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The game show with answers supplied by 17 year old kids. Aired 10/17/87
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“Oh well sorry Jean!” No one could deliver that line like Steve Martin.
I thought he was going to say, "Well excuuuuuse me!".
Hahaha! My favorite line to. Perfect delivery!
I would say his line of "Oh whatever you say" would be best delivered by Steve Martin, AKA George Banks!
Jeane.
Bill Hader, maybe.
This is basically what would happen if Jeopardy's answers (or rather questions) were left up to the Family Feud survey.
Jeopardy annoyed me. The answers are supposed to be given in the form of questions, but they are not really. People just say "what is" before the answer. So "Who freed the American slaves" would be answered, "What is Abraham Lincoln." Which is not at all a grammatically correct way to ask a question to which an answer is a person.
Yes!
@@milascave2 I am pretty sure that a contestant is tacitly authorized to interchange "what" with "who". It wouldn't be a deal breaker if they did, is my point.
@@milascave2 I've always had a thought that if I ever got on Jeopardy, I would ask "Why is" and "How is" to change things up.
@@milascave2 "Who freed the American slaves" is a question, which Jeopardy does not do. They would phrase it like "This person freed the American slaves." And the response would have to be "Who is Abraham Lincoln"...not "What is Abraham Lincoln". Using "what" instead of "who" would not be accepted. It's a little odd, but I think the mental gymnastics involving the backwards framing of the questions and answers makes it just a little more difficult for the contestants.
I'm a high school teacher and this is one of my favorite snl sketches ever! "Oh well, sorry JEAN!"
😝
Thank you for your service. Hope you didn't get ptsd
It's a job
@@NormAppleton why so serious?
Oh, whatever you say!
I love how into it Jean gets once she figures out how the game works lol.
Don't know why she forgets what she figured out when it's time for Lightning Round, though.
@@hell5309Bc she picked the Dates category before she figured that out?
It makes a lot of sense, a guidance counselor being the best at guessing the answers from a teenage perspective.
Or that it doesn't take brains to be a guidance counselor. You just have to give the same information to all student. BTW I am not sure such a position even exists in schools outside of USA.
@@NitinYadav-wi9vo Depends on what the job entails. In the UK we have counsellors for parochial care and careers advisors who are supposed to know the students well enough to make valid suggestions on a career path and provide guidance on education routes etc.
When you explain a joke it's not funny. Sometimes you shouldn't type what you think
@@acehole4788 Yes YOU should not type what you think.
These are the kids that got like 300 on the SAT...
"Answers are determined by a national survey of 17-year-old high school seniors" :D :D :D As a high school teacher, this had me rolling with laughter! :D
You should have been crying
@@maxlisk80 - Tears of laughter? :) ... Or "laugh so I don't cry? :)
same!
I feel like that kind of speaks to how well you're doing your job
I once asked high schoolers What's 6 x 9? Get it right, you go to lunch. After three wrong answers, they had a fit. But don't blame the students. An administrator later demanded to know why I was 'teaching math in science class.' We all know who these guys wanted for president in the last two elections: Donald Duck.
Can we take a second to acknowledge that NBC did a really good job restoring all these old sketches!
Yes!
No Magna Carta!
You don't know
You must be joking?
You're An Idiot. LOL!
"It's not what you know, it's what you THINK you know." Boy that aged well when considering our current state of affairs.
"It's not what you know, it's what they tell you to think." I turned on Fox News at 5:59, the screen was a spinning spiral and the voiceover was "you're getting sleepy"
Oof! And true.
"current state of affairs" you mean literally all of political history
It's not who you know, it's who you blow.
Donald Trump made it the basis of a whole political party.
"No one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." -- H.L. Mencken
Actually that was Abraham Lincoln
@@amirs9180 It is attributed to Mencken, but origin is uncertain. Sure doesn't sound like Abraham Lincoln. So please cite your source.
@@nadiasilvershine4630 Whooosh!
@@amirs9180 Sorry the answer is Ernest Hemingway
@@lito6062 Actually it’s… _Hernest_ Hemingway.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Carlos Santana
Lol 😆
Love it :D
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Carlos Santana Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Carlos Santana -This PSA, public service announcement was brought you by The Department of Redundancy Department.
Those who failed history class are condemned to repeat it.
Thank you!!!! ha ha ha
Hands down, one of the greatest sketches in SNL’s archives. Clearly Steve Martin was one of the writers on this sketch.
Steve Martin with a visceral hatred towards idiots....naaaw.. Theodoric of York disagrees
Bronwyn Douwsma's "Existentialist Weightlifting" blog says the sketch was written by Tom Davis, Al Franken, Jim Downey, and Robert Smigel. (I can't post the link to that blog here, but it's pretty easy to Google.) I agree that they certainly did a great job writing for Steve Martin. The first three of those writers wrote for SNL during Seasons 2 through 5 when Martin hosted his first 8 times, so I guess they'd learned something about writing for Martin. Smigel didn't come along until Season 11, but he's still one of SNL's greatest writers ever.
Intelligent.
Nora Dunn is absolutely excellent here. One of the most underrated cast members ever.
She was in the best skit in SNL history…Brenda the Waitress
And her legs...see the bit with jeri hall?
She ruined her legacy by refusing to appear in an episode wth Andrew Dice Clay. She is more remembered for that than her comedy and has since faded into oblivion.
@@c2itccase9 That sketch is FANTASTIC. The one with Alec Baldwin? I love that one.
@@davepollison4333 check out her IMDB. she has a pretty solid career's worth of credits.
This aged too well.
It became younger ^^
It aged horribly, it's just not funny. It's about as lazy as sketch comedy writing gets.
Getting truer every year.
@@soulintake Sorry, but this is an accurate reflection of general knowlege. I mean, Trump got elected president. Also, General Knowledge was the winner of the Battle of Gettysburg. Everyone knows that.
Yes. Thank you Democrats.
Sad thing is the jokes at the beginning failed because the audience wasn't sure if the answers were right or not...
Lmaooo
True
Beginning, middle and end
The answers at the beginning are a little funny, but they're the set-up to the "the ANSWERS were chosen by a nationwide poll of 17-year-olds." If they'd lead with that, the sketch would have petered out a lot earlier.
@@jamesdouglas1783 Yes. The uneasy laughter comes from the audience not yet knowing what they are watching.
I love how before the internet we thought you'd have to survey 17 year olds to get such answers.
I know people in their 30s that would have sat through the entire sketch not laughing and wondering what was so funny because they honestly wouldn't have known the true correct answer. The entire premise of the sketch would have gone completely over their heads.
@@tiki_trash Remember, its not what you know, its what you think you know. Your comment is a good example.
@@tiki_trash Im sure the writers wondered if that was going to be a problem or not.
But you have to understand the 17 year olds from then are those adults on the internet now
"The British are coming!" "Grant". I died.
This is actually how stock markets work...the value is determined not by the intrinsic value, but what others think the assets worth.
That's a very good point
well, it has to be like that because nothing truly has value...
shockkks Nothing has intrinsic value, so I suppose you could say it exists outside of objective truth, but many things are deeply valuable - conscious thought, for instance.
perhaps, some things are valuable, but their value is still determined by the observer
@@shockkks Yeah it's an interesting idea. Value is relative/relational. Value 'for' or 'to' something. So let's jump the shark here and propose that human life has no intrinsic value, and when we're really awake to this, how do we reflect it in both policy and our daily lives. Or did we just end up with a world we don't like... (unironically a necro post)
This needs to be revisited for a modern audience! That was quite funny.
These days this could legitimately be a quiz
A version from MAGA country... He freed the slaves; Donald Trump He won world war 2; Donald Trump The only President to have 100% support; Donald Trump
This would make for a great show, not just a skit!
@@brianbenoit6883 I 💯 agree. SNL could copy this sketch and it wouldn’t be stealing since they got the idea from themselves. It would be fun if the host was *Trevor Noah* and it had a twist where the people playing were Lincoln and Reagan: 👨🏼🦱The answers were given by Republicans in 2021. Let’s begin: This is who is in charge of certifying the election: 🎩 _(Lincoln)_ : Both branches of Congress 👨🏼🦱Incorrect. 🐘 _(Reagan)_ : That’s what I was going to say 👨🏼🦱 Well then both of you are dumb. *The correct answer is: Cyber Ninjas* 🤖 🥷🏽 … _although we’d have also accepted_ *Q*
Wasn't that "Are you smarter than a 5th grader"?
"Common Knowledge - It's not what you know. It's what you think you know" True until 2020!
that describes joe biden voters
@@loyevangelists 😂 it’s what you THINK you know.
@@loyevangelists -- says the guy who believes a conspiracy theory without any actual proof...
Read the comments - a bunch of amateur politicians and ideologues who turn everything into Trump v. the world. It is pitiful that people cannot discuss this show without sneering at each other, blathering politics or making bizarre conspiracy connections. It is a show about the worsening of our educational system - during the 1980's - and it has only gotten worse. Read the comments.
Boy this statement completely describes Trump.
Common Knowledge 2021 - the same kids from 1987, now 51, are surveyed and they give the exact same answers 😐
No, actually we are educated and could answer correctly..
Might want to check the math on that..kids born in 87 are 34 going on 35..🙄
@@pbad2642 for all your condescension, they’re right. If the kids were 17 in 1987, They’d be 51 in 2021
@@pbad2642 lol that's adorable.
@@patpat8727 just common knowledge, man!
These are basically the rules for family feud.
At least they pick subjects where it's harder to be objectively wrong
Exactly!
Family Feud is more like.. " naughty word!!!!!
My favorite. Name something that comes after pork. Answer: U-pine!
Lets play the FUED!!!!
I love Nora Dunn in this sketch, especially at the end when she has to just start running through bad answers as fast as possible.
Even I knew they only gave the ding on the wrong answers after a few seconds
I love it when I run across skits from SNL that I somehow missed. This one's a gem... and so much a reflection of society... and just plain funny!
what part of it is funny?
@@iratepeople455 That's one of those things that if I have to explain it to you - you still wouldn't understand. Steve Martin has received numerous awards - including a lifetime achievement award at the Kennedy Center - Mark Twain Award for Comedy. I don't know anyone who doesn't find him funny. I guess you're the first. I guess you're also irate... so... oh well...
One of my very fav sketches. It gets more real every year.
Another SNL documentary.
Actually the writers had a time machine
The flow and timing of this scene was so good. No one looked like they were struggling to read their lines.
They were great on their lines, it was getting the question cards during the lighting round flipped at the right times that was tough!
This has aged well, and perfectly explains how we got to where we are in 2021.
*2023... it's still a problem. 😬
Most of Steve's movies (except for a half dozen duds) are good, but something about performing on SNL (although never as a regular cast member) has always somehow brought out the very best in him. On that particular stage he is always stellar.
"Theodoric of York: Medieval Barber"
My favourite movie of his is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. So good!
Every Christmas I remember
kzhead.info/sun/ktmPhbd6oGWrY30/bejne.html
And while I had no idea who Buck Henry was, whenever he hosted SNL, you knew it would be good.
"It's not what you know, it's what you THINK you know"... haunting
It's what people WANT to believe...the basis of all religions...conservatives denying science...and so on.
Millions of 17-year-olds -- and a whole bunch of other Americans -- watched this and said, "I don't get the joke. That guy in the competition was real smart!"
More than just Americans. We may be the world's scapegoat but everyone else out there is getting pretty damn dumb themselves
When SNL was funny and my parents said watching it demonstrated poor judgement, what would they think now.
must suck to live a life where you think SNL only USED to be funny. That's like saying music was better in the 70s. You only think that because the good songs are the ones still playing. There were 100 duds for every hit, you've just never heard them.
This sketch is more relevant than ever before.
These days this could legitimately be a quiz
isnt it?
@@mindsprawl it is now
I mean the common date ones definitely could be.
Concept and execution hilarious. Very clever idea, love it.
This show would now be called “Are You Smarter Than A 17 Grader”. 😂
I loved this when it first aired. Steve Martin is fantastic!
I love him! He would make an awesome game show host😊
Steve Martin's always good for a laugh LOL!
You were one of the high school idiots
Oh, whatever you say!
the relevancy is off the charts
This feels way too accurate in 2020.
I don't know if the Saturday Night Live audience is educated enough to appreciate this.
5:55 line of the sketch! Steve Martin is absolutely the best!
Nice to see a SNL sketch where they don't constantly look at cue cards. Here, they obviously all know their lines
I love Steve Martin in the jerk when they show him his new apartment in the bathroom and he says this is perfect I won't have to move anything. 😂
Steve Martin was so unique in his personality and body language.
Feels like this predicted the Internet.
Honestly the internet made this less likely since now we can look it up
@@Leo-sd3jt That was the hope but the prevalence of misinformation would indicate otherwise. I would have agreed with you 5 years ago. Not anymore.
@@Leo-sd3jt Looking it up made critical thinking not a thing. I'd say it's more likely simply because there's less clinging to the value of information if you have no reason to think it's to be protected or in short supply.
@@pollysey6577 back in the 1970s we had those yellow book called Cliff Notes. You see lots of people on the school bus writing their reports out of them before we got there. LOL We had to write to the Library of Congress to get some information and it would take weeks to get it. ease of access to information does not guarantee you that people will even look it up!
People were stupid long before the internet. The internet just made it much easier to see.
One of the more biting (and accurate) commentaries by SNL...not to mention very funny.
This as a family feud style show would actually be a lot of fun
OMG! 18 years later and this is so freaking accurate!
Since it aired 34 years ago.... I agree!
Those 17 year olds who provided the answers are 50 now...in case anyone was wondering how we got here.
Superb comment.
Haha, spot on
Gee, I wonder who they voted for in 2016.
Yeah, makes sensez
What a perfect statement!!!! Ding, ding, ding!
I would actually watch this as a tv show, love the concept
Family Feud uses its answers from polling people. "We asked 100 people..."
@@markae0 true but this show asks questions with one correct answer that most people get wrong in the same way whereas family feud asks broad questions that result in several correct answers. I want Steve Harvey to ask who the first president was and someone respond Abe Lincoln.
This was a brilliant and hilarious sketch concept! Loved it!
"TV Guide, the most widely-read publication in the world" "In the United States" "Oh, what-ever you say" The meta in that is off the charts
I'm not sure if this is funny or sad.
+El Diablo both
***** I think I follow what you're saying..
It's SAD because they put it under FUNNY....it's becoming reality, everything determined by polls even the facts.
It's AM-BI-GU-OUS.
@@maciek19882 - what does that mean?
Steve Martin has been looking the same for 30 yeara
He did have a head start with the gray hair when he was younger. It made him seem older when he was younger.
Is he a demon?
He was grey in the movie "The Idiot". That was like the late seventies or early eighties. Tell you the truth, I think he was born grey.
@@theresawilliams4296 You mean, "The Jerk"?
He was born just like he looks now
Brilliant in my opinion - it is not only funny, but more of a commentary of "what you think you know" (ie relative) is more important than what is truth or as noble as the pursuit of truth.
How much would it have cost NBC to have Steve Martin say to Jean at the end, "Well, excuuuusse me!"
The problem is how much it would cost Steve Martin, NBC owns all the things said on their network.
@@clarklarewjones Since Steve Martin often said the excuse me line during the early appearances on SNL, then they must already own Steve.
I am impressed that the students knew the battle of Jericho. As someone who teaches college students, this could apply to most of them. I have had entire classes where not a single student knew that Lincoln had been president during the Civil War.
