The Intelligence Estimate

I've been on holiday hiatus and I've been watching a lot of TV. Of particular note is this game show on the Discovery Channel called Cash Cab. The gist of the show is this: people in New York get into a cab and unexpectedly find themselves in a game show hosted by the driver. They have until they reach their destination to amass as much cash as possible, but if they get 3 answers wrong then they are booted out of the cab wherever they are.

I was watching this the other day with Jen and two young, obviously gay men get into the cab and ask to be taken to the ESPN Zone. Which is why I laughed at them later when they missed a question about Roger Maris even after calling one of their fathers. Little did I know that foible would be child's play compared to their answer to this question: "Named after the peak year of the California gold rush, gold miners were known as what?"

They put their heads together and eventually came up with the correct answer which is the 49ers. (Which is also where the San Francisco football team gets their name.) But they needed to talk it out first and get the brains firing on all eight cylinders. After much hemming and hawing one of them gets a notion and screams out, "Ohhhhh, the 69ers."

Clearly they were thinking of the famous San Fransiscan sailors who, 20 years later, would invent oral sex.

Labels: Cash Cab, Discovery Channel, Television