I’m always amused by this sort of Man on the Street interview where people are shown to be generally clueless. Here they are asked what month 9/11 took place and answer August or October. It reminds me of the Groucho Marx query on You Bet Your Life as to who was buried in Grant’s Tomb and numerous people could not answer it correctly.
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This is a great aussie show which anyone can watch online at http://www.abc.net.au/vod/default.htm
It’s called The Chaser, and comes out on Wednesdays, running for 30 minutes.
Reminds me of some street interviews on TV here (Spain) some years ago. The question: “Are you heterosexual?” An amazing number of people answered (with horrified looks on their faces): “Me? NO! I’m normal!”
There are a number of these I’ve seen (Rick Mercer from the Canadian show This Hour Has 22 Minutes did it particularly well). I’ve always wondered what would happen if you asked the same questions in other countries. Certainly #2’s comments makes me think I know the answer. Growing up in Canada then living in the UK and France I’ve long heard about how all American are stupid, don’t know their geography and only speak one language whereas Europeans (and maybe even Canadians) are all so clever and multi-lingual. I’ve since learned that a surprisingly large portion of England’s population would be hard pressed to pin-point Ireland on a map, and while the British are good at pin pointing European holiday spots, ask them to point to Mexico or Brazil and they get all flustered. And as for European multi-lingualism, I found little evidence of that in France when I lived there, nor have I found that in Spain, Italy, Greece, or Belgium… Indeed, as far as I can tell, the Dutch are mostly multi-lingual and that is it really.
From an outsider’s point of view, I think the biggest problem that the US faces isn’t the ignorance of the man on the street, but a self-image that believes so strongly in the ignorance of the American people that a lack of self-confidence arises.
I’d be interesting to do a survey of say, New York, Toronto, London and Paris asking the same question about 9-11 and see what people say…. I bet the answers would be shockingly similar.
I dunno, most of the people seemed a bit flustered by the situation. It’s easy to shoot shows like that: surprise a bunch of people with some stupid questions, edit out a few that got it wrong, add some artificial laughter and you’ve got yourself a show!
I have to ask you folks…
How many BILLS you pay every month, and for the year?
How many days have you missed of work?
How much TIME do you spend with your children, playing and teaching?
How much have bills gone up in the past 10 years??
I can keep asking these and many more questions.
But “I THINK” we have been bombarded and Stuffed into a world with TO MANY things to worry about.
How many of you go REGULARLY to town counsils and meeting??
PTA?
Union and labor meetings??
Still gaining knowledge to KEEP your job, or improve your Job??
We are besieged with to much information to remember Much, if ANY of it.
AND, do we CARE how the government takes care of us, AND HOW it takes care of us. And do we REALLy know what they are doing? TO and FOR us??
And I THOUGHT we PAID for someone to HELP, called our congreeman and representitives.
Lessee,
2001
september
the 11th in the morning
Islamic
3000
NYC and WASHINGTON DC. Fucking mentally isolated New Yorkers completely forgot about the Pentagon.
“They attacked somewhere other than New York?”
“I was in New York when it happened” – Idiot who didn’t even know the year.
Stupid people who don’t even remember the basics of such a big event should be isolated from the general population. But then again, idiots like these explain why conspiracy theories can actually gain ground.
But ask them about Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan or Britney Spears….
J/P=?
#2
Perhaps being bisexual is “being normal” in Spain? 😉
#5
Too much information to remember… Bullshit! Big events such as September 11 should be part of your general knowledge, but people nowadays tend to be so freaking self-centered. They live in their little pond, and do not want to see the big picture. That’s why TV stations like Fox News can thrive… they spoon-feed nonsense to people… which leads to a rather skewed view of the world.
#8
Those are like questions that even a twelve-year-old should be able to answer.
The best example of this was when The Man Show setup a booth to collect signatures for a petition to end women’s suffrage.
End the suffering of women now!
These are the same people that can’t remember what year the war of 1812 started. This is just sad…
#8
Those are like questions that even a twelve-year-old should be able to answer.
Comment by Jägermeister
Have you seen an episode of “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader”?
J/P=?
John Dvorak, why are you bothered by this. Isn’t this exactly the result you would expect from your preferred education system? I’m sure if you put these guys at a computer, they could look up the answers. That was all the education you thought people needed, right?
For almost a decade I would record the Jay Leno “Jaywalking Episodes” it almost filled a 6 hour tape which I still bring out for laughs. Am I bothered by this? Frightened is more like it. Between the dummies and the psychos it is a miracle anything works.
#1, Ross, thanks for the link, great vid. Here’s a 2 minute excerpt from “The Tonight Show” (Jaywalking) that reinforces the idea of the ignorance of some folks:
Which came first, Jesus or the pyramids?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZtIfdh57xc
Surprise a bunch of people with some stupid questions, edit out a few that got it wrong, add some artificial laughter [or insert real laughter live] and you’ve got yourself a show! Comment by Danijel
Hilarious, isn’t it? 🙂
#13
No, but I’ll give it a shot.
#8 – Everyone knows question #8 is a trick question. Summer or winter both, bears shit in the woods.
