# If you don't know who this is then you are what's wrong with the world. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 15, 2016, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211 "2016-01-15T10:12:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/61 "2016-01-19T02:44:20Z")
To be perfectly fair, Emmett Kelly has a deliberately more recognizable face than Norman Borlaug, too. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/62 "2016-01-19T03:51:49Z")
I knew seven out of ten, couldn’t get the three in the paintings. But when I clicked on them I recognized the names. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/63 "2016-01-19T16:56:53Z")
The people on the left are famous for their writings, the one in the right is famous for her looks. I probably know all the scientists but never cared what they look like so I can only recognize a few. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/64 "2016-01-19T17:06:15Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > The people on the left are famous for their writings, the one in the right is famous for her looks. She’s actually more famous, or I should say notorious, for her stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/65 "2016-01-19T17:35:04Z")
Interesting question: Does being familiar with great thinkers (scientists, writers, etc.) correlate _negatively, positively, or not at all_ with being familiar with pop culture celebrities? ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/66 "2016-01-19T17:47:03Z")
> [@Nelson\_Pike](#): > > I missed Paine and Elion. > > Paine was not close to being a scientist of sufficient stature to be included in an ID quiz of this nature. > > Nor was Sagan, a great popularizer, but not a great scientific genius. I recognized the image of Paine, but it took me a bit of searching memory files to name him. He’s definitely out of place, although still a great mind. Neither he nor the woman above him, are not iconic like the others. Freud, while iconic, was an idiot and shouldn’t be listed. A “popularizer” of science is as important as the others, especially given the context that the general public ought to know who these people are. And Sagan IS a genius in his ability to get through to the idiots that comprise the unwashed masses. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/67 "2016-01-19T17:55:37Z")
I never realized before that Tesla looks a lot like a _Three Stooges_ regular, [Emil Sitka](http://threestoogespictures.info/wp-content/uploads/vagabond_loafers_emil_sitka_anseers_phone.png). ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/68 "2016-01-19T17:59:18Z")
The scientist are great ones but also celebrities. If you’d had Heisenberg, Ohm, Bohr, Roentgen, Maxwell, Rosalind Franklin, Watson, Crick, and Leibniz, you could’ve made it a million times more difficult even to very scientifically literate people. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/69 "2016-01-19T18:28:36Z")
> [@GlowingDarkness](#): > > I found this funny and true. Do you think our world pays little respect to scientists? The name of the Kardashians new child is more known than the name of the first microwave. > > [http://cliptank.com/funny/if-you-dont-know-who-these-people-are-science-vs-snooki.php](http://cliptank.com/funny/if-you-dont-know-who-these-people-are-science-vs-snooki.php) Except for Elion, I know who each of the people on the left are, and I even recognized most of their pictures, but there were a few whose picture I did not recognize. Is knowing what some famous people look like really a requirement for not being what’s wrong with this world? And I did recognize that the person on the right is someone connected to something called “Kardashians” but only because some level of exposure to even the basest of popular culture is unavoidable, try as we might to avoid it. I guess I should hang my head in shame for being instrumental in destroying the world. :o ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/70 "2016-01-20T21:00:07Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > …and only this past week was playing with a piece of gadolinium in my bedroom… Is that what the kids are calling it these days? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/71 "2016-01-20T21:07:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I That spot should have gone to one of his contemporaries like Joseph Priestley He was genius on **Beverly Hills 90210**. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/72 "2016-01-20T22:47:54Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > And I did recognize that the person on the right is someone connected to something called “Kardashians” but only because some level of exposure to even the basest of popular culture is unavoidable, try as we might to avoid it. You avoided it pretty good. She has nothing to do with the Kardashians other than they are reality TV stars. Snooki was on Jersey Shore. Her 15 minutes have been up for a while. FTR I got everyone except for column 3 and I halfway thought it was Newton but couldn’t remember exactly what he looked like. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/73 "2016-01-20T23:10:07Z")
I feel like Freud set psychology back more than he helped to lead it forward, so I wouldn’t mind too much if people didn’t know his face. I’d rather Ulrich Neisser or someone who actually applied science to the question to be there. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/74 "2016-01-22T05:10:04Z")
I had never heard of Gertrude B. Elion. The others I at least know by reputation, and I have actually read some Freud. I immediately recognized Hawking, of course. Einstein, Sagan, Darwin, Newton, and Freud were easy, particularly in context, and I think I’ve seen that picture of Nicola Tesla before. I actually guessed Marie Curie for both the women, but realized it must be the one I noticed second, with the specialized glassware. Anyway, the important thing about each of these persons is not what they look like. I know who Thomas Paine was, I don’t have to recognize his picture. This is a silly and mean webpage. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2016, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211/75 "2016-01-22T05:19:32Z")
> [@GlowingDarkness](#): > > Are you saying people are innately predisposed to care more about frivolous things that beneficial things? I’m not sure about that. I still think that people can change their mentality. Wait, wait, wait. Are you calling _Freud_ beneficial? I kid, but I kind of thought the same as Sage Rat. He is, perhaps unfortunately, quite recognizable, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-dont-know-who-this-is-then-you-are-whats-wrong-with-the-world/743211.md?page=3)