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That reminds me of this video[1], where Americans are asked questions you'd think they'd easily be able to answer. Such as... Q: Who won the Vietnam war? A:

That reminds me of this video[1], where Americans are asked questions you'd think they'd easily be able to answer. Such as... Q: Who won the Vietnam war? A: We did. Wait, were we even in the Vietnam war? Q: How many sides does a triangle have? A: Damn. Four. A: There's no sides... One? Q: How many World Wars have there been? A: Three. Q: What are Hiroshima and Nagasaki known for? A: Judo-wrestling? [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF9hhKWwZrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF9hhKWwZrs

bryanrasmussen 6y ago
well, this makes me think hmm, I know all the answers to those questions, but I've never been asked in one of those surveys of people walking on the street when living in the U.S - but if I had been.... would I have been put on this funny TV segment?
- mcphage 6y ago
  > but if I had been.... would I have been put on this funny TV segment? Well, if you wanted to be—and plenty of people do—then there’s an easy way. All you have to do is give a really bad answer to an easy question.
  - bryanrasmussen 6y ago
    Yeah, I think that "what's the religion of Israel" - "Islamic" is indistinguishable from entry level trolling, and maybe given the short pause before saying it this guy was thinking "how do I get on the news but in a defensible way I can tell my friends yeah I was trolling bro" or maybe he's really stupid. But as a stupidity test there must be some false positives in there - so the rule is, in funny TV segments never ascribe to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by maliciousness. on edit: of course maliciousness used for wordplay purposes, but maybe should be replaced with mischievousness which nowadays is interpreted as meaning less than malicious.
sebmellen 6y ago
You can’t really trust these videos, because you could do this in any country. Interview 100 people and choose the dumbest 5 and selectively air those clips... It’s fun entertainment, but not much more.
kjs3 6y ago
tl;dr: If you want to make a country look bad, it's easy to find a small number of morons to put on youtube and imply it's a representative sample.
tompazourek 6y ago
I thought of this one from the Friends sitcom. Feels a bit more real than asking actual people, even though it's been written by comedy writers. https://youtu.be/1aX12xGM7GQ https://youtu.be/1aX12xGM7GQ

bryanrasmussen 6y ago

well, this makes me think hmm, I know all the answers to those questions, but I've never been asked in one of those surveys of people walking on the street when living in the U.S - but if I had been.... would I have been put on this funny TV segment?

mcphage 6y ago
> but if I had been.... would I have been put on this funny TV segment? Well, if you wanted to be—and plenty of people do—then there’s an easy way. All you have to do is give a really bad answer to an easy question.
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago
  Yeah, I think that "what's the religion of Israel" - "Islamic" is indistinguishable from entry level trolling, and maybe given the short pause before saying it this guy was thinking "how do I get on the news but in a defensible way I can tell my friends yeah I was trolling bro" or maybe he's really stupid. But as a stupidity test there must be some false positives in there - so the rule is, in funny TV segments never ascribe to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by maliciousness. on edit: of course maliciousness used for wordplay purposes, but maybe should be replaced with mischievousness which nowadays is interpreted as meaning less than malicious.

sebmellen 6y ago

You can’t really trust these videos, because you could do this in any country. Interview 100 people and choose the dumbest 5 and selectively air those clips... It’s fun entertainment, but not much more.

kjs3 6y ago

tl;dr: If you want to make a country look bad, it's easy to find a small number of morons to put on youtube and imply it's a representative sample.

tompazourek 6y ago

I thought of this one from the Friends sitcom. Feels a bit more real than asking actual people, even though it's been written by comedy writers. https://youtu.be/1aX12xGM7GQ https://youtu.be/1aX12xGM7GQ