KEY POINTS:
Question: What was Gandhi's first name? Contestant's answer: Goosey Goosey.
Warning to all those know-it-alls who shout at the television screen when contestants on their favourite quiz shows offer incredibly stupid answers to blindingly obvious questions - One day that could be you.
Brains all too often turn to mush when someone is trapped like a rabbit in the headlights facing a relentlessly smiling compere and an audience worked into a frenzy of false frivolity by the warm-up man.
Anne Robinson revels in being merciless mistress of the scornful putdown in The Weakest Link.
But she is not alone in tripping up contestants who offer cripplingly embarrassing answers that will forever haunt them.
From regional radio shows to television's Who Wants To be a Millionaire? and University Challenge, people make fools of themselves - as internet site jumpingjacksbar.com found in collating some of the worst howlers.
Here are leading contenders for the "Dumb Down" gold medal:
Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?
Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then.
Presenter: Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?
Contestant: Forrest Gump.
Presenter: In which country is Mount Everest?
Contestant: Er, it's not in Scotland is it?
Presenter: Name a film starring Bob Hoskins that is also the name of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci?
Contestant: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Presenter: In which European city was the first opera house opened in 1637?
Contestant: Sydney.
Presenter: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant: (after long pause) Fourteen days.
Presenter: Dizzy Gillespie is famous for playing what?
Contestant: Basketball.
Presenter: Which literary hunchback lived in Notre Dame and fell in love with Esmeralda?
Contestant: Nostradamus.
Presenter: Where did the D-Day landings take place?
Contestant: (after pause) Pearl Harbor?
Presenter: What is the currency in India
Contestant: Ramadan.
Presenter: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?
Contestant: Jesus.
- REUTERS