Who Am I?

Pop quiz: This man is ...



A. British Prime Minister Tony Blair

B. "Three Stooges" star Moe Howard

C. Supreme Court Justice David Souter

D. Dopey of the Seven Dwarfs

E. None of the above

If you said "C" is the correct answer, then you are smarter than about three-quarters of the American population.

Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday.

According to the poll by Zogby International, commissioned by the makers of a new online game on pop culture called "Gold Rush," 57 percent of Americans could identify J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 percent could name the British prime minister, Tony Blair. ...

Asked what planet Superman was from, 60 percent named the fictional planet Krypton, while only 37 percent knew that Mercury is the planet closest to the sun.

Respondents were far more familiar with the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly and Moe -- than the three branches of the U.S. government -- judicial, executive and legislative. Seventy-four percent identified the former, 42 percent the latter.

Do you wonder why you never receive a telephone call from these pollsters? Is it because you would throw off the curve -- and make the general population seem smarter? Is it the "the-TV-folks-only-interview-rednecks-who-say-the-tornado-sounded-just-like-a-train" mentality? Or is it just that only dumb people answer their home telephones?

And we take those political opinion polls seriously? Well, I don't, but many people do. So the next time you see an American opinion poll saying we should do this or we should do that, remember those same people think Homer is a doughnut-eating yellow guy who works at a nuclear power plant.

D'oh!