History Main / SelectiveStupidity

*** In the 2013 special ''The Hamster Decides'', Julian goes out and asks people for opinions on politics, with most of the questions being ridiculously dated. It starts with Julian asking someone to rate Malcolm Turnbull as Opposition Leader (a position he lost in 2009, which the first person does point out), progresses to asking people to rate Andrew Peacock as Opposition Leader (a position he lost in 1990), and gets sillier from there ("Should Australia undertake Federation?" "Should we introduce decimal currency?"). But while most of the responses shown fit this trope, the segment ends with a man launching into a rant about how he's not sure why Julian is asking whether the late Billy Hughes should challenge Kevin Rudd for leadership, and accusing Julian and Creator/TheABC of push-polling in a blatant attempt to inflate the ALP marketing. As he walks away, Julian calls this "a pretty good summary".

Do not confuse with ObfuscatingStupidity when a smart character intentionally acts unintelligent for some purpose.

* ''Series/PrivateEye'':
** There's a regular feature called "Dumb Britain", which lists wrong answers given to supposedly simple questions by quiz show contestants.
** Often criticised in the letters pages. One 'dumb answer' was to the question 'Where do Panama hats come from" which was answered with 'Luton'.[[note]]A city that used to be famous for its hatmaking industry in the early 20th century.[[/note]] A letter pointed out that this was a perfectly reasonable response since the answer was obviously not 'Panama'.

Compare LiesDamnedLiesAndStatistics, i.e., using credible-sounding statistics for deception; and AccentuateTheNegative, the act of complaining by emphasizing a subject's negative side and excluding all positives. SubTrope of ManipulativeEditing, when something is so heavily edited, it's hard to tell just where the "reality" begins; and LyingByOmission, which is deliberately leaving out a part of a true statement.

--->'''Woman''': Vote liberal, and then John Howard's just going to leave it, leave it with Kim, Kim Beazley, isn't it?

** ''Series/{{CNNNN}}'':
*** This satirical news show has their roving reporter Julian Morrow in America asking passers-by which country America should invade next by placing flags on a map. A lot of people put their flags on Australia, which had been mislabelled as "Iran", "France" and "North Korea". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKMtLOKG8k Watch it here]].
*** Julian also does a few segments asking general knowledge questions (see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q566ys0sqVQ here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY8u54jFubM here]]). A particularly memorable one was a man who was asked "Who was the first man on the moon?" His answer: "You know, some [[MoonLandingHoax people don't think that happened]], they think it was [[{{Malaproper}} reincarnated]] in Arizona somewhere."
*** In the 2013 election special ''The Hamster Decides'', Julian goes out and asks people for opinions on politics, with most of the questions being ridiculously dated. It starts with Julian asking someone to rate Malcolm Turnbull as Opposition Leader (a position he lost in 2009, which the first person does notice), progresses to asking people to rate Andrew Peacock as Opposition Leader (a position he lost in 1990), and gets sillier from there ("Should Australia undertake Federation?" "Should we introduce decimal currency?"). But while most of the responses shown fit this trope, the segment ends with a man launching into a rant about how he's not sure why Julian is asking whether the late Billy Hughes should challenge Kevin Rudd for leadership, and accusing Julian and Creator/TheABC of push-polling in a blatant attempt to inflate the ALP marketing. As he walks away, Julian calls this "a pretty good summary".
** ''Series/TheElectionChaser'' and its follow-up specials have vox pops about the coming election from people, most of whom appear to be drunk, followed by the caption "This Person Votes/Voted."
--->'''Woman''': Vote liberal, and then John Howard's just going to leave it, leave it with Kim, Kim Beazley, isn't it?

* ''WebVideo/AndreTheBlackNerd'': Andre begins his review of ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 2016}}'' by telling the story of the backlash he got for his review of the film's trailer, which came from ''both sides'' who each chose to only focus on one half of his review that took a middle-ground "positives and negatives" approach:

* ''Series/MatchGame'': When quizzed (Blank) Tennessee, the contestant comes up with Mississippi.

* ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'',

* ''Series/ThisHourHas22Minutes'': Rick Mercer's ''Series/TalkingToAmericans'' segments.

* 'Series/ThisHourHas22Minutes'': Rick Mercer's ''Series/TalkingToAmericans'' segments.