# When otherwise intelligent people stun you with their lack of knowledge. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 16, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025 "2002-04-16T22:15:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/41 "2002-04-18T19:43:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by voguevixen \* > \*\*Once in high school I was working on a paper and my mom asked what it was about. I said “euthanasia” and she said “Oh? What about them?” > \*\* My Bioethics professor says one of his colleagues assigned a paper on euthanasia and got back an essay from one student about Japanese youth culture. I accused him of making the story up, but he swears it is true. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/42 "2002-04-18T21:09:14Z")
Okay, this isn’t quite doing with the OP because the OP spefically asks for “otherwise intelligent people” and this came out of the mouth of a co-worker who is known to be a dimmer bulb… She was recounting the story of a serious illness her sister suffered while she was a university student. She had been rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, and from our co-worker’s description, it sounded very much as if her sister had suffered a brain aneurism! :eek: She almost died! My co-workers explanation?.. “Yeah, it’s what happens, you know, when you go to school and think too much. It makes you go cuckoo.” She told this to another co-worker and me and we were both too dumbfounded to be able to utter a word in response. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/43 "2002-04-18T21:15:14Z")
My Dad has a PhD in Math, works as a scientist and has traveled around the world for several decades. He knows just about everything, which is why he surprises me once in a while by saying or doing something moronic. Once we were using the deep fryer and he thought there was too much burnt gunk caught in the wire basket, so he took the empty basket over to the sink and ran water over it. Then he took the basket, profusely dripping water, and went to put it back in the bubbling oil. “No, Dad!” we cried, trying to stop him, but Dad, whose BS was in physics, went ahead and put the dripping basket into the oil, which promptly sizzled up like crazy and sent Dad cringing to the kitchen floor. Guess he didn’t know he’d get that reaction by putting water into sizzling oil. I don’t know what his belief system is; we never went to church and he probably worships at the altar of science but he does believe in some kind of higher power, as far as I know. Anyway, we had just agreed that both of us have met people who’ve gone to church their whole lives but don’t know anything about what happens in the Bible. Then Dad says “I find it suspicious that Easter and Passover occur at the same time. There’s probably some connection there.” ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/44 "2002-04-18T21:16:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > \*\*Oh, just remembered. I also know someone who thought that period dramas were filmed in the era they were based in. She couldn’t understand how, when she saw the actors in other movies/tv shows, they hadn’t aged. \*\* So what does she think about black and white movies? ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/45 "2002-04-18T21:27:39Z")
My (40 year old) co-worker who has her Bachelor Degree had never heard of Stonehenge. The same co-worker was baffled when I told her we needed to arrange air transportation for cargo going to England (not New England mind you, England the Country) she asked me why she couldn’t order a Truck… I told her they hadn’t built “that bridge” yet, which perplexed her even more. Finally I took pity of her and explained where England was send that it was an Island country. Amazing! ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/46 "2002-04-18T21:40:46Z")
But England is **not** an island, is it? If it were, where would Scotland and Wales fit in to the world? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/47 "2002-04-18T22:15:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lamia \* > \*\* > > My Bioethics professor says one of his colleagues assigned a paper on euthanasia and got back an essay from one student about Japanese youth culture. I accused him of making the story up, but he swears it is true. \*\* It’s actually probably a fairly common mistake. David Sedaris has a chapter titled “The Youth in Asia” in one of his books about putting a dog to sleep. (Or maybe it’s the chapter where his mom is dying of cancer…I forget.) (I’m not saying he was making the same “mistake” but that he was knowingly using it as a play on words.) ---
**Author:** ![Slainte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Slainte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slainte)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/48 "2002-04-18T22:57:27Z")
British Isles… I consider England to be an “island” in the sense that it would be quite difficult for aforementioned co-worker to find a trucking company willing to drive there from the US. ---
**Author:** ![Spiratu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Spiratu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiratu)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2002, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/49 "2002-04-18T23:58:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lyllyan \* > \*\*She also believed that a rooster fertilized the egg after it had been laid. \*\* I’ve always believed that the rooster fertilized the egg as it was being laid 😉 (I can’t believe no one’s said that yet!) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/50 "2002-04-19T00:01:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steve Wright \* > \*\*Flatmate of mine, in her second year of a music degree, once asked me, “How many stars are there in the solar system?” > \*\* When I was in high school, a friend asked me the same question. I replied, with the sort of deep-down snottiness only a teenager can summon, “DUH! None!” My mom once worked with a woman who had never heard of the Nazis, the Holocaust, or World War II. Of course, she was an idiot. Another friend of mine, whom I always considered to be level-headed, if not exactly super-intelligent, surprised the heck out of me by asking if I thought the CIA had engineered the destruction of the WTC. His evidence? “Well, if they killed Kennedy, they could do anything.” Yow. ---
**Author:** ![Another\_Primate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Another\_Primate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Another_Primate)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/51 "2002-04-19T00:25:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\* > > When I was in high school, a friend asked me the same question. I replied, with the sort of deep-down snottiness only a teenager can summon, “DUH! None!” > > \*\* You’re teasing, right? ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/52 "2002-04-19T04:27:13Z")
Gosh, I was certain there was one star in our solar system. Maybe I should go outside and double check. My story isn’t quite fair, because it wasn’t an adult. Still, my neighbour, who was in seventh grade at the time, didn’t know anything about Hitler. This might be forgivable except that she had done a report on him in the sixth grade, and the whole Second World War/Holocaust thing never came up! She thought he might be famous for his paintings. I do have to ask… how can one do a report on Hitler, get a good grade on it, and still NOT KNOW anything more than the fact that he painted? ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/53 "2002-04-19T05:17:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*My wife’s of “average” intelligence – nice gal, very competent, but fairly average all-around in terms of smarts. > > While on a family trip to Disneyland, we went to get our picture taken with Mickey Mouse. For those who haven’t “done” Mickey at Disneyland lately, the way this works is that you go to “Mickey’s House,” get in line, and eventually the part folks divvy you up into small groups. Your group goes into a room with a “movie set,” wherein you get your picture taken with Mickey. > > Anyway, after we got home, I commented on how clever that setup was, since it allowed Disneyland to have five or six “Mickeys” all working in parallel and taking pictures (while your group is getting your photos, another group in another room is getting theirs). My wife, bless her heart, blurted out, “Then how do you know you’re taking your picture with the **real** Mickey Mouse?” :eek: 😃 > > Of course, I had to mention that there wasn’t a “real” Mickey Mouse, since Mickey’s a celluloid critter. She retorted, “If there’s not a real Mickey Mouse, who’s doing the ‘Fantasmic!’ light show in the evening?” > > I guess the idea of an actor (or actress) in a mouse suit is too much for her to grasp… \*\* LOL. This reminds me of a story a girl I once dated told me. She had worked the summer before we met at Disney World as Mickey. As it turned out Ms. USA came to Disney World and she got the job of being Mickey with Ms. USA for her stay. At the end of Ms. USAs stay they had a party and my ex introduced here self to Ms. USA as the person who played Mickey. Apparently, after a long explination, my ex gave up because Ms. USA just didn’t get the idea that there was a ‘Person’ inside the suit. From my own life - My Dad who has a PHD in math and is an all around smart guy called me one day because he couldn’t create an AOL account. I worked at AOL at the time. Anyway I asked him what the problem was. He said it wouldn’t accept the zip code. I asked him what he was putting in. He said ‘505’. I responded ‘Well, that the area code’. You could almost hear the ‘My god, I am a dumbass’ face he had to have on. He said ‘Oh, thanks’ and hung up. Slee ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/54 "2002-04-19T06:02:21Z")
A family member taught in one of the more celebrated school districts. She phoned one night with a difficult question a student posed (this was before the Internet was widely available): What’s the chemical difference between red and green kryponite? She was pretty dubious that the closest thing was a non-reactive gas called krypton. I think I eventually showed her a Superman comic book as proof. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/55 "2002-04-19T07:57:36Z")
This one may be not quite fair either - I think the girl involved was about 9 at the time (as was I…) I had recently returned from living in England for a number of years. This girl found this very impressive. Her: “So - does that mean you know English?” Me: “Um…yeeeesssss” Her: “Say something for me in English!” It took me a number of minutes to recover enough to explain that we were speaking English already! ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/56 "2002-04-19T10:25:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Charmian \* > \*\* > So what does she think about black and white movies? \*\* Apart from the fact that they are “boring”, her words not mine, I dread to think. ---
**Author:** ![meyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@meyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meyer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/57 "2002-04-19T12:08:21Z")
Okay, this may be TMI, but I will try to keep it clean. When I was in university, I had one friend woh was very smart academically, routinely outdid the rest of us by 10 to 15 % in most classes, yet was somewhat infamous for being very naive. Anyways, one day we were having a little girl talk in the dorm, and my friend starts to complain about maxi pads and how inconvenient they are. Someone else asks her why she doesn’t use tampons. Her response - “I don’t think I would like not being able to pee for that long” Yes, thats right, she had reached the age of 18 or 19 without realizing that there were two different exit areas down there! How is that even possible! ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/58 "2002-04-19T12:50:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by meyer \* > \*\*Yes, thats right, she had reached the age of 18 or 19 without realizing that there were two different exit areas down there! How is that even possible! \*\* “Some girl once made a comment in health class to the effect that she couldn’t be expected to know what her vagina looked like because she would never, ever look at it.” – [Sarah](http://www.myvag.net/masturbation.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/59 "2002-04-19T13:37:12Z")
I guess you could call my former roomate intelligent in that she wasn’t considered to be retarded so here goes: She had no idea who Richard Nixon was. This was in the mid-'80’s. She was about 25 at the time. It came up because she had the nerve to play Trivial Pursuit and she got a question about Watergate. She had no idea what that was either. She had also never heard of Julian Lennon’s father. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025/60 "2002-04-19T13:44:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GopherGod72 \* > My SO has done this on a couple of occasions. First off, this woman is VERY intelligent. Shes an ER nurse and was an A student all her life. She handles all of our bills and finances. In general… pretty sharp. Except for the “natural” sciences, my one love. The last Perseids meteor shower was to be a great one so we bundled up and sat out in the backyard at 2 in the morning watching the show. We’re talking when suddenly she asks, “So which is closer to us the Moon or the closest star??” Thankfully it was dark out 'cause my jaw dropped to my chest. I had NO idea she did not know even the most basic of basic astronomy. Totally bowled me over but I answered sincerely and tried to explain the vast differences in distance and light years. Whoa, I had a very similar experience with my aunt, who’s also a nurse. We were looking up at the night sky, and she said, “Now, which way is it? Does the Moon go around the Earth, or around the Sun?” Eep! Maybe it’s a nurse thing. 🙂 The parts of their brains that _should_ know that are ccupied with remembering ways to save people’s lives instead. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-otherwise-intelligent-people-stun-you-with-their-lack-of-knowledge/104025.md?page=4)