@Omelas: Yes, that is true. Last I knew (this was at least 5 years ago) you could get into MENSA by being in the 98th percentile or above of certain standardized tests. Out of curiosity, my brother and I sent in our scores from high school and we both qualified. But neither of us joined because we didn't want to pay the fee.

Like you said, many people could qualify for it based on that scale. It is not as exclusive as many believe.

This list is an absolute joke, by the way.

layladylan

@SikeChick19: My mother, rest her soul, would tell you I say things like that because I'm not a nice person.

But I don't think she ever saw Joey Greico, so I feel ok with the universe.

gwendolyn

@Guadalahonky: I should have been more snark funny and less out and out hatin' because my SO loooovvvvveeeessss 'Cheaters' and he gets the 'cheese factor' in most things like that.

I think Joey G. is the true skin crawl factor for me because when I do overhear the show (I'm usually already drifting off when it comes on Sat. Eve.), I am amused by the 'elevated' language of the voice over which makes me think of a high school dropout working his vocabulary building overtime. On "Cheaters", no one ever goes to a 'bar' when they are cheatin', they go to a 'cocktail establishment' and no cheatin' guy ever goes back to his girlfriend's apartment, he 'retires to his paramour's place of residence'.

I await the day the narrator finally calls some woman a 'concubine'...

gwendolyn

@mesousa: Actually this is probably the best list ever, since the only purpose of these things is bitch fodder.

CrankYank

@DocNoodle: Reached for comment about the list at his Annapolis offices today, Maryland State Sen. Clay Davis (D-B'more) said, "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeit!"

Creepmouse

@blackheartededitor:

I hear you.

miss_msry

No "Cosmos?" No way that's a real MENSA list.

raincoaster

Hey! No fair! Where are all of my favorite shows!? I demand a personalized explanation, none of that "we can't make everyone feel smart" crap!

mesousa

Seriously, I think my dad must have made the "smartest" list...and he is definitely not Mensa.

BallsOnChin

I'm sorry, any smart list of TV shows with no X-Files? And Northern Exposure beats out Mad About You and Boston Legal. And only the truly small minded and left brained leave out Twin Peaks.

And Days of our Lives in the early 90's kicked Passions ass.

CrankYank

The last five years of MASH are completely unbearable. Filled with more mugging than the USC Campus after sundown.

Tiger_Tanaka

MENSA is to Choosing Smartest TV Shows as Zeff Zucker is to choosing Emeril.

Imnotatnbc

@DocNoodle:

The Wire don't need their kind. @gwendolyn:

"...the only entertainment value I see in it (aside from the slight possibility of seeing someone else stab Joey Greico)..."

This cracked my shit up!

SikeChick19

I vaguely remember looking up MENSA membership after someone said high standardized test scores could qualify you, and I seem to recall that you have to pay money to get in. My guess is that most reasonably well-educated people could meet the standards, but the truly smart ones aren't going to pay for a MENSA card when there are plenty of other ways to demonstrate you're a bright person.

Seems sort of like the $cientology of honor socieities.

Omelas

@gwendolyn: Some people have Top Model or Rock of Love, I have Cheaters. I can't help it. This - "Greco was arrested at the scene of a bachelor party while helping a man confront his cheating transexual fiancée" - IS TV GOLD.

Guadalahonky

MENSA is for people who are good at taking IQ tests - and boring the fuck out of everyone within earshot "I'm a member of MENSA..." - gee thanks, now stop drooling on my shoes...

Miss d

ummm Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars SO belong on that smart list

citynoladefamer

Yeah, "Mad About You" is clearly a mistake. I'm pretty sure they meant to say "Manimal."

buttler

Also Seth, you left out number four. It would be awesome if Mensa left out number four, but they in fact listed House there. And House is no Blackadder.

Dr. Spaceman

Futurama a show best enjoyed with a degree in mathematics or astrophysics doesn't make the list and CSI, sorry, Law & Order: Supermodel Dues ex Machina Lab, does? Wrong end of the bell curve Mensa.

Dr. Spaceman

"West Wing," sure. "All in the Family" and "Frasier," maybe. The rest of the "smart list" is laughably (and ironically) dumb.

picardia

Are they measuring smart shows on a Ralph Wiggum scale? I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I am so smart!

No Sports Night? No Battlestar Galactica? No South Park? No Sopranos?

I'm connected to two of the shows on the bottom 20 list, and sadly, I really can't argue against either of them being there.

DCI Gene Hunt

Frasier is a smart show? Are they basing this list on the imagined IQs of the characters?

brechtgirl

@NoWireHangers: Geena Davis was more shocking to me. After all, Sharon Stone is at least intelligent enough to maintain a career, no matter how tattered, long after her lack of talent and utter lack of box office power has been aptly demonstrated to the entire planet.

gwendolyn

@Guadalahonky: I believe Joey Greico got stabbed and I refuse to acknowledge that he is human.

'Cheaters' is filmed in and around Dallas and absolutely the only entertainment value I see in it (aside from the slight possibility of seeing someone else stab Joey Greico) is in identifying which cheesy 'gentlemen's clubs' or 'single's bars' in which rundown 'don't park your Lexus here if you ever want to see it again' Dallas neighborhoods Joey and his sleaze troopers storm, video cameras blazing...

gwendolyn

Cheaters is a quality show about human nature. Also? People get stabbed.

Guadalahonky

Kid Nation wasn't even produced by Mike Fleiss so it can never be THAT appalling.

realitygirl

@blackheartededitor: my thoughts exactly.

GreatZardoz

I think fellow MENSA member Lisa Simpson would be miffed at this list.

Brawndo

No "Ten Speed and Brown Shoe?"

BadUncle

"Mad About You"?
'the fuck? That show singlehandedly killed the sitcom.

Mensa members are idiots.

blackheartededitor

Sharon Stone is in Mensa? The fuck.

What about those of us who take the MST3K approach to watching appalling TV? Man, my mouth is watering just looking at the list of bad TV. The Swan, Cheaters, My Super Sweet 16; the thesis just writes itself.

NoWireHangers

Nerds don't watch THE WIRE, I'm guessing.

Sheesh.

DocNoodle

What?? No Cavemen????

Bento

@Imnotatnbc: As does Arrested Development.

nick_r

"Pink Lady and Jeff" belongs on both lists.

Imnotatnbc