This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Phartman: Alliteration be damned, I can't be the only one who thinks Primitive Screwheads is a better name.
Pieguy259: It does establish the fact that someone's primitive, but it doesn't establish who's primitive.
Phartman: So? Most people are sharp enough to infer based on the reference alone.
Pieguy259: Which reference?
Phartman: It's from Army of Darkness, the second sequel to Evil Dead and one of the most kickass cult flicks ever made. Check it out.
BT The P:" Exactly the problem: it's a cult flick, and not everyone is as big on the Bruce Campbellian canon as we may be. Besides, This Is My Boomstick needs to be a trope more than Primitive Screwheads. Maybe the thing where people in Time Travel stories or Cargo Cult scenarios with "primitives" use simple modern technology to impressulate the natives. To the YKTTW cave! *spinning pirate logo*
Gemmifer: I don't get the crossed "n"s in the main text...
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Allandrel: Is there a page for the related trope where any "primitive" people are impressed/terrified by simple pieces of technology? I'm especially thinking of the bizarre idea that anyone living prior to the 20th century would regard a cigarette lighter as magic, when anyone with a basic knowledge of firestarting can see that it is just a flask of oil with a metal striker and a flint.
Anon: "Not any smarter or dumber [...]" I take issue with that assessment. It is a fact that the average IQ (which is normalized to 100 every few years) has been rising by a few points every decade. While IQ is definitely not the best measure of intelligence as a whole, nevertheless, medieval europeans — especially serfs and the like — would lack the environment or diet for the level of brain development we have today, and as a result their intelligence would likely be noticeably less that that of people today.
