Are the people on "Jay Walking" really that dumb?

[question everything]

This is a section when Jay Leno walks the streets (of Burbank, I guess) and stops people and ask them question.

A young woman who said she is interested in politics:

Q: How many terms can a President serve?

A: Two consecutive terms

Q: Has anyone served more than two terms?

A: Yes, Kennedy

Q: How many years did he serve?

A: 16!

Q: And then what happened?

A: He got shot

Q: And who succeeded him?

A: Truman.


Another woman:

Q: Who said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself?"

A: Oh, I should know. I would guess it was said in the 40s.

Q: And what happened in the 40s?

A: The Roswell landing.


What can I say?

[slampoet]

1. It is spelled "Dumb".

Consider that the answer too.






..... Jeez.

[question everything]

2. Thanks, sorry, rushed to the body of the post

no need to be nasty.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. The amazing part about those people is that they have no idea how stupid they are...

They laugh, and are not the least embarrassed. I have seen him do that bit on a college campus, and the answers were still totally ignorant...and the people still laughed...not realized how dumb they were.

[Journeyman]

4. I suspect some fake it, both for the laughs and to get on television. . .

we've all met truly stupid people, and we've also met our share of smart-asses, too. I suspect Jay meets a mix of these as well.

[petronius]

5. Some are, but I suspect a lot are trying to be funny and failing

Also, I'm sure nerves play a role - I shudder to think what kind of dumbassery I'd spout if I was suddenly confronted by Leno and a camera crew...

[riverdeep]

6. Well, this is why I theorize about a voting test.

Questions would be as neutral as possible, and pretty basic: like how many Senators are there from each state, how many branches of government are there, what year was the Declaration of Independence ratified, who is the current vice president? They have tests for citizenship. They have tests for driving. But I'm told that ANY test for voting would be unfair, because of the past nature of voting tests, especially those given in the Jim Crow South.

I think if people knew they had to take a test, they might value their vote a little more, and maybe pay more attention to the political process. It wouldn't ensure an educated voting populace, but it would filter out the truly unqualified.

[4lbs]

7. Yes, they are that misinformed, because Leno takes a few of them and has them play a Jeopardy

type game on current events and history. It's called "Battle of the Jaywalk Allstars."

They fail badly at that too.

However, Leno's encounters aren't all that bad as seen on TV.

For example, he only shows the ones that really screw up the answers. The ones that get them all right are deemed "not entertaining enough" and aren't shown.

[question everything]

9. Selecting only the dumb ones certainly distorts the results

Still, the same young woman was asked for the three branches of government and she started with "Parliament." And one of them was asked who would succeed a president who is incapacitate and the answer was: the Secretary of State.

[hfojvt]

8. unnatural selection

If he talks to 5 people and 3 of them answer correctly, Leno does not put all five on TV.

Also, so far I have asked about 7 people on the street if they could name 3 supreme court justices and none of them could do it, including the High School graduate with honors cords. My brother and sister-in-law did both get Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O'Connor. So they got one out of 3 (or 9), plus a former member.