Dumb Britain?

There was an instance on the US version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? when, in answer to the question "What is President George W. Bush's first name?" the contestant answered "Henry". And I am sure anyone who saw it in the UK will remember the contestant whose question concerned the Archbishop of Canterbury and, even though she had phoned a friend who had suggested that Primate was the right answer, opted for marsupial. In our family, the archbish is now always referred to as the Marsupial of All England.

My DD (a teacher) told me she was discussing reality TV with her yr 9 class and asked them to come up with examples. They did get Big Brother but also included Eastenders, Corrie and Emmerdale.

People regularly apply for jobs at the pubs in the soaps. What surprises me is that people enter quizzes, such as Eggheads, with such a paucity of general knowledge one wonders how they have got through life so far.
How lovely it is to watch University Challenge and Mastermind and be reminded that there are still plenty of people in Britain with a wealth of knowledge, and some of them are very young.

When I was teaching, once all the work was done and dusted, the kids would clamour for a general knowledge quiz on the last day of term. Hands would shoot up all over the place but their actual knowledge was quite poor.

When I was at school a good grasp of general knowledge was the norm. We read, we listened, we remembered. I wonder what Mastermind will be like in twenty years time?

I have noticed on The Weakest Link that they often vote off the oldest peole first - which is very silly as you have garnered much more general knowledge by the time you are 70 than most 30-year olds.
I was part of a good quiz team in Kent - we had the older people for literature, history, geography, art and politics, and two younger people to cope with sport, pop music, films and popular TV programmes. Most teams in our league were made up of people of similar ages, so we swept the board!

And Only Connect - what a brilliant programme.

That's the point on the Weakest Link - they vote off the best contestants to give themselves a better chance - it's strategy!

I have often been shocked when watching celebrity editions of Who wants to be a Millionaire by the lack of general knowledge displayed by the likes of mature news presenters and others in the media business.

Jeremy Vine springs to mind, ana.

Sean Lloyd was very good on that I think. Changed my opinion of her did that programme. But not of her stupid, then boyfriend.

...Limp Biscuit or whatever his name is/was...

Frederick Forsyth was amazing. Nearly got the million.

Yes - he's Seen Life as opposed to most of the others....

Think that would be Sian, unless she has had a sex change.

I read this in Private Eye and still giggle when I think of it:

quizmaster: which poet wrote 'oh I wish I'd looked after me teeth'

Contestant: Wordsworth

If only!

Greatnan I agree at 70 we have so much more accumulated knowledge than 30 year olds. It's remembering any of it that's the problem as far as I'm concerned.

Granny23; yes, Sian. But limp biscuit is definately limp biscuit.....

Anne Robinson: What piece of furniture is meant by the rhyming slang 'Cain and Abel?'
Answer: Chair

My DH and I do so well on TV quizzes until they ask questions about football, soaps or recent popular music. Anyone watch The Chase? The experts always comment on how dangerous a mixed age team is. I liked one answer yesterday: which London gentlemen's club was the first to admit women to full membership? Answer: Spearmint Rhino!

But Pointless rules.

I sometimes ask myself if I would have known the answers to questions about politicians from the 30's and 40's when I was in my own 20's, and I can honestly answer, 'Yes, I would'. (I am a loonie leftie, you see, so my father made sure I knew the enemy!)
There was one Engl. Lit. graduate on Eggheads, who said proudly that he had heard of T.S. Eliot,but not Hemingway. Ye Gods............
However, I am quite sure that there are millions of people of all ages who live their lives untroubled by art, literature, politics, etc. I am just surprised when people put themselves forward for appearing on quizzes. The contestants on '1001 things you should know' yesterday were breath-takingly ignorant. Presumably, they considered themselves to have good general knowledge when they entered.
I am aware that just having a large collection of random facts, or a good memory, does not equate with intelligence or usefulness (cf Eggheads) - but why put yourself in the way of humiliation?

lilygran those subjects are my weakness as well! I certainly would not put myself up for a television quiz without being really confident about my general knowledge. I cringe at some of the more awful gaffs.

It is easier doing quizzes with a group as you can feed off each others clues to come up with a whole answer.
Its not always a question of just not having a clue what the answer is, sometimes it is finding where in the brain it is stored and how quickly you can retrieve it.

I don't know if this would apply nowadays, but I used to find that, in a competitive quiz, the adrenalin would start pumping and have the effect of stimulating my brain to find answers which ordinarily I might have forgotten.

I think self-confidence plays a part - I used to take part in quizzes at singles' weekends and my team always won because I was not afraid to shout out the answer and did not mind if I got it wrong. I noticed that most of the other women would be muttering the answer to themselves but were too nervous to call it out.

When my eldest lad was in grade 1 or 2 (age 5 or 6) his teacher told me he had great general knowledge. I asked if she'd got the right lad - I just couldn't see it myself.

Eventually it dawned on me: in our family we sit round the table every evening and discuss, well, anything, including current affairs. But many families don't eat round a table, don't necessarily eat together, and don't discuss politics or the news.

This is why so many young 'uns seem to know nowt!

Our youngest lad got a shock a year or two ago. He was in his late 20s, and borrowed our DVD of Schindler's List to watch with some friends. Afterwards, discussing the film with his mates, he realised his friends had no idea it was a true story, no idea of the Nazi era and no concept of the holocaust. They were shocked it was all true. he was shocked they didn't know.

Same with my GD, Joan. Some of her student friends were going off to do placements in the hospitality industry in America and she spoke to the about civil rights, taking for granted that they would know about the struggle. They may have heard vaguely of Martin Luther King, but nothing more. She is mixed race and so is one of them. She knows a great deal of the history of slavery and emancipation herself and was shocked that they didn't. She also took her friends to task for not voting in the General Election - she's been inducted into politics by her granny!