He proved his title when he walked away with money. The stupid people are the greedy ones who try to keep going to the million and lose everything.
shareok if he was so smart why did he use 2 helps on the "who's on first" question.his first help he asked the mob they picked the 2 people who had different answers.bob says to the firest guy are you familiar with the abbott&costello bit he says yes and then says his answer is "who" bob asks why he chose that answer and he sais very clearly i hit the wrong button.the second guy the virgin why he chose "what's" as a guess.obviously if the first guy said he hit the wrong button it stands to reason that the answer will be what the virgin said.DUUHHHH is all i have to say about that guy.he wasted another help when if he was listening he would have gotten the answer without using the second help.didnt you notice that or were you not paying attention either? :)
"I work so hard on my hair and then you hit it"...Ozzyslovegirl
well, the mob is there to take the contestants money so he could have been lying about pressing the wrong button...
also, not knowing something about a comedy skit, doesn't explain anything regarding how smart he his.
i didn't watch that particular episode, but the mob members lie all the time because they want to see the contestant leave as little money as possible.
I agree he was smart to walk away, and recognize his limitations. He doesn't follow popular culture at all (he said he doesn't even own a TV), so trivia questions about popular culture are a weak area for him despite being the smartest man in America http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Michael_Langan.
However I was hoping his extraordinary intelligence might mean he would be able to use deductive reasoning on questions where he didn't know the answer. On the previous question before the last one, he used up 2 of his helplines when I think he had enough information to answer the question with the first helpline if he had thought about it a bit more. And if he hadn't used 2 helplines he might have been able to use that second helpline on the last question, which he passed on, and earn $500k instead of $250k.
The question he used the 2 helplines on was about Abbott and Costello's famous "Whos on first" sketch. The question was "what was the name of the second baseman"? The options were A)Who B)What C)I don't know. (The correct answer is B)What).
He didn't know so he decided to use the "Poll the mob" option, where he gets to talk to one member of the mob who answered the question right and one member who answered the question wrong and discuss with them the reason they picked the option they did.
So when he talks to the first member you could tell the member was very upset with himself. He says his selection was A)Who and the reason was because he hit the wrong button; he really appeared to be miffed that he knew the right answer but hit the wrong key. The second member's selection was B)What, but he didn't really have a good reason for his selection. The third option was excluded as being the correct one by Bob Sagat since it wasn't one of the polled options.
Now there should have been enough information for the contestant to figure out the answer based on the member responses. The member selecting option A really acted like he knew the right option, but accidentally hit the wrong button. The member selecting option B was really weak in his reasoning; it was pretty obvious his choice was just a guess. And option C is excluded.
Deductive reasoning would say that the only guy who knew the right answer was the member who selected A by mistake. So his right choice was either B or C, but C is excluded so he must have meant B.
But the contestant failed to see that and used a second helpline, "Ask the mob", before he correctly chose option B.
In my opinion, if he had thought about it a bit more, he could have gotten it using only the first helpline.
Round up the usual suspects ... 'specially that damn Kevin Spacey
plus he appeared to know of the routine so he should have figured out by the question the it cant be "who" because the name of the routine is "who's on first"
and if "who" is on first he cant also be on second
The question was "What's the name of the man on second." The correct answer is "That's right." because What IS the name of the man on second. Not the first time this show had a badly worded question. They once asked about US currency with Lincoln's picture on it and did not count the Illinois quarter.
shareIn response to lswote's argument that the contestant should have used deductive reasoning after using one of the helps, i would say that the contestant was reasonably cautious.
I did not see this particular episode but I do know that with the help that he used the mobsters are allowed to lie about why they chose the answer that they did. They only have to be truthful about what answer they chose.
Having said that, let's just say that the correct answer was A. If the mobster that chose A was sly enough he/she could act disappointed that he/she pressed the wrong button. This act would benefit the mobster if the contestant took the bait and chose B (the incorrect answer in my hypothetical)as his answer.
I agree he was too cautious using those helps - but he still made a quarter million so it was an OK result.
Funny that the woman following him may be the Biggest Dumbass in America - two helps on Question 1 (Grammies/gramophone ... get it?) and the third help on the next question. And meanwhile she keeps yelling at the mob. So obnoxious.
This really isn't a very good show. They need tougher questions and smarter contestants.
I thought the questions were too damn easy. They could easily have picked anybody (but the girl that appeared after him) and they to could be the smartest person.
share[deleted]
he has a high IQ but that only gets you so far. he seemed really sheltered from the world. and since game shows don't typically ask advanced science questions this guy was out of luck that's what he gets for limiting his knowledge
share