Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" segment

Parent Cafe
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<p>Last night Jay Leno did one of his “Jaywalking” segments. He asked people on the street to complete the titles of several classic works. One young lady claimed to have an English degree from Harvard University. She could not complete the title The Adventures of Tom ______________. When Jay told her the answer, she claimed she had never heard of *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. *</p>

<p>Are these segments for real? It seemed pretty authentic, but most of these people couldn’t get any of the questions correct. When asked for Shakespeare’s first name, one young woman asked “DID he have a first name?” Leno hinted “his nickname was Billy.” She responded “Robert Shakespeare?”</p>

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<p>H and I watched that last night! Unbelievable and rather sad. I’m sure Leno cherry-picks what they’ve filmed to get the cream of the crop. Sometimes he invites the dimmest light bulbs to participate in his “battle of the jaywalk all-stars”.</p>

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<p>I’m not surprised that a young Harvard English major has never heard of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Hasn’t it been declared politically incorrect?</p>

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<p>How do we know the person really was a Harvard English major? The person also could have been pulling Leno’s leg about not having heard of “Tom Sawyer.”</p>

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<p>My mind boggled once at a young woman who couldn’t say who lived at 1600 Pennsyvania Avenue, but knew immediately who lived in a pineapple under the sea.</p>

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<p>^^^ I love this!</p>

<p>Sponge Bob for President!</p>

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<p>I guess if you want a chance at getting on TV, you say the stupidest thing you can think of.</p>

<p>I believe it was last year at the audition segment of America’s Next Top Model, there was a girl who was supposedly an English major at an Ivy. Tyra asked her about her favorite author, literature, etc. and she had no answer at all…did she blank out? did she lie about attending an Ivy? was she really an English major at an Ivy who hadn’t read any books?</p>

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<p>I’m not surprised that a college student would not have heard of Tom Sawyer either. I doubt my daughter has read it - she’s not an English major but I don’t know that it matters. It certainly was never on any required reading list that she had in school. I think it more likely that they would have heard of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Harry Potter is to that generation as Samuel Clemens was to a previous one.</p>

<p>Edited to add - In rethinking, I think a college should have heard of Tom Sawyer, but I’m not surprised if he/she had not read it. I believe my D would have gotten the answer right just based on general knowledge. That is what many of Jay’s victims lack - general knowledge. General knowledge can be lacking in a very well educated, intelligent person</p>

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<p>I’ll bet a lot of older people haven’t read Tom Sawyer either, but know about him because he’s got an Island at Disney World.</p>

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<p>I saw a segment that someone did in which the fill in the blank was “Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of _____.” Yep, it was “Pirates of the Caribbean.”</p>

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<p>My daughter is a sophomore in high school and has not read Tom Sawyer. She has heard of it and knows that it was controversial and why. She also knows that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is also controversial and asked me how a book was ever allowed to be published which makes multiple references to the “N word.”</p>

<p>On the other hand, the “Harvard Grad” did answer *The Adventures of Tom Huckleberry *when Jay pressed her.</p>

<p>If I remember correctly, this Harvard woman did not answer one question correctly. If she did, they didn’t show it. Certainly possible. I know that if I saw Jay and his camera crew coming my way, I’d run for the hills.</p>

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<p>Charles Dickens is another author that we read in high school, but who is no longer widely part of high school curriculum anymore.</p>

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<p>But there are volumes of “great literature” that I’ve heard of, even though I’ve never waded through them. When I see segments like that, I do wonder how my own Ds would fare (Son is much better read than I am.)</p>

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<p>People will do anything to be on television. I would surmise that most of the responses on this segment are made up on the fly. The eagerness to appear like a fool is fascinating in itself, but not enough to make me watch this more than once.</p>

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<p>I don’t believe these segments are real.</p>

<p>Believing it real would just send me into a spiral of depression.</p>

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<p>The honors students going into 10th grade have to read Tom Sawyer over the summer at my son’s HS. Good to know that they would be prepared for Jay. </p>

<p>Frankly, I didn’t realize how little was expected of me at my HS until my kids started here. They have tons of classics in their required reading. This summer going into 11th grade my son had to read - Brighton Beach Memoirs, Our Town, The Glass Menagerie, Catch 22, The Catcher in the Rye, and Into the Wild. Right now they are reading The Scarlett Letter and the Crucible. </p>

<p>I’m terrible at on-the-spot questions and would probably blow it too.</p>

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<p>Missypie, I agree. I’ve never read War and Peace, but when Jay presented that one, I knew how to complete the title. I even knew the author. The guy on the show said “War and Passion”. I think that while some of these goofs were pretty surprising, some of the others are simply a reflection of a shift in what literature is being presented to students.</p>

<p>Other questions on that segment:</p>

<p>A Tale of Two ______<strong><em>. Answer given “Mice.” Another woman couldn’t answer. He said, "you know, like Boston, New York, and Los Angeles are all _</em></strong>. She answered “states?”</p>

<p>Homer’s two famous works? The girl responded “Homer Simpson?”</p>

<p>The Count of _________<strong><em>. Harvard girl responded “Earl.” When he hinted Count of Monte </em></strong>, she said “Carlo”.</p>

<p>What was Shakespeare’s first name?</p>

<p>Robinson_________.</p>

<p>One Flew over the ________________. The guy responded “Nest Egg”.</p>

<p>The Merchant of _________________. She answered Pompeii or Atlantis.</p>

<p>A Streetcar Named ___________. The guy answered correctly, but said the female character was “SHELLEY!” That was funny because he is an actor.</p>

<p>Anyway, I mostly found the segment amusing, particularly the way Jay reacts to the answers. I never watched the Tonight Show, so these are new to me. So I went on Youtube and watched some others. They are really hilarious.</p>

<p>One of my favorites: “Do you know what the Gettysburg Address is?” Answer: “Yeah, but I don’t know the exact number.”</p>

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<p>Yes, I also think it’s sad that this generation is not up to date on the SNL lingo of the 70’s. It saddens me to think of a time when someone won’t know what a “Norge” is or when the response to a doorbell won’t be “Candygram” or “Landshark.” Thank goodness there is a restaurant chain named “Cheeburger Cheeburger.”</p>

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<p>I always marvel at this segment and wonder how many people who know the answers are cut. I 've often taped Jaywalking for my Sons as sort of a “scared straight” tactic for why they need to pay attention in school. Who wants to end up being one of these dummies?</p>

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<p>For the parents on this thread, it would be interesting to ask *our own *parents what their required reading was. I wonder if I’ve heard of all of the books and authors. I also wonder how much required reading there actually was. At my parents’ high schools, the kids were involuntarily slotted into “college” or “trade” tracks based on family income…my parents were put on the non-college track, so I wonder if they were expected to read much.</p>