So, recently my sister and I have been on kind of a Family Feud kick, because we get the Game Show Network and we’re nerds and it’s funny sometimes to watch the Richard Dawson version because they’ll ask a completely racist question like “Name a foreign language that sounds funny.” But sometimes it’s funny to watch because they’ll ask a reasonable question like “Name a Jewish person who had a big effect on history,” and get answers like — and I swear I am not making any of these up:
The Three Wise Men (not Jewish)
Anwar Sadat (could not be less Jewish)
Mary and Joseph (not “a person”), and
Mussolini (…WOW).
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Wing!! You’re back!! Where have you been?? Did I miss something that said you’d be AWOL from your blog???
Welcome back. We missed you!
Anwar Sadat slays me. Really, I can’t stop shaking my head.
hooray, you’ve reappeared. and as for the family fued question, did no one answer jesus? i mean really.
Sadat I can almost forgive, since he’s nearly always mentioned in the same breath as Menachem Begin, so perhaps someone just mxed up the names. But MUSSOLINI?? The mind boggles.
The 3 Wise Men weren’t Jewish? What were they then? Wasn’t everyone either Jewish or Roman? I mean, it’s still a stupid-ass answer to that question…
That’s so, SO depressing.
Who are Mary and Joseph? (I kid! I kid!)
Hello!
Sorry for the long hiatus; I’ve just been busy (I know — everyone’s busy) and haven’t had much of interest to post (I know — not like decades-old Feud episodes are of much interest either).
Someone did say Jesus; that was the #1 answer. (The rest of the list, for those who care: Moses, Golda Meir, Einstein, and Henry Kissinger.)
The three wise men were of “The Orient,” as in the song. What exactly that means is up for grabs, but the reason their visit was a big deal is that Jesus wasn’t even going to be their savior, technically, but they wanted to pay him homage as well.
Were the answers you posted the answers from the survey, or the answers from the families.
(Not that one is better than the other — but I guess I like thinking of one stupid family instead of 100 stupid survey-answerers)
The dumb ones (Sadat et al) were the bad answers given by the contestants. The marginally less dumb ones (Jesus and friends) that I posted in my last comment were the five real answers from the survey.
Not to get all nerdy here but I think the current favorite theory is that the three wise men were Persian.
And, gee, five of the “persons” in that answer list are fictional characters from a collection of folk tales.
Albert Einstein: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
Yeah, Jaosaurus is right: scholarly survey says! that the Three Wise Men were Zoroaastrian astronomers from Persia.
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