Bloody Kids!
Watching University Challenge this evening, when it came to the first picture round the teams were simply asked to name this actor
After a pause one student from Selwyn College, Cambridge asked: “Is it Robert Redford?”
“No, it isn’t,” Paxman replied, trying to disguise his scorn.
“Cary Grant?” a student from the London School of Economics eventually offered.
Oh, come on! Instances like this that can make you feel very old. Then again, in the final picture round they were asked to identify the Hubble Space Telescope and the first student to buzz actually said, “Sputnik!?” So maybe it’s not exactly an age thing.
posted by Good Dog @ 8:58 pm
12 mouthy comebacks
12 Comments:
Worthless hoodies. That's appalling?
Well at the ripe old age of 37 I have no idea who it is.
Who is it?
Jimmy Stewart!
Hey, I'm 30 and I know! ;)
My friend, you win the cookie.
The actual picture that appeared on University Challenge was of Stewart in his fifties, but obviously recognisable. I was absolutely staggered nobody could identify him. Maybe they spent their youth playing sports or getting drunk and copping a feel or studying or doing I don’t know what rather than watch the Hollywood greats.
Paxman mentioned this year was the centenary of Jimmy Stewart’s birth. If these movies don’t get screened and don’t get watched, does that mean a time will come when people forget James Stewart and Cary Grant, Burt Lancaster, Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, Claude Rains, Ronald Colman, James Cagney and Errol Flynn.
I suppose nowadays an old actor is Harrison Ford.
And there's me thinking it was a young David Lynch ;-)
And this would be because Mel Brooks once described David Lynch as "Jimmy Stewart from Mars"?
I knew the reference wouldn't be lost on you ;-)
I'm amazed that James Stewart isn't UNIVERSALLY recognisable, to be honest - is there anyone on god's green earth who hasn't seen Vertigo or It's A Wonderful Life?
You would think. The supplementary questions that followed were a trio of film posters for Hitchcock films starring Stewart with the titles removed, which the team then had to guess.
They got Vertigo, which came first, almost immediately. They struck out of Rope, although the poster shows Stewart’s character holding a length of rope – but then, I guess, if you don’t know your Hitchcock films you’re pretty much screwed. Finally, after a long pause, and I think some prompting to come up with an answer, named to name Rear Window.
Good job it wasn’t the great Anthony Mann westerns starring Stewart like The Man from Laramie, Winchester ‘73 or The Naked Spur otherwise I think they would have been totally fucked.
I knew it was Gracie Fields straight away...
And therein lies a lesson on fame (real fame) and on modern attitudes to the past, even the recent past.
A belated congrats on 500 posts.
Pretty much everything you write is interesting, honest and literate.
And that's a strangely rare combination.
Ah, thanks fella. I try my best.
...or is it people telling me I'm trying? I can never remember which.
the lse? isn't that supposed to be something like IVY LEAGUE or somin?
jesus
I am eighteen and I can see that is a younger than usual jimmy stewart
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