The Non-Obscure Obscure.


I know I’ve written about the survey results on the game show Pointless with incredulity on more than one occasion in the past, but it keeps presenting me with ridiculous new material.

Today, on a round about the NHS, a total of twelve people out of the hundred surveyed didn’t know what those three initials stand for, because we now apparently live on a planet where, if someone doesn’t know the answer to a question, they can’t possibly attempt to employ a little lateral thought.

What's worrying about these questions is the amount of people who don’t know the answer is often staggering. Without wishing to sound like an old man (which is clearly about to happen) I sometimes wonder where education began to fall short; there are some things you should just know without remembering where you picked the information up from. I’m pretty sure I always knew NHS stood for the National Health Service - and even if I didn’t, I’d be able to work it out; where would these people turn if they suddenly fell ill?

This wasn’t the only shocking result for me in tonight’s episode: they also ran a round in which you had to identify the names of famous people who’d been expelled from school from their photograph. One of the pictures that popped up was this, or as near as damn it:


Only thirty-two people knew it was Salvador Dali; oh, humanity, when did things go so wrong?

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