So I am watching The Game Show Network with My Beloved and something called America Says pops up. Basically, they poll a bunch of people and the contestants have to guess what the most common answers are, being given first letters followed by a space, sort of a variation of Family Feud, and they a limited amount of time to take turns shouting out possible answers. Well, the question this time was something along the line of “If you were afraid of heights what would you NOT want to be on top of?” There are four members on a team and they take turns giving possible answers, Well, the first time they get to the third member of the team she shouts out “River!”. Never mind that it was an astoundingly stupid answer to that question-At that time there were no words on the board that started with the letter “R”. The next people in line go on to give their guesses(occasionally getting one right) and then it is that lady’s turn again and she shouts out “River” again.
At this time I am wondering how the host of the show is stopping himself from walking off stage.
But wait-There’s more! There is still enough time on the clock for her to have one more shot, and you will never guess in a million billion trillion years what word she shouted out just before the buzzer sounded.
The rounds in “America Says” are timed, and a player can’t make a guess until the player before them makes a guess. So if you haven’t thought of a good answer that fits when your turn comes up, you’re better off shouting an obviously wrong guess immediately, rather than wasting time on your guess trying to think of something.
Starts around 12:56, goes on for 8 minutes. Ends with Steve saying, “Let’s just flip that shit over.”
^^ That was classic!
Apparently you can say “pass”, which accomplishes the same thing without making you look like a blithering idiot.
Watch Funny You Should Ask sometime. It’s basically the same game as the old Hollywood Squares, but it’s blatantly obvious the contestants haven’t a clue as to whether or not the celebrities are lying. They guess at random and still score below 50%. (I seem to remember contestants were a lot sharper 50–60 years ago than they are today.)
I now tell foreigners to watch US game shows to see just how stupid the average American is.
This is why I like to watch foreign games shows. To see how stupid the average foreigner is.
My favorite dumb quiz show contestant ever was asked to name “Five major airlines in ten seconds”
They answered (in this order)
- United
- TWA
- Southwest
- FedEx
- Boing (Yes, Boing)
Still one of my faves from Wheel of Fortune: “A group of pill-pushers”, the real answer “A group of well-wishers” . Particularly funny to someone in the recovery community
True, there are dumb people everywhere, but Americans have it down to a fine art.
Maybe smart people can’t be bothered to go on inane quiz shows?
Heck, even people with brains have brain farts in front of the camera. My mom was on Jeopardy back in the Art Fleming days, and she flubbed something that even I, at 17, knew. But It was obvious to me that the stress of being on TV was affecting her otherwise chill demeanor.
Maybe game shows recruit dumb people because they don’t want to pay the sums smart people would earn? None of the dolts who now come on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? have a chance in Hell of ever coming close to $1,000,000.
Or maybe they make sure to put on “average” people to appeal to the widest possible audience and keep their advertising revenues high? Watch Cash Cab sometime if you want to revel in mediocrity.
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public!
While we’re on the subject of game show contestants …
If you’re presented with a question and 4 possible answers, and you know the answer
is (for example) A, then you’re not going to look any smarter by telling us that it’s not
B and it’s not C and it’s not D first.
Don’t ever watch Only Connect, then
Then there’s the classic Newlywed Game faux pas…
Bob Eubanks: where’s the weirdest place you ever had the urge to make whoopie?
Contestant: that’d be in the butt, Bob.
But that one was never shown to the public until much later, and even then it was censored.
It was rumor and urban legend for years, and Eubanks denied for a long time that it ever happened before finally admitting it did.
SNL’s take on clueless contestants with Tom Hanks doing a fantastic Pat Sajak impression.
A few points.
First, you know how Jimmy Kimmel (or whoever) will show you clips of people on the streets of New York being asked to name the President of the United States, and like 15 in a row will say “Abraham Lincoln” or stare blankly at the camera? What Kimmel isn’t showing you are the 50 people who correctly answered “Joe Biden.” Further, imagine you’re walking through the streets of New York, going about your day, and all of a sudden some random jackass shoves a microphone in your face and asks you a question. You’re going to be taken aback.
Second, it’s easy to sit here and arm-chair quarterback these people when we’re comfortably watching from our homes at our leisure. I can imagine that, under the lights, with the clock ticking down, and Steve Harvey looking at me expectantly, I’d utter something stupid, and I consider myself pretty smart.
Third, let’s not kid ourselves: Family Feud and the like aren’t searching for the smartest contestants. If people didn’t give stupid answers, people wouldn’t watch the show. That’s literally the appeal: watching people make fools of themselves.