For those not familiar, Street Smarts is a quiz show. Two contestants view tapes of the show host asking questions of three people on the street. The contestants then try to guess whether the people got the answers to the questions right or wrong. That’s the abbreviated version, and it’s enough to give you the idea.
Now, I don’t know whether they go out of their way to find really pathetic people, or whether they manufacture them out of whole cloth. But if the show is on the up-and-up, it is really scary. Some of these people are graduate students. Some are working in customer service and assistance. Some own businesses.
And they give these kinds of answers:
The moon rotates around what?The night.
A filly is a female what?Person from Philadelphia.
In what movie did Ben Stein say “Bueller, Bueller, Bueller”?PCQ
If you have half an apple, and I take away half of that, how much do you have left?None of it.
A rolling stone gathers what?Satisfaction. No, wait! NO Satsifaction. Right?
[…mortified stare…]
Have any of you seen this show? And does it scare you as much as it does me?
Yes I been cursed enough to catch it when nothing better was on. All I can say is the people on that show have no business mingling around with us in society.
I’ve seen that monstrosity as well. When watching it, all I could think was “My God, where did they find these complete idiots?” Then I realized they tape in LA.
I’ve seen the show a couple of times and honestly it does scare me. Some of the people they find seem to be in areas you would expect, ah, “not smarter than the average bear” people to be in, but others seem perfectly average, normal, everyday citizens, and they don’t know what shape Florida is.
I looooove this show It makes me feel so superior sometimes. Some of the “street folks” are legitimately funny. Of course others are incredibly stupid. But I’m sure (at least I hope) that they question tons of people and then take the ones that will come across the most memorable, whether that means “idiotic” or “funny.”
I do think the host is great too. He does a great job of playing off those people.
Also, Zev, just fyi, they film the show in LA but the people they question are from all over. I recognized the interior of one of the malls here in Nashville. Just goes to show, you can find dumb people everywhere…except in SDMB of course
My guess is that many people give a sarcastic answer to elementary questions (might even be prompted to do so,) and those are the ones that are shown, to allow the viewer to feel more intelligent.
You’re putting people on the spot who aren’t used to things like television cameras. It doesn’t surprise me that people come up with some really stupid answers while they’re under that kind of pressure.
The people who appear on this show are instructed to give an answer, any answer, rather than say “I don’t know.” That’s why their answers are so funny.
My wife watches this, primarily because it’s a TV show. It makes me itch. I know I should interpret it as a show making fun of stupid people, but considering the contestants are usually not much smarter, it doesn’t.
[resurrect]
Oh, wow. If you haven’t seen this show, you’ve got to find an episode to view. Such questions like:
[ul]
[li]The Tour de France is a bicycle race run primarily through what European country?[/li]‘Canada?’
[li]Which two countries border the US?[/li]‘Um…Mexico? And, uh … Cuba?’
[li]What kind of fruit are dried apricots made from?[/li]‘Peaches.’
[li]Use this world correctly correctly in a sentence: ‘puny’.[/li]‘I’m getting some puny tonight!’ (pronouncing it “poony” instead of “pyoony”)
[/ul]
Now, a few of the questions aren’t quite so easy, usually culturally-specific questions, like, “Complete the verse of this hit pop song: ‘What the world needs now, is blank’.” Correct answer: ‘love, sweet love.’ (Burt Bacharach, What the World Needs Now is Love) Answer I would have given: ‘is another folk singer, like I need a hole in the head.’ (Uncle Cracker, Teen Angst)
But, good God, the fact that, not only are people this ignorant, but that they’re willing to show their ignorance just to be on TV is mind-boggling.
[/resurrect]
it seems like all the really dumb answers come out of the fact they are instructed that they NEED to give an answer no matter what instead of saying "don’t know’. and alot of the people on are really comedian types.
It makes me feel so superior sometimes. Some of the “street folks” are legitimately funny. Of course others are incredibly stupid. But I’m sure (at least I hope) that they question tons of people and then take the ones that will come across the most memorable, whether that means “idiotic” or “funny.”