#18
And the answer for question 4 isn’t carpenter, but con artist… 😉
15. I have tried this on several people, and yes its true. My question to them is what year did 9/11 happen? Most will say it happened in 2000. It is frightening, especially since its used on an almost daily baisis to instill fear and compliance. Maybe some peoples’ brains get switched off to unpleasant subjects.
Come on…
the standard mentality tends NOT to want to worry about THINGS you cant control.
It wasnt that long ago that people..
Worked.
Have a little recreation.
Went to bed.
the only news they wanted or needed was
Weather
And who died in the area
Add to that:
Area, county, city, state, national, international news…
Canada has Much larger territories then Most states in the USA.
WHen laws and changes happen, they are wide enough spread that they can have an impact. In the USA, we go 400 miles and laws change. Almost as bad as in Europe, from country to country.
Which is the same reason we dont use 2-3-4-5 different languages, we are NEVER introduced to new ones.
After you consider that MOST of the time in the USA is delt with dealing with BS, sorting out True/false, Yes/No, who to pay/NOT to pay…
We get buried in inconsequential BULL all the time.
there is little or no controls left, that we can USE to protect our personal environments.
did you know that you and 10 friends could probably take over ANY city meeting? Not many go to them, and they get their OWN way.
Unregulated bills, Means that most people are terrified every month just opening MAIL.
Do I need to add the EXTRA bills to the list? Inssurance, car, gas, Cable, Sat, Appliance repairs, NEW TV bill, wondering IF you have the latest TECH, and can you understand it.
news:
National international, area, weather, economics, war, PARIS, Paris Paris Paris Paris, Joe blow, Paris…
You could sit down and watch all the news/read all the papers/acknowledge all the comments/make a decision/ and think they are FULL of BS, in 1 day… Wondering when the TRUTH will come out in your life time, or your KIDS.
YES, we KNOW what end’d the war in Japan, but do you KNOw what MOSTLY caused it? The USA blocking OIL from Japan.
do you know what caused the Hindenburg, and germany to EXPLODE? Germany wanted Helium the USA was making…We didnt give them any.
WWII was caused mosly by the teranical mechanizations of the contracts and restictions of WWI…
6. Now go ask your fellow Canadians the name of their country’s leader.
RBG
8. Oh! oh!… I know the answer to #10! Pick me! Pick me! Is it Aboriginal Title? No, that is Canada.
RBG
I don’t think having a poor memory indicates the level of a persons intelligence. The analogy is stopping them and asking them to throw a baseball to a predetermined spot on camera. Many will fail this kind of stuff is not much different.
Give me break John, this isn’t disturbing and you’re a jackass for implying that it should be. Some asshole goes around with a TV crew, asks simple questions, then edits together the idiots. Even the semi-idiots wouldn’t come off as stupid if they weren’t nervous in front of a TV camera. Ridiculous,
10 questions to ask your fellow citizenry:
1. Name the largest country on earth.
USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! We big, dat’s right!
2. Where’s the Vatican?
At our house, it’s between bathroom sink and the tub.
3. What is the predominant religion of Israel?
Israelish.
4. What was Jesus’ occupation?
Pot grower, used camel salesdude, public speaker, fantasy author.
5. The earth is the first, second, or third planet from the Sun?
Trick question! This depends on whether you consider Pluto a planet.
6. True or false, the United States invaded Grenada.
Everybody knows Grenada invaded Kuwait, duh.
7. True or false, a square is unique that the angle of all four corners add up to 360°, a circle.
Morerer of yor dumbness. A circle doesn’t have corners, and a square is flat.
8. Some birds fly south for the winter. What do bears do for the winter?
Bears can’t fly ya maroon! Polar bears migrate to Antarctica in penguin-skin boats.
9. The Japanese surrendered after what critical event in World War II?
Haliburton, Sony, and Honda Corporations’ economic invasion?
10. What was the name of the institutionalized racism in South Africa?
Slavery! Duh…
These questions were so easy! You insult my intellectuality.
Some of that was pretty damn funny.
But ask them which pop star has a piercing near her clit and chances are that all of them know who she is.
#26, Comment by G.W. Quayle Dan Bush
Thanks for the smile today, that is pretty darned funny. But #5 is a trick question. By current definition, sometimes the 3rd planet is the Moon, sometimes it’s the Earth. Everyone knows that Pluto is just a Disney dog. 🙂
26,
I really hope you are joking..
Q #1 alone is WRONG…
Between China, and russia, we Might be 3rd.
You knew this was going to happen when it was all “911”, “9/11”, and “September 11th” – with no need to mention the year because it was so recent.
Everybody should remember the “big events”?
What year did the Berlin Wall fall?
What year was the Tsunami in Asia?
What year was apartheid abolished in South Africa?
When was V.E. Day? V.J. Day?
etc, etc
I don’t remember because I’ve had no reason to commit them to memory. I know they occurred. I understand the significance of them. but memorizing the date serves no useful purpose.
#31,
WELL, it was a quick guess…
China 9,596,960km
USA 9,826,630km