# Street Smarts...Celebrating and Mocking our Stupidity **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 6, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922 "2000-10-06T04:21:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/1 "2000-10-06T04:21:51Z")
I don’t know, it’s become a guilty pleasure. Especially since I can’t stand the _Jay-walking_ segments from the Jay Leno’s show on which this show is inspired. HOST: “What season comes after fall” IDIOT: “Autumn” … HOST: “When does Autumn start?” IDIOT: “January 2nd … that’s when the leaves start fallin’ and the air gets crisp.” The idea behind the game is that people are idiots. Thay ask three people elementary questions and you bet on which one gets it wrong. I now flip between this and _Gundam Wing_ at midnight(someone told me GW was a cool cartoon). Actually I’m not sure if I should enjoy this show, or mourn our educational system. It’s a guilty pleasure and I’m wondering if anyone else seen this show? Sample question…“Why can’t you ride a unicorn?” “That horn would really hurt.” “But isn’t the horn on the front of the head.” “But that’s where you ride it. On the head.” It’s a real show. I promise! ---
**Author:** ![Eo\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Eo\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eo_Echo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/2 "2000-10-06T04:24:56Z")
The sad truth IMHO: most people ARE that stupid. Give it a moment’s thought and you’ll realize you see them all day long. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/3 "2000-10-06T04:31:40Z")
I just caught the end of the program. They ask the peeople off the street to identify some guy from a photo. They said Bob Hope Walter Mattheau Captain Kangeroo The man in the picture was Albert Einstein. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/4 "2000-10-06T04:44:52Z")
I caught a bit of this the other night. My favorite question was “Why didn’t Abraham Lincoln run for a third term?” First Idiot: He was tired of being President. Second Idiot: You can only run for two terms. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2000, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/5 "2000-10-06T18:33:10Z")
I don’t think most people are stupid. Considering the amount of knowledge there is to be had, everyone is more ignorant than not. Even when it comes to what is often considered common knowledge, there will still be blind spots. If there is a stupidity factor, it’s when we try to answer even when we don’t know the answer. It took me years, but I finally realized that there’s nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know.” ---
**Author:** ![Fairy\_Princess\_Kitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Fairy\_Princess\_Kitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fairy_Princess_Kitty)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2000, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/6 "2000-10-07T06:52:38Z")
I do believe that many people really are that stupid, I go to a so called “gifted” school and there are still frightfully stupid people. Some of the freshmen don’t understand why we have seasons, even after a month’s worth of their science teacher’s lectures and labs using globes and flashlights. There will always be those that are less intelligent but do they have to make everyone else look bad? Kitty ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2000, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/7 "2000-10-07T06:58:02Z")
Way back in 8th grade, my poor history teacher was trying to delicately explain that in the Civil War, General Hooker was known for his way with the ladies. He actually told us that he “was well acquainted with the women who practiced the oldest profession in the world.” One of the people in my class raised his head. “Carpentry?” ---
**Author:** ![Kakkerlak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bb73d2/32.png) [@Kakkerlak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakkerlak)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2000, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-smarts-celebrating-and-mocking-our-stupidity/35922/8 "2000-10-07T08:04:42Z")
Street Smarts is just another interesting variation on pity programming, intended to make the viewer feel like a Renaissance man for having an eighth-grade education. Do you watch Jenny Jones or Jerry Springer? It’s the same theme; these folks are uneducated, dim-witted, low-living spectacles of American poverty. “There but for the grace of God go I…”. I unfortunately have seen a lot of daytime TV lately, as I’m spending my days at the side of my mother’s hospital bed. I hope desperately that this show doesn’t last. Even the bullies on the playground found out that it’s no fun beating up the defenseless. It would be fun to see an outtakes tape of the program? Folks on the street answering “That’s Albert Einstien, from when he was teaching at Oxford before the War”. I admit I’d probably take guilty pleasure in watching an episode called “Street Smarts Goes to Stanford”. Run up the score !