question is revealed.

If the question is a lost cause, why not just throw out an answer for the heck of it?

[Mister Tee]

First of all, I watched the show, and it wasn't a college tournament or anything -- just a regular batch which happened to skew young. I of course knew the answer instantly, but was hardly surprised none of them did.

Second, I understand dws' take, for a specific reason: A few years back, there was a final Jeopardy answer about the largest state included in the Louisiana Purchase. Kevin Drum, then at Washington Monthly, was incredulous anyone who could qualify for Jeopardy could not know the correct answer. Well, I consider myself pretty bright in alot of areas, and friends have been urging me for years to try out for Jeopardy...but I didn't know the answer.

Here's the thing: there are plenty of smart people (as Jeopardy proves, night after night) but nearly everyone has blind spots. Ask me politics, baseball, movies, I'd like my chances. Plenty of other areas I have enough scattered knowledge to get lucky. But there are going to be subjects (in the science arena, particularly) where I'd sit there dumbly and watch some other contestant run the board.

To echo/paraphrase what Damien said -- if I found myself on the show and The Oscars came up as the final, I'd view it as God smiling on me. If it came up Physics instead, I'd figure it wasn't meant to be.

[kaytodd]

They could've asked plenty of questions that any of us might have missed, but that wouldn't make us morons. It just means that they asked a question that was out of our wheelhouse, or that we were too nervous and our mind blanked out.

Amen to that. I am often proud of myself when I can reel off the correct answers while watching Jeopardy or Millionaire. Put make me fly on a plane to Los Angeles, stand behind a podium with bright lights, TV cameras and the eyes of a live audience on me and see how many correct answers I can reel off.

[Big Magilla]

Okay. Right. Because they didn't perform as well as you thought they should have, and they didn't know the final answer was Charlie Chaplin. That = moron.

No, it's because they didn't even try as was the case with the other questions in other areas of expertise they were given earlier.

Why go on a game show and not attempt to answer questions or throw out stupid answers like "Rodney Dangerfield"? If you know anything about the guy at all you know he was famous for not getting any respect. Wouldn't an Oscar for a twenty yer old work been a form of respect? It boggles the mind.

[dws1982]

It wasn't the kindest thing to say, but aren't you taking it a little too hard, dws?

I am. But I used to compete in high school quiz bowl competitions, and there were plenty of times where I was faced with a question that I didn't know (but it seemed easy to everyone else), or where something I should have known just completely escaped me. I have to stand up for these people who may have been in the same position.

Plus, a friend of mine tried out for Jeopardy, and the tests are pretty difficult based on what she said I can't imagine they let any idiot on.

[Sonic Youth]

It wasn't the kindest thing to say, but aren't you taking it a little too hard, dws?

[Damien]

If the Final Jeopardy category was "Science" or "Oceans of thw World," I'd be sunk. But I have seen it a few times when the final category was "Oscars" -- ahhh, Nirvanna.

[dws1982]

Okay. Right. Because they didn't perform as well as you thought they should have, and they didn't know the final answer was Charlie Chaplin. That = moron. There are a lot of reasons why someone would do poorly on Jeopardy, and being a moron might be one of them, but it's not the only reason.

If anyone here ever goes on Jeopardy and get a final Jeopardy asking you to "identify the author famous for his dark writings about American life who became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature", don't even think about puttin anything other than "Who is Sinclair Lewis", or someone on some Literature message board way out there in the vast reaches of cyberspace will be calling you a moron, when in reality you were just a contestant who for whatever reason, didn't know the answer.



Edited By dws1982 on 1268510355

[Big Magilla]

Trust me, they were morons.

[dws1982]

I don't see any reason why they should be considered morons for not knowing this. It's not exactly common Oscar knowledge, and as was mentioned below, most people aren't going to think of Charlie Chaplin when the question is about a movie made in the 50's and released in 70's.

They could've asked plenty of questions that any of us might have missed, but that wouldn't make us morons. It just means that they asked a question that was out of our wheelhouse, or that we were too nervous and our mind blanked out.



Edited By dws1982 on 1268499703

[Big Magilla]

I actually watched the last half of the show. The three of them were kind of all around dumb, missing easy questions on other subjects as well, but everyone knows who Charlie Chaplin was, right?

I could see maybe coming up with Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd or Groucho Marx if they weren't up on the Oscars, but all three answers were out of left field. Milton Berle was at least someone whose film career goes back to the silent days, although it was as Mr. Television of the late 1940s and early 1950s that he is best known. Keenan Wynn? Maybe the guy was thinking of his father, who was more of a legend in vaudeville than films.

But Rodney freakin' Dangerfield?

[FilmFan720]

I watched the episode, and it was not a college episode. It was a regular season episode with three younger contestants. I would say they all were in their 20s or early 30s (they all had real sounding jobs).

I was also surprised by the answers. It was an especially difficult question, but everyone did laugh at the Dangerfield answer (including Alex Trebeck). Keenan Wynn and Milton Berle seemed to come out of nowhere.

Also, in defense, I bet if you ask most non-movie geeks when Charlie Chaplin made movies, they would say up until the 1930s...he is thought of as a silent film star, and a lot of people don't think of him making movies as late as the 1950s (or the 1970s!)



Edited By FilmFan720 on 1268491004

[OscarGuy]

I think there are separate requirements for the college episodes of Jeopardy. But, this question is a bit too specific for someone other than a OSCAR fan to know. If you had ask something about his trademark mustache or something about his early silent work, they might have keyed in on that, but the Berle and Dangerfield ones aren't acceptable. If you know who Milton Berle is, you know he was a TV star...and Dangerfield is a dumbass answer. I do give credit for the Keenan Wynn answer, although they are still about 10-20 years off when Chaplin worked with Wynn's early career, it's still a rather obscure name that at least shows he was thinking about old stars...