Does anyone else get really irritated by quiz contestants who claim that they don't know the answer to something because of their age? Girl on The Chase last night, when asked a question about a Prime Minister in the 1950's said "John Major" when Ben Sheppard laughed she then said "I'm only young" It's the same when they say "oh that's before my time" Grrrr!!!
The one which gets me from contestants is "....... is not really my strong point" - said repeatedly for different subjects. One wonders if they have any strong points.
To be fair, if you can pack every scrap of History in the packed curriculum you would have performed a major miracle.
'Before my time' when referring to a smattering of knowledge of the Ancient Romans is one thing but very different if you say you've never heard of Andrew Bonar Law.
I know it's slightly off topic but watching an old 'Come Dine' where they were discussing lamb.
One girl actually said "I dont want to sound thick but is lamb from a cow or a sheep". Words fail me.
I think good quizzers pick up a lot of knowledge by a kind of osmosis. Younger people wouldn't have the time to have built up the stocks of usually useless facts that go to make a successful contestant.
It does work the other way of course. Many older contestants don't know the answers to contemporary questions .
Young(er) people get a hard time on forums, they can't win at times. The decades of knowledge which older people have accrued isn't taken into account.
Anyhow, I love The Chase.Bradley and all the chasers.I don't like the ones who go for the minus, boo hiss ;)
Another good one was on Pointless, when a question was "who was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas?" The woman said "JR". Alexander Armstrong could hardly continue through laughing.
Dahlia-Lama you are absolutely right, I don't know loads of the modern music stuff and I'm certainly not sneering at youngsters knowledge, my grandsons know far more than I ever will about technology etc. It's only the "that was before my time" bit that gets me, as if none of us should know anything that happened before we were born.