With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy’s Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader
Take the test and then check answers at the end of the article.
How’d you compare to the beauty queens scores? I got 14 out of 20 right. Test is a bit harder for me since I’m not European. Also I’m not up on pop culture like a 18 year old is.
There were 40 questions worth half a point each: They included:
1, Which actor won the Oscar for Best Actor for the film The Artist in 2012?
2, How many seasons of Desperate Housewives have there been?
3, In what year did Michael Jackson die?
4, Who wrote Madame Bovary?
5, What is the Goncourt Prize?
6, Which show designer has the trademark of red soles?
7, Who is Anna Wintour?
8, In which ocean is the island of Mauritius?
9, Which historic event do the French celebrate on July 14?
10, Who is the current French prime minister and to which political party does he belong?
11, Who were the two candidates for the U.S. presidential election?
12, Who was Steve Jobs?
13, What is the average price of a baguette?
14, Which team won the World Cup in 2010?
15, Who is Usain Bolt?
16, Complete the following set of letters: A, E,I, …
17, What is the square root of 9?
18, What year did the Berlin Wall come down?
19, What does IMF stand for?
20, What event has Queen Elizabeth II been celebrating this year?
The top contestant scored 17.5 and the next two each got 16 out of 20 points, or 87.5% and 80% respectively. I thought the question about which ocean Mauritius is located in was kind of from left field, until I read the article. The contestants were on Mauritius when they took the test!
I got 15 correct. I know nothing about fashion, and haven’t been to France in 20 years, so don’t know the average price of a baguette. Some of the questions were trivially easy, if you ask me.
7 wrong, mostly the fashion ones. World Cup question was a lucky guess. I don’t think “fashion chick” flies for #7, but “Flaubert’s terrible book” and “Jubilee or some shit” are okay for #3 and #20. DH length was a guess, too.
Do 18 year old girls know much about a show that started when they were 10? Most of the 20 year old people I know barely know what the Simpsons are.
Wow, seriously? Time flies. A “new” album comes out at least once a year to confuse you.
Ohh, easy… wait, prime minister? Who cares? Granted, they should have an easier job knowing their own.
Frencocentric, but even then? A girl from Paris is supposed to have the same answer as one from Grenoble? Or Les Bâtons, Provence?
Crappy question. They started breaking it down in [19XX], and finished in [19XX+1]
I got 12 of 20, but like thelurkinghorror, I knew not to give the name of the president as opposed to the lesser-known prime minister. It would have been especially embarrassing for the Mauritius question to have been missed by the contestants from Mayotte and Réunion, both of which are islands in the ocean where the contest was held!
I wouldn’t have done as well if my wife hadn’t known a few of the pop culture questions. I guessed on the year M. Jackson died and lucked out. My college lit class helped me with Madame Bovary and the Goncourt Prize.
The red soles shoe question would be easy for any model. Luckily I had read an article about the designer not long ago and remembered his last name.
Still, I barely got a passing grade. I guess I’m not smarter than a French Beauty Queen.
1, Which actor won the Oscar for Best Actor for the film The Artist in 2012? Most movies today are absolute crap. Dunno and don’t fucking care. 2, How many seasons of Desperate Housewives have there been? I have yet to watch a single episode of this series, and don’t give a shit.
**3, In what year did Michael Jackson die? ** Not that long ago, and I don’t particularly care. 4, Who wrote Madame Bovary? Most literature is boring BS. Dunno and don’t give a rat’s ass. 5, What is the Goncourt Prize? A French thing? 6, Which show designer has the trademark of red soles? He’s probably gay, so dunno and don’t give a shit. 7, Who is Anna Wintour? Dunno, never heard of her. Somebody French? 8, In which ocean is the island of Mauritius? No brainer. Indian. 9, Which historic event do the French celebrate on July 14? Also no brainer. Bastille Day, when something like a half-dozen ODCs were sprung from prison by a disgusting unwashed mob. 10, Who is the current French prime minister and to which political party does he belong? Dunno, don’t care about anything French. 11, Who were the two candidates for the U.S. presidential election? Obama (generic product of the political machine in Illinois, one of the most corrupt states in the Union) and Romney (a product of the wacko present-day incarnation of the fallen-on-hard-times Republican Party). 12, Who was Steve Jobs? A dude with lots of money? 13, What is the average price of a baguette? In Canada, about a buck plus change. 14, Which team won the World Cup in 2010? Dunno, don’t give a rat’s ass about jock events. 15, Who is Usain Bolt? A pseudonym for Uriah Heep?
**16, Complete the following set of letters: A, E,I, … ** Duh, O, U, and sometimes Y? Learned that in the first grade, when a primary school education was still worth something. 17, What is the square root of 9? Duh, 3? See 16 above. 18, What year did the Berlin Wall come down? Duh, 1989? For those whose cultural horizons extend beyond the Clinton years. 19, What does IMF stand for? Impossible Missions Force, obviously. (Unless, of course, you were subjected to undergrad courses in Economics, in which case it’s the International Monetary Fund.) 20, What event has Queen Elizabeth II been celebrating this year? Uhm, 60 years on the throne? (I was living in England when she celebrated her Silver Jubilee in '77. Those were the days…!)
I got 14 out of 20 right. Test is a bit harder for me since I’m not European. Also I’m not up on pop culture like a 18 year old is.