BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS IN LATEST POLL OF AMERICANS’ KNOWLEDGE

[Don Davis]

The most recent Zogby poll, commissioned for a new game show on pop culture called Gold Rush, confirms that Americans may be more ignorant than ever. However, as illustrated below, the news is not all bad, since our collective lack of book knowledge appears to be counter-balanced by, shall we say, a certain kind of street smarts:


THE BAD NEWS: Three-quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs, while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court justices.

THE GOOD NEWS: Three-quarters of Americans know that Bush’s two Supreme Court appointments are about as interested in protecting the Bill of Rights as the Seven Dwarfs.


THE BAD NEWS: 57 per cent of Americans can identify JK Rowling’s fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 per cent can name the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

THE GOOD NEWS: 87 per cent of Americans know that Tony Blair and Bush were prep-school roommates at the Hogwarts School for Imaginary Weapons of Mass Destruction.


THE BAD NEWS: Just over 60 per cent of respondents are able to name Bart as Homer’s son on the television show The Simpsons, while only 20.5 per cent were able to name one of the ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey.

THE GOOD NEWS: 75 percent of Americans properly identified the President and the Vice-President as The Idiot and The Odd-itty, and admired Homer Simpson’s infamous “DOH!” as a sign of someone willing to acknowledge a mistake.


THE BAD NEWS: Asked what planet Superman was from, 60 per cent named the fictional planet Krypton, while only 37 per cent knew that Mercury was the planet closest to the sun.

THE GOOD NEWS: 97 per cent knew that there were was a greater chance that Saddam had stockpiles of Kryptonite than yellowcake uranium, and that Bush acts like a drunk who spends too much time in the sun.


THE BAD NEWS: Respondents are far more familiar with the Three Stooges - Larry, Curly and Moe - than the three branches of the US Government - judicial, executive and legislative.

THE GOOD NEWS: An overwhelming majority believe that Larry, Curly and Moe could do a better job than the GOP of running the three branches of Government.


THE BAD NEWS: Twice as many people (23 per cent) were able to identify the most recent winner of the television talent show American Idol, Taylor Hicks, as were able to name the Supreme Court Justice confirmed in January 2006, Samuel Alito (11 per cent).

THE GOOD NEWS: 88 per cent of respondents correctly said that only Taylor Hicks had a “soul.”

[OneBlueSky]

1. good stuff . . . thanks . . . :) n/t

.

[ShortnFiery]

2. I'm SO out of the "American Idol" Loop!

"THE BAD NEWS: Twice as many people (23 per cent) were able to identify the most recent winner of the television talent show American Idol, Taylor Hicks, as were able to name the Supreme Court Justice confirmed in January 2006, Samuel Alito (11 per cent)."

That's a shame ;) that I don't know Taylor Hicks from Adam/Eve because I have not ever watched even one episode of American Idol. When I begin to overhear people discussing it, I go somewhere else.

I'm blissfully out of the "American Idol" loop. :P And proud to say the same about the rest of my immediate family. :-) :hi:

BTW also out of the Info-tainment loop of O'Reilly, Scarborough, Glen Beck, Tucker Carlson, Nancy Grace, Wolf Blitzer. It's better to watch C-SPAN than these posturing clowns.

[Skittles]

7. I'm disgusted people make celebs out of Idol crap

gawd, the mentality of the American public

[Skittles]

8. know what's bizarre?

I could name all nine justices but could not name two dwarfs - nope

[ShortnFiery]

9. Please make that *some* American Public

The damn news media likes to tell us how "dumb and incurious" WE are ... but THEY (the M$M media whores) are the MOST PATHETIC excuses for humans touting functional cerebral cortexes that I know. :( I don't know what group I'm more thoroughly disgusted with: this Criminal USA Executive Branch or their sycophants within the USA M$M.

[rubberducky]

3. This is funny stuff!

I plan on taking this to work, just for a kind of pop quiz!

[mcscajun]

4. I was doing a crossword puzzle recently, and "Homer's neighbor"

was the clue. I was trying to puzzle out who the hell lived next to the Greek poet! Took me another minute to figure out that N_D referred to somebody called Ned on The Simpsons (a show I've never watched all that much; I think I've seen two or three episodes, tops.)

:rofl:

[LuckyLib]

5. More bad news: the TSA screener who looked at a passenger's

driver's license and asked, "Is Montana in the U.S.?"

[AX10]

6. kick

:kick: