Again I doubt she'd know him since she's 24, and he's 60 odd!!

I had to google him, as I've never heard of him!!!

the fact that you don't know Jerry Dammers and do know Bear, where is the justice in this world ?

Marnie will be saying she doesn't know Nigel Blackwell and Mark E.Smith next

That reminds me of a night out I had. They played a Prince song and a chap said to me, "I like this song, who is it?"
Me: Prince.
Man: Who is Prince?
Me: Prince! It's...Prince! Purple Rain, 1999, let's Go Crazy, Kiss. Prince?
Man: never heard of him.
Me:

and like the other thread, Madness wrote a song about him, before he was famous

I had to go and look because I had not idea what you were talking about!

that's how I feel when I hear the kids talking about Sheeran Eddie or whatever his name is ?

Oh, no - I know Madness very well, I just did not know that song. I just had to look at the thread you were referring to, and which particular song. I immediately thought 'Baggy Trousers'

Sheeran Eddie That sounds a whole lot better! You should tell him to change it!

People talking about why would ashe know, I believe there is a thing I call 'Cultural Osmosis' which is where some things, you just get to know about whether you have any interest in them or not. George Michael is big enough to be one of those things, having had an impact on modern culture.
I have no interest in One Direction. Couldn't tell you the title of any of their songs - and have no wish to learn either. But I do know there is one called Liam, one called Zayn and one called Harry Styles who has floppy hair all the girls scream about. That works backwards as well as currently.

There's a thread on another sub-board about stupid TV quiz answers here and on arguments goingon about one answer to a quiz question where to the question who was famously assassinated in Dallas in 1963, the answer given was JR (with no acknowledgement after that they'd had a brain fart moment and they'd actually meant JFK). Some people are arguing that this was a stupid answer as the persdon really should have been aware, and others are arguing that if she hadn't lived through that there is no reason why she should know so JR was a good answer.

Now I'm too young for JFK but growing up, even though I knew pitiful little about the man, I knew as President, he had been assasinated in 63. Thats a big enough historical event to permeate into cultural knowledge with enough references.
Likewise, like George Michael in music, I knew who the Beatles were despite them breaking up before I was born, that the Rolling Stones (still making music in the 80s) hark back to the 60's, Cliff Richard the 50's. And I knew all this before my teens.

Unless you are so self-absorbed that unless it is relevant to you, you have no outside awareness then you can't fail to pick up certain facts and knowledge through a form of cultural osmosis. Or just thick.

You just pick this stuff up.


That wasn't what he said.


Best. Description. Of. George. Michael. EVER!

Who is George Michael he is more famous than you are marnie

you can't compare him to the Beatles, the kids today are more likely to know him for driving his car at the speed of a milk float into snappy snaps, in a desperately cowardly attempt to emulate Marc Bolan

I'm a geordie and I don't think I've come across anyone who isn't ashamed at the programme.
In fact when MTV first announced plans to do Geordie Shore, there were attempts to get the plans cancelled. Sadly they failed.


He's a legend to me purely for driving into a store called 'Snappy Snaps'...

I loved her duet with Prince

I think people are being a bit unfair here - I know a lot of songs that I don't know who sings them. Every Christmas I hear the same songs, I can't honestly say I know all the artists though, nor do I know every artist I hear regularly on the radio - although my daughter expects me to as she constantly asks 'who sings this' as if I'm a musicpaedia! I imagine, even if she knew who Wham were, she might not know who GM is. He's not of her era, he's not having hits now, she probably listens to radio channels that play more club than anything.

I really don't expect her to know who GM is. I expect Bear to, as he dresses like he just escaped from Club Tropicana

As for the 'toast in a toaster' - it's an old trick question, most people say toast. People calling her thick because of that are, from what I've read so far on the thread, just looking to bash Marnie for any reason - quite nastily too. It's a rather depressing read through.

Last Christmas was a Wham song.

Marnie was minus 8 when GM`s biggest hit Careless Whisper came out in 1984. GM's last big news story was in 2006. Brian Belo hadnt even heard of Shakespeare despite it being compulsory for all yr 9 kids to study.

I wish ppl would cut Marnie some slack ... she's quite a humble sweet character who kniws she`s not academic or one of the popular ones on GS. I really liked her on BB.

