Are You Smarter Than and 5th Grader spells the end of society as we know it

NO, ive got my shows straight. Yeah, I'm sure you've gotten every question right. You probably see the answer, and then say "jeez, got it AGAIN, boy this is so easy". This may not be true, but I think youd be hardpressed to win the show. But im canadian, so the questions about US history and measurement (im metric, ur not) seem difficult to me, whereas they should be a breeze for you.

....1 vs 100 is the worst show of them all.....with THE WORST HOST EVER.... ....

I read this article with interest, but if it’s any consolation, the situation in Britain is equally as bad.

http://www.theamericancause.org/print/030607.htm

Shows like this, American Idol, and Survivor are indicative of one thing. The television viewing audiences stupidity.

Are you dumb enough to watch this crap?

The greatest act of stupidity regarding programs like this is simply found in watching them.

If you are dumb enough to watch BS like this, then you are probably dumb enough to do/ believe just about anything.

"Are Smarter than a Fifth Grader" does not refer to the contestants; it refers to the people who continue to watch that trash. What a waste of time. They don't call it the idiot box for nothing.

no ur not wrote:

NO, ive got my shows straight. Yeah, I'm sure you've gotten every question right. You probably see the answer, and then say "jeez, got it AGAIN, boy this is so easy". This may not be true, but I think youd be hardpressed to win the show. But im canadian, so the questions about US history and measurement (im metric, ur not) seem difficult to me, whereas they should be a breeze for you.

....1 vs 100 is the worst show of them all.....with THE WORST HOST EVER.... ....

Sorry brother. I've gotten every question right -- answered before the answer is made available. Nothing to brag about as the HARDEST questions are 5th grade questions and the easiest are 1st grade questions. I do have a college degree and a graduate degree on top of that and am generally a smart person on top of the education, but still, I'm hardly the smartest person I know. Again though, these questions are not a challenge at all...not AT ALL. Super easy for me, but once again, the sad thing is that these contestants often cannot answer ONE question right the whole time they are there -- they get ALL of their correct answers from the 5th graders. Sad that this is put on a television show which makes some out there think that this level of knowledge is acceptable. Horrible.

009.9 wrote:

Shows like this, American Idol, and Survivor are indicative of one thing. The television viewing audiences stupidity.

Are you dumb enough to watch this crap?

The greatest act of stupidity regarding programs like this is simply found in watching them.

If you are dumb enough to watch BS like this, then you are probably dumb enough to do/ believe just about anything.

why don't you step off your snob platform. if you think that watching those types of shows makes someone stupid, you don't have a clue. i'm sure you are phenomenally successful. congratulations.

go read a book by kant and take pleasure in how smart you are. don't worry, i'm sure someone will recognize your greatness one day.

i don't watch american idol very often, but i have to admit that the producers of that show do a very good job. as someone pointed out earlier, they clearly allow 5-6 contestants into the final 24 that do not belong, so that viewers get emotionally invested in seeing those people voted off. and then there are another 5-6 contestants who are legitimately quite good, and it is easy to start rooting for the ones that you like. once you start rooting for them, you are invested and you want to know the outcome.

as i said, i don't watch it all that often, but i do care enough to read about the results every week or two and i will probably watch the last couple of episodes this year.

i don't see why there's anything wrong with that.

i don't understand the appeal of the game shows as much. the contestants come and go so quickly, i'm not sure where the viewer's interest comes from. i haven't really been into any of the recent popular game shows - who wants to be a millionaire, the weakest link, etc.

oh, and survivor - same thing as idol - the producers do a very good job of editing tapes of what i believe is legitimate reality to make the viewing audience feel certain emotions. i only really watched the first season, but i assume they are still editing in the same successful way. i really hated that richard hatch character and i was sure he was going to be voted off each week, so i watched. was i being played by the producers? absolutely. was i entertained? absolutely. i couldn't watch it year after year, but i see no real difference in being entertained by survivor/idol type shows and in being entertained by a movie.

009.9 wrote:

Shows like this, American Idol, and Survivor are indicative of one thing. The television viewing audiences stupidity.

Are you dumb enough to watch this crap?

The greatest act of stupidity regarding programs like this is simply found in watching them.

If you are dumb enough to watch BS like this, then you are probably dumb enough to do/ believe just about anything.

1) I don't watch Survivor.

