We are not going to see a Belgian become the smartest in the Netherlands, are we? Because that is where we are heading, now that Erik van Looy has been the smartest of the day in The smartest person. Van Looy has been presenting the Flemish version of the game for twenty years, but wanted to participate as a participant. Again, because he was once a participant in Flanders, won, and was immediately asked to present the program. So Philip Freriks, eat your heart outVan Looy is a lot younger, and funnier too.
In any case, the game in Flanders is more about the laughter than about the answers. No, then the Netherlands. If candidates do not know something, it is disgraceful for days in various newspaper and television columns. Last Tuesday, according to many, the “low point” was reached in terms of stupidity. “The smart celebrities are gone,” concluded TV critic and media personality Angela de Jong in her AD column the next day. She wrote, she just didn’t pull her hair out. She can say all that, she herself once participated, won and became the first smart human woman in the Netherlands. I’m not imitating her. Participating, I don’t think about it, given the amount of minutes my brain idles trying to find a name, title or just a word. In fact, I avoid the program, I find it so frustrating not to know (in time).
Checked out the episode of Tuesday 24 January. Candidate Quinty Misiedjan only recognized the cartoon character Pieter Post of the eight photos of men with Pieter as a first name. She didn’t know Pieter Omtzigt, Pieter van Vollenhoven and no, neither Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. She found it embarrassing herself. But hey, fellow candidate Guido Spek did not know the eight cryptically displayed Disney titles. Is that stupid? That’s what the editors thought On 1 and Khalid & Sophia on Wednesday evening. The fragments in which the Pieters remained unmentioned were played again, even though 2.2 million people had already seen them (that’s how many viewers there were that Tuesday).
‘Sad’
It wasn’t over yet. In Show news on Saturday, Patty Brard stood up for actor and musician Guido Spek (one of those missed Disney titles). She felt “sad” for him that he was called the dumbest ever, so she called him to cheer him up. “But Pat,” he’d told her, “it’s just a game, isn’t it?” No! Totally wrong, it’s not. This is worse than an unexpected quiz on Monday morning, or a logical analysis in the eighth hour on Friday, after a block of PE. It’s a public humiliation. A public IQ test that can make and break careers.
Race on Saturday then thundered over the candidates. The Pieter fragment again, and oh horror, now Angela de Jong was sitting at the table. With a affable smile she repeated the criticism that had started it all. That in the same week a game show contestant The Floor not recognizing a single politician from the photo, not even Pieter Omtzigt, did not make the assessment of Dutch cleverness any better.
I can now say that knowing a lot is not necessarily being intelligent. Ready knowledge is different from being able to think analytically. But that probably doesn’t sound credible coming from my mouth. It is that The smartest person is recorded well in advance, otherwise you would suspect that the editors took all the criticism and flew in a Belgian who knows better than anyone how the hares run in this game. On Thursday evening he pretended to be bad at the word puzzle, but on Monday he guessed the three words in a split second. Twice he became the smartest of the day. So you see, every country gets the smartest person it deserves.