Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Am I smarter than a 5th grader? No, apparently I'm not
by Anonymous at 4:09 PM
I'll admit, I wasn't really looking forward to watching the debut of the new Jeff Foxworthy game show "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" last night. For one, I have never been a big Jeff Foxworthy fan and I had a feeling this would be a completely over the top version of him (to be fair, he was actually pretty good). And two, if I liked the show at all, I'd probably want to watch it again. Let's face it, the more crap on television that I'm addicted to watching on a nightly basis, the less time I have to spend on more important things like writing on this blog or spending time with family or sleeping. But last night, Jill and I gave it a chance, and unfortunately, I think we may be hooked.
I have no idea what would drive an adult to want to compete in this thing. Forget about the potential to bring home thousands of dollars. Why would anyone want to put themselves on national television and allow somebody to ask them a series of questions that they should know the answers to, all-the-while standing there like an idiot with a blank stare on their face? That's exactly what these poor contestants do.
Here are last night's questions:
- Who was the first President of the U.S. to be impeached?
- What month does Columbus Day fall?
- What's the name of the ship that the Pilgrims used to sail to America?
- Do polar bears eat penguins?
- If the area of a triangle is 16 sq ft and the base is 8 ft, how many ft is the height?
- What does R.E.M. stand for?
I'll be honest, I was positive I knew the correct answer on only 4 of those. Who the heck knows that the first President to be impeached was Andrew Johnson? According to this show, all the 5th graders on the panel did. Either they were lying, or I'm not as smart as I thought I was (insert joke here).
My only critique of this show so far is that it's extremely slow moving. They go to far too many commercial breaks for only a 30 minute show, which explains why they only got through 6 questions. My suggestion in order to make the show work better would be to expand it to an hour, or speed it up. This show has tons of filler, but there's no time for it. Regardless, I'll be watching again tonight. My contributions to this blog, quality family time, and sleep will just have to wait.
I knew the first president impeached was Andrew Johnson -- but that's because I minored in history in college, and I'm a huge nerd... but, the triangle one? -- forget it.
When they read out the triange question, I said "4!" which turned out to be the right answer. But I have NO idea how I got it, so I looked up how you calculate the area of a triangle at wikipedia and the formulas are all things that are way over my head, like trigonomotry and stuff like that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_of_a_triangle#Computing_the_area_of_a_triangle
There is no way that is 5th grade math. The hypotonuse is calculated by a(squared) + b(squared) = c(squared). That sounds like I coulda maybe done it in elementary school.
But
S=1/2absin(alpha+beta)=1/2bcsin(beta+ysymbolthingie?)=1/2casin(ysymbolagain+alpha)????
NO WAY is that an elementary school problem.
Sheila, you have to try out for this show. And you have to let ol' Jeff Foxworthy know that you call shenanigans and that there's no way these questions are at a 5th grade level. Please tell me you'll try out.
Side note: the contestant last week that won like $175,000 (Phil Schrader) is from my neighborhood. Went to the local Junior High. Rumor has it he sucked at Dodgeball.