2) I have watched Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader as it's not bad for some downtime right after my kids head to bed. It is quickly becoming too uninteresting though -- I keep waiting to see if the questions get tougher, but the contestants don't seem to get very far into the game before they quit. Part of the appeal is that I have two kids in elementary school right now, so it's interesting to note which questions I think my kids would be able to answer.

3) I've watched American Idol from the beginning, but this season is the worst so far (though a couple of the women are talented). I don't watch it for any other reason though than I am a musician, and I like to see if they are any good. Don't get into fandom of American Idols. Kind of like if there were a high school track meet televised, I'd probably watch the distance races. If the talent continues to get worse, I probably won't watch it next time.

Don't underestimate the value of downtime for the brain. After working all day, typing really smart things here at Letsrun, dealig with homework from the children, learning a new song or two on guitar or keyboard, doing my daily run, it's nice to sit down and read the paper while having a show on in the background that I don't have to pay much attention to. I'd prefer to watch Myth Busters or something else, but I don't have cable television, so I'm stuck with what the rabbit ears will get.

I finished with Kant's work decades ago.

If you are dumb enough to watch "reality" programs, then your intellectual status is self evident. Whats more, the continued act of watching such programming will futher reduce your intellectual capacity.

The irony in this thread is that some posters (like FPW) feel the need to qualify their own intelligence by informing us of their own academic pursuits. Yet they spend time watching and debating some phony "reality" program about how many people are too stupid to answer 5th grade questions, questions that the 5th graders already have the answer to.

Reductio ad absurdum.

Everything about these "reality" shows, including the audience, is intellectually impoverished.

Derrida once confessed to watching afternoon soap operas. Do you consider him "intellectually impoverished?"

If no, then you contradict yourself. If yes, then you apply the exclamation point to the statement of your own deep, infinite ignorance.

Coach D wrote:

Flagpole, your problem here is that the show is on Fox, thus brought to you by the same group of morons that bring you Fox News.

FOX may be targeting morons but the people at FOX certainly aren't morons. They are brilliant!

First, they have the local FOX stations. The shows on these stations have a very high viewership share. A few are 24, Prison Break, House, The Simpsons... Many of these shows draw in younger and liberal viewers.

Then they also run the FOX News Network. That brings a high viewership among middle age/older conservatives.

I hate Fox News Network and I don't like Rupert Murdoch but he's certainly no moron!

Did I mistakenly equate soap operas to "reality" programming?

I guess that was your mistake.

009.9 wrote:

I finished with Kant's work decades ago.

If you are dumb enough to watch "reality" programs, then your intellectual status is self evident. Whats more, the continued act of watching such programming will futher reduce your intellectual capacity.

The irony in this thread is that some posters (like FPW) feel the need to qualify their own intelligence by informing us of their own academic pursuits. Yet they spend time watching and debating some phony "reality" program about how many people are too stupid to answer 5th grade questions, questions that the 5th graders already have the answer to.

Reductio ad absurdum.

Everything about these "reality" shows, including the audience, is intellectually impoverished.

Dude, sometimes you have to experience pop culture just so you are informed on that -- part of being a well-rounded individual. Regardless of whether or not the 5th graders have the answers ahead of time, you've got to watch it at least a couple times before you can form an opinion about it. As I like to give people and their ideas the benefit of the doubt, I've seen a few episodes of the game show now, and as I've already said, unless the contestants start doing better or the questions get harder, then the novelty of it is over for me, and I'll go spend my TV downtime somewhere else.

Regarding my academic pursuits, dude, I ain't pursuing brother. I caught what I wanted, and now I do as I please.

Is it dumberer to be on this show or to watch this show?

How are soap opeas different than reality programming? Both have been trashed by representatives of high culture like yourself.

Admit that you made an unfair generalization and move on.

I repent that incineration!

More examples: Baudrillard and the entire complex of intellectuals that deconstruct reality programming. Again, I ask: intellectually impoverished?

FPW wrote,

"I'll go spend my TV downtime somewhere else".

For the redemption of lost or muted intellect I recommend...

Sabato Gigante, Nothing quite like a couple hours of Charo's cleavage to put a brother right.

Postmodern Fatigue wrote:

More examples: Baudrillard and the entire complex of intellectuals that deconstruct reality programming. Again, I ask: intellectually impoverished?

I haven't been exposed to a lot of deconstruction and/or postmodernism, and what I do know comes largely from hilarious spoofs like Alan Sokal's Social Text Hoax.

Is the idea basically that everything in the world is based on text and culture, and that there is no objective reality?