Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Hello fellow members, have any of you heard of the new game show called Are You Smarter ... ?
It's a show where normal Americans go up and answer questions they learnt in elementary school. It tests memory, and common sense. Personally, I can't help but laugh at the types of question people can get wrong. For example, (I just finished watching it) Topic is 'Grade 3 Geography' Question is ' What counrty shares the longest border with the US?' The woman answered 'Uhhhh...Mexico?' And I couldn't help but laugh. Has she never seen a globe? or a map? (The answer is Canada by the way)
Anyways I just wanted to know if anyone else watches this show, and if so, what are their personal views on it?

Awaiting your answers,

-Jimmy-

The latest in humiliation.

Oh my G....

Cute show. I cant get over the lawyer with all the degrees on the first show who couldnt answer one stinking question right.
(At least I got 3 right).

Well... I was just authoring a thread on this and got the dreaded message that a thread already existed. Luckily I copied and pasted it, so I'll post it here.

Well, this is as much of a Rant as a Television discussion, but I thought it was appropriate to put it in the Television forum as the possibility exists to have more than one discussion on it.

If you have not heard of this show yet, I'll sum it up quickly. It is hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, whom I am a huge fan of, and it takes random people and asks them questions that are found in a 5th grader's curriculum. To top it all of, it has 5th graders on the show for support. Now some of the questions are fairly straight forward, while others can be tricky. But some of the questions that are stumping the contestants, well it is nothing short of infuriating that they can not possibly fathom an educated guess. The one question that put me over the top was,

"What country shares the largest border with the United States?"

After five minutes of thinking it over, the contestant was "fairly sure" that it was down to two countries. Canada and Mexico were the two possible answers, she thought. So she continued to play it back and forth, and decided to go with Mexico. Mexico! This was a lady in her mid 40's. Now I can understand not being able to place states, or provinces, but surely we can understand simple and basic geography.

I mean...



C'mon! How ridiculous is that!

What is 2+2..... Uhhh Meow? Luckily the 5th grader bailed her out, and she managed to get a few bucks out of it. No thanks to her own doing though.



This show reinforces the notion that the average person is completely ignorant to even the basic knowledge, that a 5th grader would be aware of. Now I don't expect that we are going to answer every one of them correctly, but surely we understand that the US has a border with Canada that is much, much larger than ...Mexico.

So what do you think? Have you seen the show?

[edit on 1-3-2007 by chissler]

Yes! I saw that question and couldn't believe it either!

Is that show made to show how dumb people really are?


EDIT: And that dumb intro song is really annoying!!

[edit on 1/3/2007 by enjoies05]

The only purpose of this show is so showcase how completely retarded some/most of the people in America are

I have watched, and am too flabbergasted at the lack of intelligence of these people.:bash:

I wonder how I could get on that show? Thats an easy million bucks!

Agree with everything so far.

They should, or we should, make a show called. ''Are You Smarter Than an ATS'er?'' And the most popular subjects would be like ''8th Grade Extraterrestrail'' or ''10th Grade Government Conspiracy''

Oh, another question she almost missed, ''What star is closest to earth?''
''Uhhh, Oh God...Jupiter? Oh no that doesn't sound right...The Sun? Is the Sun a star?....Uhh, a hell I'll just say the Sun!''

''Your Right!''

''Hourray!''

-Jimmy-

Its' not fair!

Those kids just learned it.
The poor lady just plain forgot. 5th grade was a long time ago, when you're 40.

This is getting dumber and dumber. The last episode a lady got every question right, and had one more 1st Grade question left to get some big amount of money.


"What is the only Continent that is also a Country?"


So she's thinking about it.


After about 5 mintues she says something like "Well....I'm pretty sure...it's....North America or Antartica....I think it's North America..."

And then ended up giving up.

Come on :shk:

I actually had to think about that one for a few seconds. Caught me off guard.

Originally posted by chissler
I actually had to think about that one for a few seconds. Caught me off guard.

Yeah, but...




North America??

'Nuf Said!

I could almost justify someone saying Africa. But North America, yeah.

The worst one yet for me was,

"If you travel North through the border of the United States, What country do you enter?"

The girl didn't know and had to copy the answer of the 5th grader.

An employer has probably fired for less, and I don't see how the union could defend it.

I've never seen the show mentioned but there is a similiar show in the UK. Not sure what it is called though.

Question: Who wrote Handel's Messiah?
Guy thinking hard: Enid Blyton?

Yossarian, watch the clip above and you'll get what we're talking about, lol.

But one question is reallly puzzling me,

'What continent is also a country?'

The answer was Australia, but I always thought Australia belonged to Oceania (continent wise, of course). Did the producers make a mistake or did something happen not too long ago thta I am not aware of? I was always taught in school that there were 7 continents, and Australia was not one of them.

Any thoughts?

-Jimmy-

I don't know if there are 'definite' continents. I remember hearing of 'Eurafrasia' which included both Europe and Asia as one continent.

American "intelligence" at work. :shk: Yeah, I can say that, I am American.

So, does anyone knwo if I am correct? Did the producers of the show make a mistake? Or is Australia suddenly a continent know? 9If so where does New Zealand go???)