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

[coulditbeme2323]

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

This question is prompted from reading comments online re The Met Gala?

Now let me prefix this by saying I have no interest in reality tv, Showbiz mags, etc - but surely there are some people who you know who they are because everybody does!

There were people saying "who" on a photo of Kim Kardashian. I have never seen an episode of the show, have no interest in her, but of course I know who she is - because how can you not?

Another British example is Jordan/Kate Price. No interest in her, but she has literally been headline news in The UK for 20 years. If you live in The UK - surely its impossible to not at least know who she is?

Yesterday I'd have been confident that I'd recognise Kim Kardashian but this morning I saw a photo of her at the Met Gala and now I'm less sure of myself.

How about me? I have heard the name Kim Kardashian before but I have absolutely no idea who she is, why she might be well known, or be able to pick her out of a lineup.

Do you think that I am "definitely acting ignorant", or "being obtuse"?

For context, I am 61. It may be that younger people will have more of an idea who she is?

Oh come on, most British people are familiar with Jordan/KP. Older ones will remember has as Jordan the Page 3 girl (yes, even readers of The Times) whereas younger people will know KP the general train wreck. You don’t have to be a celebrity gossip column reader to recognise well known celebs.

Most would struggle with YouTubers / influencers unless they follow that world quite closely- I don’t so I struggle with them. I also don’t watch reality TV so I don’t know many from TOWIE/ MIC / Love Island etc but I still know the main ones like Gemma Collins, Pete Wicks, Jamie Laing.

I know who Kim Kardashian is by reputation but i cant promise i could pick her out. I dont have SM and I dont watch the Kardashians but i know there is a programme about them. I definitely know who Katie Price is because she was on I'm a Celebrity. But. I have had a few conversations when I have honestly not known who someone is and i know the other person is judging me and thinking im.being disingenuous. Its a really difficult position to be in because i cant talk about something i dont have knoweldge of but i also have to admit my ignorance. For example, i didnt know who Pink was until a few years ago at a party. I knew the song but didnt know the artist as im not into music but it blew peoples' minds. I dont feel at all superior or smug in that conversation.

I would know who katie price is, but I wouldn’t know who Kardashian is as I’ve not seen her recently and I have watched the show. I’m not great with actress and actress names, I forget them. I know Tom cruise and the woman from pretty woman. That about my level on remembering peoples names.

i wouldn’t know footballers either, but i would other sport.

'It's a Knockout' was bloody great. Totally ridiculous. Pity about what the non-professoriate Stuart Hall turned out to be, though.

What this thread seems to have turned into is not 'people who claim not to like popular culture are snobs' per se, but 'people who don't like the same popular culture I like, or find reality TV completely tedious, are all up their own backsides and performatively pretend not to be interested when they really are'. No - some people simply are not interested.

But a nice bit of inverse snobbery there!

Oh I know Jamie Liang and his wife Sophie Haboo, they come up on my TikTok

OP the problem is that with people like Kim Kardashian, they have so much surgery and they all end up looking the same, with their massive breasts and fake lips.

I know about KK, obviously, but if you showed me a load of pictures of pouty plastic women in fancy dresses, I wouldn't be able to identify her. Film stars are different - if I've seen a film with someone in it then I'll recognise them. Same with footballers. But I never watched the Kardashians so I've never committed her image to my memory. What is intellectually snobbish about that?

Consequently because Jamie and Sophie come up on my TikTok I watched raising Chelsea

I don't think it's really about high culture/low culture. I definitely enjoy my fair share of "low culture" crap TV, I'm just not at all interested in celebrity culture and tend to switch off to it.

"But you must know who Adele is?"

Sorry, no idea at all.

"You must know who David Beckham is?"

He was a footballer from 25-30 years ago.

Am I missing something? Perhaps too young for the reference, or do you mean because Hall abandoned his PhD? Not all academics have one, some of my colleagues only have a masters but lecture based on professional background which works better in some circumstances e.g business, law, journalism.

Yes, I know someone who prides herself on being completely ignorant of all pop culture, including TV, film and music. She wears it as a badge of honour. I have my fair share of high-brow interests but I don't think being unaware of anything that's happened in mainstream media for the last 50 years makes you clever. I think it just makes you look a bit narrow and elitist to be honest, not to mention kind of boring.

It can also be to express scorn or contempt for the celebrity.

Yes

I used to work with a woman who said Who? whenever someone mentioned a famous person. Some of the people she pretended not to know of were such household names that you'd have to be from Mars not to have heard of them. One day, feeling brave, I asked why she did it and she said she liked to be different and not be aware of anyone well known, so she pretended not to have heard of them.

I still think of Katie Price as Jordan. She was an attractive girl in those days.

Did the Kardashians get famous because of reality TV? I know who Bruce/Catelyn Jenner is but that’s really about as far as it goes.

Exactly.

This for example: https://people.com/kim-kardashian-met-gala-outfits-11965267

I think she looks very, very different in several of these photos. As someone not especially familiar with her, I think it's fair to say she isn't instantly recognisable.

I can guarantee my older teens (one is an adult) do not have a clue who Katie Price is.

But you've heard her name - so presumably wouldn't comment "who" under an article.

We don’t have a TV, don’t live in the UK and I saw a photo of KK at the Met Gala and I genuinely only knew who she was when I looked at the comments. My kids would have known but she doesn’t appear in my social media feeds as a rule.
Am I intelligent? Possibly, but the gala scene isn’t my thing. Famous people aren’t of much interest either.

I've just seen Kim Kardashian's look at the Met Gala - I would never have recognised her like that. My eyes are open to lots of things, but I just don't know who most of these people are - including Jamie Laing and Pete Wicks, though I do know Gemma Collins as my son shared a clip of her talking about the defintion of Essex Girls in the dictionary.

I think some people try and avoid all popular culture as they think it makes them appear more intelligent or elevated in some way and they are basically insecure about how intelligent they are, or their social status.

Perfectly put. It stems from a place of inferiority and low self esteem. It's the same performative ignorance that some parents love to put on when people talk about youth trends that have originated from screen time culture such as Roblox, Labubus, influencers, social media etc.

In all honesty a lot of people who like to scoff about not knowing celebrities were probably unpopular as fuck in their youth. Celebrity culture triggers their deep rooted insecurity about never belonging to the cool group. That is essentially what the entire fashion and entertainment industry is. They create a superficial world of "coolness" that is used to generate value in a capitalist society.

People definitely do this as a cultural snobbery thing, to show they're 'above' such things.
I know someone who proudly professes not to know who anyone is. There are weird exceptions though: she had a phase of following Joe Wicks and doing his exercise stuff, loves Sali Hughes (who I think is a total lightweight), loves certain celebrity chefs/food writers (Anna Jones, the woman from the French Laundry).

The "Who?" business is utterly performative in the sense that it takes a fraction of a second longer to google than it does to ask on a thread, and the response is faster.
It's just being passive agressively scornful but if that's what makes people feel special, let them get on with it and pass them by without engaging.

I don't really follow celebrities, but I know who most of them are - and if i don't, I can look them up. Not hard.