I remember watching this one and thinking he should’ve gotten credit.
The “What month does a pregnant woman start showing” answer of “September” has to be the stupidest answer that sounds like it could be right.
On the Price is Right a contestant was playing the Cliffhanger game. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the game has a mountain climber (whose name is Hans, from what I understand, though Bob never calls him this) who goes up a 30°-40° slope, marked by 25 numbers before it reaches the top where it meets a cliff. The object of the game is to guess the prices of three small items correctly (usually priced $20 to $50) and then win a larger prize (trip, furniture, home entertainment system, etc.) For every dollar missed in each of the three smaller prizes Hans takes a step. If, over the course of three guesses he takes more than 25 steps (the combined total difference of the three guesses exceeds $25) Hans falls off the cliff and the contestant loses the game.
The contestant in question was presented the three small items to price, the first of which was a toy guitar. When Bob asked him how much he thinks the guitar costs the contestant said, “Two thousand dollars.” Mr. Barker, being the graciously forgiving and saintly patient sole that he is, gave the contestant several chances to reassess the value of the first item. After going around several times, the contestant finally settled on $800 as his guess and Bob decided this was his final answer. “He says eight hundred…” Bob says as he decides to continue with the game, realizing that the contestant is hopelessly ignorant. Hans then begins his ascent towards his inevitable demise. Bob and everyone else in the audience knows the game is over as they patiently wait for Hans to meet his fate upon passing the $25 mark. It turned out the guitar was $23.
I guess I wooshed myself there. If the original Jeopardy question included the word “libertine”, then “rake” was the answer they wanted, contemporarily “Ho” might seem right, but then it could be argued that “Ho’s” aren’t seeking pleasure.
You forgot the yodeling. The yodeling totally makes that game.
Several years ago, there was a Millionnaire question asking something along the lines of
“If you mix blue and yellow, what colour would you get?”
a) Red
b) Green
c) Purple
d) Orange"
I think the contestant used all of his lifelines, and may even have still gotten it wrong. It was the first question.
Apparently, though, they show later found out the guy was severely colour-blind… I think they let him play again, but might not have fared much better!
No one said ancient Romans :smack:
On Family Feud.
Question: Name something you might look through if you suspected your partner was having an affair (email, wallet, phone bill, etc)
Answer: Binoculars
Millionare. The 100 dollar question.
Q: Which of these phrases is a common way of saying “I can’t take it anymore”?
a) “That’s the last stick”
b) “That’s the last straw”
c) “That’s the last leaf”
d) “I’m moving to Canada”
A: a) “That’s the last stick”.
And this one from Millionare also. Can’t stop laughing.
Okay, this is from National Lampoon, but I think it fits the spirit of the thread:
Q:Name 3 famous Mickeys.
A:Mickey Mouse,Mickey Mantle,and Mickey Way.
How about the stupid strategic errors people make?
I can think of two recent ones:
On an episode of ‘Deal or No Deal’, a player quit the game while having amounts something like this left:
500
10,000
500,000
750,000
The banker’s offer was a little under $300,000, as I recall. Maybe 285,000. The player took the money and quit.
Now look at the possible outcomes of the various selections:
There’s a 50/50 chance that the player will pick one of the low values. In which case, the offer would jump to over 400,000.
If the player picks the 500,000, the offer is STILL about $250,000.
If the player picks the 750,000, the offer drops to maybe 170,000.
So the player had about 1/4 chance of losing less than a third of what she had accumulated, a 1/4 chance of staying roughly even, and a 50/50 chance of inceasing the money by about $120,000. However, assuming the player picks one of the low numbers, she’s now faced with a situation like this:
500
500,000
750,000.
Now the player is almost free-rolling. With an offer of $400,000, if the player picks the $500, the offer jumps to 625,000. If the player picks the $500,000, the offer is still about 375,000. If the player picks the 750,000, the offer is about 250,000, which is just about the point at which the player quit.
So basically, this player walked away from a 1/4 chance to lose only a third of what she had accumulated, and a 3/4 chance of either staying even or making almost 625,000.
The amazing thing about the show is that almost none of the players seem capable of understanding the math behind it. When I’m watching it, I can usually predict the banker’s offer off the top of my head within a few thousand bucks, just as a guesstimate. But the contestants never seem to have a clue, and make some boneheaded decisions because of it. You’d think that if you got an invite to the show, you might actually spend some time figuring out the optimal strategy for playing it.
The other boneheaded error I saw recently was on the horrible ‘identity’. The player was left with 3 unknown people - one was obvious, and the other two were pretty much a coin flip as to who they might be. Now, on that show you get a ‘mistaken identy’ freebie that allows you to make an error for free. The catch is that if you get down to the last two people, you lose your mistaken identity, and if you guess wrong you lose.
So at 3 players, one of which was obvious, she was guaranteed to win if she just played correctly - guess at one of the two who’s a coin flip. If you get it wrong, you lose your mistaken identity, but then you know who all three are, and you win. But instead, she picked the obvious one, leaving the last two for the end. Then, with no ‘mistaken identity’ freebie left, she was facing a 50/50 chance of losing it all if she guessed incorrectly. Stupid, stupid. As I recall, she went for it, and won.
The thing about Deal or No Deal is that if you look at how to become a contestant, it would seem to cater to stupidity. Here’s the requirements to apply:
- Make a 5-minute personal videotape of you and the supporters you wish to have appear with you on TV.
- Fill out an application (include a recent photo of each person)
- Send it to our contestant department.
Yeah, that’s it. Really.
I have to believe that the producers don’t want anyone who can do math in their heads and can actually calculate odds and understand how to best play the game. They want idiots with idiotic relatives that agonize over what should be a simple decision for five freaking minutes.
Many years ago on Family Feud they asked “Name a Country in South America.”
One answer was “Rio de Janeiro”
The thing that made this really stupid was that, if a majority of the Polled Audience had actually answered “Rio de Janeiro”, it would’ve been right. Heck, if they answered “Pizza”, that would’ve been right, too.
I suspevct this is why they stopped asking fact-based questions and went to preferences and the like.
By the way, I attended a taping of FF back during Richard Dawson’s heyday. I was majorly disappointed that nobodt polled us to get those “Suvey Says” answers. I always assumed that they surveyed the studio audience. Guess i was wrong.
Not quite as stupid as some of the examples given, but…it was a clue on Jeopardy! (it may have been a Double Jeopardy question) that was something to the effect of “This vehicle is considered to be the first SUV.”
The contestant’s response was “Dodge Grand Caravan.”
Four thirty, time for Wapner. Four thirty, time for Wapner. I’m a really excellent driver…
I think it actually did say ancient Romans.
Now now, let’s not be mean. They want people with personalities who are going to put on a show. Because that’s what television producers do… they produce… a show. It gets ratings, which gets money. That’s some pretty simple math right there. 
If you look at that clip, about 1:04 in you see the other family looking anxiously at the board, as if they half expect Europe to be up there - instead of realizing it’s a retarded answer and celebrating.
It is indeed amusing that none of the 5 people said “Hey guys, you know…”
Also from Family Feud lightning round:
Q: A popular flavor of ice cream.
A: Broccoli
:eek: