Those ignorant Brits

Whenever he visits England, Michael Moore loves to mock his countrymen for their sheer stupidity, symbolized by their supposed inability to locate other nations on a map.

I'm not expecting him to comment on these poll results anytime soon:

Sixty-five percent of Britons don't know in which US city the hit musical "Chicago" is set in, according to a nationwide survey for an upcoming TV quiz show.

Another 57 percent didn't know where the celebrated television soap opera "Dallas" was set, and two-thirds were equally at a loss to identify the city at the heart of the Roger Whittaker ballad "Streets of London".

YouGov, a market research organisation that uses on-line panels, questioned 1,000 respondents for a quiz show on Channel 4 titled "Beat the Nation" that goes on air next Monday. Its findings were released Friday.

The poll also indicated that 67 percent of Britons don't know when World War II ended, 64 percent didn't know where the French Alps were, and 70 percent didn't know where the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is based.

I find it impossible to believe Britons, Americans or anyone else are really this stupid - which makes me wonder just how these polls, which come up three of four times a year on the wire services, are carried out.

Posted by damian at January 4, 2004 12:25 PM