OK, I know the criteria for choosing housemates doesn't emphasise thier intellegence beyond being able to hold a crayon the right way round to scrawl a picture of a house, but has anyone else been struck by how little the housemates this year seem to know about ANYTHING?

I can understand some of their appalling lack of knowlege of science (Tim just couldn't recall the name of the blue crystals in chemistry, which would be copper sulphate), I can understand their lack of interest and knowlege of politics. I can even understand their lack of awareness of geography in some cases (JADE!), but when I know more than the housemates on subjects that I would have thought were their specialist subjects then I'm at a loss to explain it....

Watching them play the "who am I" game and not knowing where Freddie Murcury was from, or not knowing which films people were in amazed me. So I'm left wondering what these people DO know ANYTHING about?

Can anyone tell me something they think the housemates actually know stuff about?? Jonny even worried me when describing ways to deal with backdrafts and flashovers as he only really seemed to know what they were and didn't answer the question on how to cope with them!

Alex knew that Juillet Moore was in that film!

Come to think of it Jonny struggled with the "who is Hugh Heffner?" question.

It's a shame then that it was Julianne Moore who was in Hannibal.

When Sandy told Kate he thought she was "manipulative" she didn't know what the word meant.

Actually, Kate has said that she knows what the word meant but didn't know on which context Sandy was using it in.

mromega - I was being ironic!

Use a smilie then, it's what they are there for. Without a tone of voice to signal sarcasm or irony it's hard to know.

Well it was lost on me too.

When Kate was talking about getting confused between semolina and salmonella, she kept saying selamolina instead of semolina.

Jonny thinks most Scandinavians have American accents.

Freddie Mercury has a Russian name,Sergio???

Jonny doesn't know plastic on a barbeque is a bad idea????

I think all the brainier ones have gone.
Even dopey Lee had a decent knowledge.
The ones left have the lights on but noones at home,and there is a vacancies sign in the window.

I was really impressed with Jonnys knowledge of geography and Freddy Mercury last night.

I used smiles - is that better?

Yep. Wasn't meaning to be mean or anything. It just makes everything clearer.

I got the impression that when she said to Sandy "what does that mean?" her tone of voice implied that she didn't understand the meaning of the word rather than wanting him to elaborate on his comment...

The sight of Tim tiptoing though the house with 2 bottles of wine and discretely hiding them under his duvet in front of 50 cameras and the entire BB production team, convinced me that if he's not a plant then he's certainly no genius.

you are correct she didn't know what the word meant.

If Kate had two brain cells she'd be pregnant with twins.

Come off it do you think anyone with a brain would actually put themselves through 9 weeks of hell, ruin their lives, ruin their families lives, have every thing they do or say reported in the press etc? I think you would have to be pretty stupid to do all that for £70,000. The two clever ones - Sandy & Sunita - jumped ship the moment they realised they had made a mistake.

If they are supposed to be a representative of the public should we start worrying about the brains of Great Britain?

I was even worried about the lack of general knowledge PJ had and he is going to be solicitor. As he didn’t know whom Hugh Heffner was either considering he likes to think of himself as a red-blooded male?

what about Tim thinking part of Durham University named John Snow House was named after the newsreader/correspondent.

F**kin beyond belief.

To be honest and in jonny's defence, I didnt know freddy mercury was born in Zanzibar... when I heard Jonny I thought what an idiot then I checked online and was surprised... so russia was silly but I always assumed he was born in the UK (not a big queen fan admitedly... and by the time I came here he was dead)

Mireille

I know these people are older than my daughter of nearly 18, but she admits that her general knowledge is lacking as schools concentrate on numeracy and literacy, IT and science.

She thinks the Ed system doesn't care about general knowledge and any she knows is down to her family shouting answers to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

But even she knew that Freddie Mercury wasn't Russian.
A lot of Scandinavian people do speak English with a distinct American accent, so I could see where Jonny was coming from. Depends where or from whom they learnt English I suppose.

BC
Isn't Candice Scandinavian then?? She looks it.

none of the Scandanavians i know speak with an American accent

Caprice speaks with a pure vile US accent.It is horrible.

A lot (not all) of the Scandinavians I met backpacking (a loooooong time ago!) did have American accents and said they learnt a lot of their English from American films (not always dubbed in Europe) and pop songs. Or maybe it's just my ears.

Anyway, it's while since I've seen Candice on that travel show she used to present so I can't really remember her accent. I thought I detected a foreign elemnt to it other than the american, but again, my ears may deceive me

I can't argue if you've met them.
I still think Jonny came out with crap though.
I'll argue with Caprice though,her accent is pure yank.

He He!! fair enough. Like I said it's a long time since I heard her.

Jonny comes out with a lot of crap in my opinion. So much so it's hard to pick out individual examples.