Uh, you do understand that there wasn't actually a real survey of 17 year old students, right? That it's just a part of the skit, intimating that they're not very bright? The seventeen year olds that is, not the contestants. Or people watching it here for the first time.
George Lincolnshon, right?
A few years later it could be the Battle of the Network Stars.
NOVEMBER 08, TO 2020 ALEX TREBEK DIED AT 80. He valued knowledge and saw the importance of Jeopardy, he will be missed around the world. SAD in more ways than one. Alex Trebek passed away yesterday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He continued filming Jeopardy (5 episodes a day) until 2 weeks ago. I believe the final episode will aire on Christmas day.
"It's not what you know, it's what you THINK you know."
I've always loved how sedately Nora Dunn walks around the desk
Thanks. I wanted to know her name. I think she as the most seductive voice.
@@sitcomsTV Her voice is like the anti-Victoria Jackson
This is disturbingly American in 2020, but not just for 17-year-olds - for everyone.
Yes, and it's Common Knowledge that 'COVID' is a 'real virus' that has NOTHING TO DO WITH ESTABLISHING CORPORATE BANKING WORLD GOVERNANCE.
@@squirelova1815 You should go volunteer to clean floors in covid wards in hospitals. You would understand that it's real, it's devastating, it's highly potentially deadly, and it's very very contagious if you did that. Please go do that. It's your opportunity to see the truth... IF you can handle the truth.
Sad but true.
@@christianorr1059 I absolutely bet that @Squire Lova WILL NOT go volunteer to clean floors in covid wards in hospitals. It's easy to believe something is fake if you never come face to face with it, but much harder if you can see people struggling to breathe with an intubator down their throats. Reality is hard to face sometimes, and there are people who like to hide from it not only by avoiding it but also by loudly claiming it is something that it's not. That's how Demented Donny ended up elected. Too many people just wanted to hide from reality and he encouraged them to.
@@lilydarkmoore8769 My previous reply to your vague nonsense about some meaningless charade of cleaning floors was erased by YT, I guess after You flagged it. Virologist Dr. Stefan Lanka, after posting a 100k Euro Reward for ANY PROOF of "Viruses" then PROVED in Germany's High Cort that Ruled in his favor that: "(even the)MEASLES "Virus" DOES NOT EXIST" by ANY accepted Scientific Proofs or Standards as portrayed by Vaccine selling medical cartels and that ALL VIRUS PHOTOS ARE FRAUDS portraying ONLY Normal Cellular Functions and structures, like Exosome activities.
When you start answering like a normal person, but adapt and start answering “correctly” and it scares the bejeesus out of you...😟😟😟
This has been one of my favorite SNL sketches since it first aired.
I like how after "Gold Rush" she just starts listing random dates
I can't imagine either Kevin Nealon or Steve Martin as young. It's as if they went straight from 20 to 40 overnight.
Sadly, this becomes more and more accurate with each passing year.
Well that's because each year that passes adds another 355 days of new facts to know. Or is that 365 days?
Sure does.
But boy can these kids take and SAT or ACT lol
Well it was accurate then...
@@johnpoole3871 I never said that it wasn't...
It is 2022 and I never saw this sketch before. What a gem, hilarious.
You can tell it's a multilayered parody the moment you see how "STATE CAPITALS" is spelt.
I’m here to drop off an original comment on how this is an accurate portrait of how the world is these days- oh crap. I’m very late
That's what she said! Just playing the game as it should be played.
"It's not what you know. It's what you think you know." Prescient. This is exactly what we are dealing with right now.
It's what people WANT to believe...the basis of all religions...conservatives denying science...and so on.
@@randomgrinn Liberals playing the same tune once the CDC's guidelines shift. Play both sides of the story.
I LOVE the look on Kevin Nealon's face when Jean gives her second incorrect answer & he's thinkin' : "I got this game in the bag."..
Four score and seven years ago was probably the best beginning of any speach from Jimmy Carter.
This was the best era of snl by far, 1986 to about 1992
As long as Carvey and Hartman were in the cast, you knew you were getting a solid show.
