Attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture!

[elfs]

This morning, while stuck in traffic (there was an accident in the Battery Street Tunnel, which makes half our freeway system shut down) I was listening to Stephanie Miller show when she had this exchange with one of her two co-hosts, Chris Lavoie. They had somehow gotten onto the subject of her old show, a sex talk show, and whether or not Stephanie owned a vibrator. Chris said, "I bet you own a rabbit."

"No, I have... it has this thing that sticks out, and springs and..."

"You have a steampunk vibrator! It has rivets on it!"

"I do not!"

A couple of months ago I mentioned that I'd heard Stephanie and Chris talk about what the safeword was in Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera's sex dungeon, and was amused that they didn't bother to define safeword. Chris didn't go on to tell us what steampunk meant, either.

For a show that defines itself as "low lefty humor made up of fart jokes and the mocking of Sean Hannity," they certainly assume their audience knows a lot more than, say, Rush Limbaugh's.

Comments

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

When you are not pretending to be Joe Six-pack, you tend to assume that others have brains. Besides, I'm sure they have seen the demographics of their audience and know that it it better educated then Hannity's.

[tehrasha.livejournal.com]

When did knowing the definition of things like safewords and steampunk go from indicating knowledge of pulp culture niches, to a measure of general intelligence?

In this case, it either indicates that the radio show knows its audience, or that Steph and Chris simply assume that everyone listening knows what they are talking about, and will likely google it if they dont.

[xengar.livejournal.com]

I'd say that in this day and age, taking the time and having the inclination to look things up is an indicator of general intelligence. You could toss any sort of oddball thing in here, and while there's a decent chance you could stump me initially, I know where I can find answers I can trust and my curiosity would force me to do so.

Edit: I just realized that this comment seems rather arrogant -- as if I was setting myself up as a standard for intelligence. I really didn't mean it that way. In any case, I feel that learning ability/desire is a better indicator of intelligence than an arbitrary test.

[tehrasha.livejournal.com]

I dont think your responce sounds arrogant at all.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

That you didn't recognize the quote tickles my irony bone (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2005/3/29/101723/142).

[tehrasha.livejournal.com]

So, because I didnt recognize an obscure quoted reference from 2005 (which wasnt even in quotes to help the reader realize it wasnt something you wrote yourself) means what?

Means that you assume your readership reads all the same websites you do, and therefore should have caught that?

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

I've heard "safeword" used on about a dozen shows (dramas & comedies, not talk shows) in the last year, with varying levels of "explanation" between characters. I think the concept is just about *common* anymore. Not quite, but pretty close.

[amythis.livejournal.com]

As a vanilla person, I've been saying for a decade now that kink is more mainstream than people think. (It's vanilla-bi-poly-celibate that confuses people.)