Are people really this stupid?
I decided to crank up a game of 1 vs. 100 on Xbox Live tonight. The first time since the end of the beta test earlier this year. After just two sessions, I have to ask: how stupid are these people, anyway? Here's just a few examples:
"On the Classic Xbox 360 Controller, what color is the A button?" This was the first question of the round. They start off easy and generally get more difficult as the round progresses, and they just don't get much easier than this. The answer is green, which the contestant should have known simply by looking at the controller in his hands. Either the guy was red-green colorblind or he had some funky knock-off controller where the colors were not standard, because he had to use a "help". A help is the equivalent of the "Lifeline" on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. So the guy announced to the 37,000 people playing that he was a complete imbecile. Needless to say he bombed out a couple of questions later.
To what person is the famous line "Let them Eat Cake" usually attributed? If you guessed "Marie Antionette", you would be correct. Unfortunately over 10% of the players answered "Sara Lee" or "Little Debbie".
Which U.S. President was sworn into office aboard an airplane? Lyndon Johnson, of course. But a goodly number chose either "Jeb Bartlett" (the fictional President from TV's The West Wing) or George Washington. Rush Limbaugh occasionally jokes that a large number of numbskulls actually think they were watching the real President when watching The West Wing, I guess he was right.
Which of the following is a brand of hot chocolate? Along with the correct answer "Swiss Miss", dozens incorrectly chose "French Wench" or "Chinese Squeeze".
The game's designers showed their lefty stupidity as well, using "Dick Cheney" as one of the multiple-choice options to the question "in children's literature, who's heart was two-sizes too small".
I do have to allow that some of these people would probably have been kids, without much worldly experience, some were undoubtedly not Americans, some probably hit the wrong button. But a good many are just plain stupid.