Do people pretend not to know who people are in order to seem intelligent?

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Agree totally! I will sometimes hear a name eg Taylor Swift gets mentioned as a song writer, but until that big tour I didn't know it's a woman! Not something I would want to read about etc., when I confessed to this iniquitous social crime on this site one response was 'But you must have seen posters', er know, not in deepest East Anglia!
Strangely though if I question why people have never heard of someone I know from an interest of mine then I'm 'showing off'! No, just different interests.

Unless you’re staggeringly insular, of course you know who Kim K is. She’s been profiled in The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, all the tabloids, the national news, Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 1 (and all the other radio stations as far as I know) there was a spread on her in the Sunday Times Business section 2 weeks ago. It’s not a case of “I’m just not interested in celeb news” because she’s not only in celeb news, she’s in all the news.
Saying you know what the Met Gala is but not who Kim K is…. Come on now. The Kardashians have been the Met Gala for about 5 years.
It is 100% nonsense and a very weird pseudo class marker to pretend not to know who these people are and there’s absolutely NO possibility of someone being on social media, getting fed a Kardashian article by the algo and then actually not knowing who she is enough to comment “who”. If you’re on SM then you know.

Exactly! Why even open the thread if it's about something/someone you have never heard of/have no interest in. And why comment just to say 'I have never heard of them and have no interest in them?'

I don't go to any boards (for example) that are for the childfree, and start going on about my children, or a website dedicated to dogs, going on about how much better cats are. OR to a sports board (say about football,) letting everyone know I have no interest in it, and have never heard of certain footballers that people are talking about.....

Why come on to the thread if you have no interest? Makes zero sense, and yes, it does smack of superiority (from some, not all) because some people feel the need to let everyone know how they have never heard of Kim Kardsahian, Katie Price, MAFS, Love Island, Olivia Rodrigo, or Sabrina Carpenter! (Or even if they have, they really don't care about them!)

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I don’t watch football, I do know who David Beckham is, but I couldn’t necessarily pick him out of a lineup. I could if he had his arm around victoria beckham. But I’m just really really bad with faces, and his face isn’t that memorable.

It drives me insane. It's so deliberately obtuse. Commenting "who" on an article about a specific person, who's name will be scattered throughout said article is the most irritating thing in the universe. You know who, if you don't it's written in the text and if they're of no interest to you, scroll past

I have no clue who love islanders are I don't watch reality tv but I wouldn't comment on a post anywhere saying "who" especially if they are at some red carpet thing.

Why on earth do they even open the thread then?!

Why would they be reading an article about them though?
If it irritates them that much.

I recognise the names but unless they've done something other than be in the media all dressed up then I've no interest in anything about them.

He knows a lot about music - classical music. He listens a lot to Radio 3. He assumed she was a singer of the type of music he’s not interested in and doesn’t listen to.

I don’t know what those two look like but I know their names. Not everyone is very interested in that sort of information. I’m sure there are things I know about that you barely bother with. I don’t see how it shows how high our IQs are?

On a Met Gala article? No ones expecting you to be interested in celeb culture, but they do if your reading about the met gala

I’m not a big fan of celebrity culture. A lot of it weirds me out. There are plenty of famous people I recognise however. Especially those that have an actual talent or career - musicians, actors etc. I have to say I would not have a clue which Kardashian was which if you showed me a picture. People who are famous simply for being infamous are not something that interest me.

Katie Price has had many articles in the Times, and is mentioned fairly frequently. Almost as if the Times assumes their readers know who she is. She's spoken on radio 4 multiple times and has even hosted.

Why does your dh enjoy not knowing who singers are? Seems a bit odd to get an ego boost because you don't know about music?

I genuinely don't know who a lot of the modern celebs are, simply because I don't engage with most modern media beyond about the mid 90s, but I don't think that makes me cooler, or smarter or better than anyone who does - I just have different interests. I do know who Kim Kardashian is though hard not to!

I don't know much about celebrity culture, and often think "Who?" when I read a headline online or a thread title on here, but I don't click on them and certainly wouldn't think to comment as I have zero interest. I think it's a kind of "I'm far too cool and serious to know who these people are, and I want others to know that" attitude.

I think people who write "who?" are making the point that they’re irritated at the expectation that everyone will know who these celebrities are and why they are thought to be interesting.

Well, it depends if you only read the question or the post doesn't it? I tend to read the whole post.

Depends on age. Anyone who is 40 or under and has an existence on social media would obviously know Kim K or they’ve being deliberately try hard. I can guarantee without asking that my parents (seventies) have never heard of her.

I'm like you, OP. However, there are an awful lot of them I dont know.

Maybe people dont want to seem shallow by admitting they've heard of slebs.

I wouldn't be able to match the faces to the names but I have heard of them

I agree with you OP. Especially when they post on a thread saying something like they don’t have a clue who this person is.

I am super smart. I also know who Kim Kardashian is. Feigning ignorance is not the flex most people think it is.

I am really bad at identifying celebrities and remembering names. I would recognise Katie price , Kim Kardashian I know who she is and she was in a relationship with an American rapper and had a backside that broke the internet, but I would struggle to pick her out of a line up unless there was one woman with a much bigger arse than the others, then I'd take a punt.

I'm also really bad with actors DH will say do you want to watch this it's got so and so in it, I will have no idea who that is he will then name 3/4 things I've seen them in. Characters are just characters to me generally.
I know a few big ones like tom cruise or David tennant. DH sent me something about the devil wears Prada two recently and the guy who was in it and his wife making jokes, I replied oh I want to see that, but he'd sent it to me because the couple were the two from Colin from accounts which I love, but I didn't recognise them. It's not snobbery from my perspective at all I love a real housewives show and was a staunch fan of vanderpump rules, so it's not all radio 4 in this house

ETA I wouldn't be reading or commenting on MET gala articles though