Is Actual Knowledge Inversely Proportional To Percieved Knowledge?

[ToraToraTora]

Just watched "The Chase" - it struck me, why would you go on a quiz show when you know nothing, unless you don't know you know nothing?

[Noe-schitt]

I don't know

[viv41]

^ Chuckle ....

[Retrochic]

what is 'knowledge'? You don't have a PhD to go on the popular quiz shows and I hazard a guess many professors would not do well, yet they have vast knowledge.

[New Judge]

I imagine that if you know nothing, among the things you don't know is the fact that you know nothing. Of course, if you know that you know nothing then your claim to knowing nothing fails.

Er...er...er...

(NJ retires for a lie down)

[ToraToraTora]

talking about general knowledge, many academics know their subjects perhaps. for example a contestant tonight was asked "following WWII in what decade did sweets rationing end?" she said 1930's how can anyone not know that the war was 39-45?

[Retrochic]

bit like these?

ANNE ROBINSON: Of which hot drink is ‘eat’ an anagram?
CONTESTANT: Hot chocolate?
(The Weakest Link, BBC1)

STEVE WRIGHT: What is the Italian word for ‘motorway’?
CONTESTANT: Expresso.
(Steve Wright In The Afternoon, Radio 2)

ANNE ROBINSON: The action of which Shakespeare play takes place between dusk on January 5 and dawn on January 6?
CONTESTANT: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
(The Weakest Link)

NOEL EDMONDS: Was the Tyrannosaurus Rex a carnivore or a herbivore?
CONTESTANT: No, it was a dinosaur.
(Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old?, Sky One)

HOST: What is the name given to the ­condition where the sufferer can fall asleep at any time?
CONTESTANT: Nostalgia.

But the best one I've seen so far is fron an acural maths questionpaper :

Sam has 39 sweets and after he eats 27 -what will he have?

answer: Diabetes!

[stuey]

What is Rin Tin Tin's middle name?

[woofgang]

Don't underestimate the effect of stress.

[elliemay1]

The subject areas are so diverse that everyone has a chance of getting at least a few correct. It is so fast moving that naturally some people get nervous. It's easy to answer from the comfort of your armchair.

[douglas9401]

I suppose it helps to slowly reduce the number of pub bores who hold forth on everything in the world, ever.
Being shown on national TV to be a complete bell end diminishes the credibility.

[jim360]

Depends on which professors you know, I'd say. And even if they aren't good at quizzes they probably have the skill to be if they'd ever put their mind to it.

Fifteen minutes of fame, I guess. I'd happily appear on The Chase myself, regardless of how well or badly I did.

[THECORBYLOON]

Presumably there is an audition they have to pass rather than the producers just taking the next four folk from the list of applicants and sticking them in front of a camera to be humiliated for a few minutes.

Any question is difficult if you do not know the answer. Ask someone with the intelligence of Steven Hawking about an Eastenders' character or a Number One song from a few year ago and he might struggle.

[jno]

what's the answer to the Shakespeare one? I appear to be the weakest link on this.

[kettledrum]

Twelfth Night

[PankySmooch]

On the BBC1 quiz, Decimate, the question was..."Nicholas Lynhurst played Gary Sparrow, but in which decade was the show set in"?

The contestant said "I remember this, it was done in black and white and it was set during the war"

His choices were the 1920's, 1940's or 1960's, he went for the 1960's!

Words fail me!!!!

[jno]

indeed, TCL. I've occasionally been able to answer the million-pound question but I've never been able to answer the first three.

[jno]

thanks, kettledrum.

[THECORBYLOON]

Since the questions are apparently so easy, I wonder how many ABers have appeared on TV quiz shows and how well they did?

[PankySmooch]

THECORBYLOON, I take it you're putting it down to nerves then and not knowing the answers?

[THECORBYLOON]

As I said earlier, their knowledge may be stronger in other areas, if the questions are outwith those areas it may be guesswork that sees them through. The Chasers have a good general knowledge but even they can give wrong answers to seemingly easy questions and stress must play a part for both sides.