(thing) by junkpile Sat Oct 28 2000 at 15:28:35

Street Smarts is a new game show which premiered in October 2000. It's a creation of Scott St. John, the creator and executive producer of the hit "relationship series"   "Change of Heart." It's a total rip-off of Jay Leno's trick of walking around asking strangers to define "cold-cocked" or " asinine" and hoping for a dirty or otherwise humorous response. But Street Smarts does not feature Jay Leno so by definition it's already funnier.

Host Frank Nicotero walks around asking people to prove they're dumb and silly. Contestants in a studio bet on whether the interviewees will know the right answer. The best is when some mean floozy (damn I love the word floozy) in the studio bets "wrong" on a skater punk, assuming he won't know anything, then he turns out to know all about the proper etymology of "titillate." Also good is when med students don't know "cerebellum."

The show offers an appealing measure of smugness - the host certainly know the right answers, a la snooty old Alex Trebek, and the contestants act as if this is kindergarten. But once or twice during the course of the show, the contestants are themselves called on, and they never, never know the right answer. "Um, the missionary position is like when you pray?"

It's also good when I don't know the right answers. I have a degree in English - I'm required by law to know this stuff, but I don't. I know most of it. But it's nice to see the gaps in my knowledge. Watching this with a friend is the best - I love being able to trade "how do you not KNOW that?" for "I never heard that my whole life, Dude, they're making that one up." I like to remember how much I don't know. It's excellent when that reminder comes from a cornsilk-haired drunken tank top girl swaying her boobies and giggling in a supermarket.

In my world, this show appears on the WB, weeknights at 11:30 pm.


thanks to:
http://www.wgncable.com/entertainment/streetsmarts/

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