I’m all for inclusiveness but, let me list the specialist subjects on Mastermind this evening:
The life and career of Henry Ford
German wines
The life and works of Frida Kahle
The life and career of Jennifer Aniston
No. That last one is not a typo. Guess who came last?
You guessed right!
At the beginning of the general knowledge round, John Humphreys talks a little to the contestants about their specialist subject. Sadly I got in just too late to see him ask about Aniston’s post Friends career, or relationship with Brad Pitt.
Dumbing Down?
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2 responses to “Dumbing Down?”
Perhaps I could play Devil’s Advocate here. Are you suggesting that Ms Aniston is necessarily an easier subject on which to ask questions (in which case, why did she come last in the specialist round)? Surely as long as all the contenders get questions that are of similar difficulty, it doesn’t matter what the subject is. The point of the specialist subject is not how “highbrow” or “lowbrow” the subject is, but how well the contender has researched it.
Fine comic actress though I think Aniston is, I don’t believe that her oeuvre competes with those of the subjects. I didn’t hear the questions, so I don’t know what the level of difficulty was, although as a rule of thumb, I would think that as a “generalist” as far as her work goes, I shouldn’t have been able to answer more than one or two questions myself.
Basically, I don’t think her career to date is as broad a church as those of the other contestants. German wine seems immensely varied, Henry Ford lived until he was 83 and had a wide-ranging business, while Frida Kahlo may have died a little younger, she did have a wide ranging life and significant body of work to ask questions about. IMDB lists 32 roles Aniston has played, which include some very minor ones and she’s only 38. I’d argue that a relatively slim biography would cover most of that – indeed some time spent on IMDB ought to suffice.