I think it's the renessaince Era of the show. You can occasionally see good streaks where the balance of performers and writers is matched.
I’m pretty sure this sketch was meant as a warning when it first aired in the 1980s. Now it very well might be taken as an epitaph.
Always loved this bit, good to see it again
I was dying of laughter cause I got most of the answers right when wrong 😂😂😂😂
Jon Lovitz would have made an excellent host for this, too.
Usually Phil Hartman was the go-to guy for game show host roles, though Jon did host the game show "Who's Dumber?"
This is more than 30 years old, but the end statement applies more in 2021 than back then. "It's not what you know--it's what you *think* you know!"
I got my medical degree at Facebook Google U!
Troy, NY gets a random shout out! Yessss!
I'll bet Sean Connery would have swept this game. He was a man of uncommon knowledge and a Jeopardy expert.
I take Litter at Whore onehundrred.
@@larsgutsein3910 - "And up your arse, Trebek!"
Anyone else want this to be a real game show?
Common Knowledge actually IS a real game show, on GSN. Reruns are still airing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Knowledge_(game_show)
If this is not the greatest SNL sketch ,I don't know what is.
This is actually brilliant. “It’s not what you know, it’s what you think you know.”
In the year 2020, this is so UNFORTUNATELY accurate. God help our Republic!!
I've got some bad news for you, from the future (2024)
This is actually a legit idea for a show, with the purpose of pointing out the biggest mistakes people make
I'd love for this to be a real game show.
Basically the quality of trivia on carnival cruise line.
"It's not what you know, it's what you think you know." How appropriate to today.
Even back then they knew the educational system was a joke
Jean didn't.
This segment is basically what The Mandela Effect really is in reality. One could get a ton of Reddit karma by going into that subreddit and posting a bunch of these questions and answers.
The Hamilton question reminded me of an SNL sketch (Common Knowledge) of a similar trivia show. The questions were created by a team of top academics, but the answers were provided by local high schoolers. Brilliant!
"Oh well sorry Jean..." best part XD
I thought Jean's slow walk on the tag team was pretty funny.
This is even more relevant for today, 2021. Humans are devolving, not evolving.
Actually IQ tests scores always drift higher over time. They actually have to recalibrate the grading system every so often. This is called the Flynn effect, and you can look it up.
Actually, evolution is just change over time, rather than necessarily an upward ladder to something better (other than the fact that a beneficial evolution is more likely to survive) so even if humans were getting dumber it would still be evolving.
@@brothergoodfoot Actually you are wrong IQs are actually dropping, society is getting stupider every decade, last time I read we are 4-5 points lower compared to the 70s
@@VenezuelaNow no. Look up the flynn effect. It describes the exact opposite.
This made me remember one time when Jimmy Kimmel in his show asked American to say where USA is on the map, and lots of them got it wrong. I was really shocked.
Kimmel is a douche.
I'm 64 and I don't think I ever depended on a TV Guide. I've been binging on Third Rock from the Sun for about ten years. It is great to hear when I come to many times at night. White noise with familiarity. Right back to sleep just like dreaming.
When they explain how it works, it ceases to be a joke...
Steve Martin looks the same from 34 years ago
Just to clarify, are you saying SM looks the same today as he did in 1987?
Steve Martin is the best comic of his time
No
HAHAHAHA NO!
I mean really, not even close. He had to be paired up with a great writer and a script written with him in mind, and then he had some good moments. Also, he is still alive so your are saying he's the best comic of the last 70 plus years? Are you serious?
*( "YES" ) €¥£ ^
"Come on Jean"!
I miss this old snl. Grew up sneaking to the basement and watching it with my brother
2020, this aged WAY TOO WELL.
Worst SNL sketch I've ever seen. Stopped half way through, but hell it's good to lull you to sleep!
Man are you salty or what? Hit a little too close to home?
@@aaronliggett3224 Fucking shit sucked, the only hit was the occasional bong blast. Any more questions Karen?
Definitely hit too close to home...Karen
You misspelled "2015."