I don't think calling Marnie thick was an inaccurate assessment of her, based on her actions and conversations in there.

EDIT - it might have been an act, who knows? But from what others have said about her on Geordie Shore, I very much doubt it.


If you read the thread, you'll see exactly why her age is largely irrelevant in that instance and Brian admitted after the show that he said that for effect - something that most people on the C4 forum called correctly at the time and was all part of his gameplan.

'Playing the thick card' has been shown to work and it certainly did for Brian B.

I've read the thread and I disagree. It's not like a 60 yr old knowing about 1d, the most successful boyband of all time. GM was not that ubiquitous. After the 80s he was a niche market. This century, he has been very low key indeed and there's no reason he'd have been on Marnie's radar.

I didn't say she was or wasn't thick I don't think that not knowing who George Michael is define's a person's intelligence though Nor whether saying you put toast in a toaster (a trick question many people get wrong) proof positive

I don't think she's brain of Britain, I doubt she knows a lot of general knowledge, which would be more of an indication, but then I don't think she's dumb either - she's clever enough to be earning a lot of money for a young woman her age!

I don't think it was an act either. Like a lot of young people these days, she's not interested in much beyond her own bubble I imagine. Probably like a lot of older people too

Mary's Boy Child is the 2nd biggest selling Christmas song of all time, but I bet she wouldn't know who sang that either - nor would many people her age.

Indeed. Some of us are still trying to wipe from our minds his dreadful copy of a Stevie Wonder classic

I never saw the allure of GM after Wham broke up, personally. I certainly don't agree with whoever it was that said he was pivotal (or implied such) in the music industry.

he was the Gary Barlow of his time, both were fat and wrote boring formulaic songs, now I am sure Marnie would have known who Morrissey was, because her mum is still in love with him

I lived in the USA in 1983/84 and, when I left to go there Wham had a different image. When I returned to the UK I was obviously jet lagged, didn't know that GM had started a solo career and that he'd gone all beach-boy blond.

I was half awake, my brothers were watching Top of the Pops and Careless Whisper was number 1. I opened my eyes and said something like 'wow, Andy Gibb looks different, I like the song though'

Andy Gibb, blimey, now there is a name I would let Marnie off with

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertai..._120416_wb.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...y-hapwHr99PSPx

I think it was the similarity in hair styles

I'm sorry muggsy but what has being cast in Geordie Shore got to do with being clever?

Serious question.

By comparison, who else do you think is clever?

We must have very different ideas about what the word means.

I think the word has a lot of meanings, in my head clever and smart are different things - smart being somebody with a lot of knowledge, educated even, clever being more somebody who can figure things out. For example, I have a 16-year-old daughter with a mental age of 8 who is sharp as as a whip at times, she's very clever at figuring a lot of things out (especially when it comes to technology), but she'll never be passing any GCSE's. She also doesn't know who George Michael is

I don't think Marnie's a 'smart' person - or even very bright - in that she doesn't know much about much at all, she seems easily led but likeable (from my limited viewing of CBB). She does, however, have a bigger bank balance than most people her age, she's earning a living. From the sounds of it, she's not from a very flush family so I imagine she's feeling pretty lucky.

I think she's clever enough to be earning a lot of money in a time when so many people under 25 aren't earning much (if anything) at all. That's not me saying that I think being on Geordie Shore should be an aspiration for the youth of today, or even that I think it will set her up for life or has given her much in the way of long-term prospects - whether she's smart enough to seek good advice on what to do with her income in order to achieve some long-term financial security is unknown.

I'm probably not getting over what I'm trying to say very well, not being smart but - going back to my original point regarding this thread - I don't think a knowledge or lack of knowledge of who George Michael is is really a basis upon which to decide whether a person is or isn't "thick", but then that is probably just me - I hate the word 'thick', having been called it many times myself.

Ah, I get you

I think of clever and smart as being the same thing - in your analogy, Marnie is what I'd probably call street smart. I'd say 'she was the cleverest girl in my school' and 'she was the smartest girl in my school' interchangeably.

The fact that she earns good money is a by-product of being on that show and no discernible talent of any description is really required from what I can see.

I wouldn't even put that down to being street smart - luck is more like it IMO

It's possible that we're being unfair but in the generally understood meaning of the term 'thick' I think Marnie fits quite well and as we've all said, she does so rather unashamedly too