Online quizzes are written by idiots

[pensnest]

I did one of those stupid online quizzes recently, all about 'British Icons', by some weird definition which presumably includes "images we think are British Icons but which are actually not". One, for instance, was 'Anne Boleyn' but was actually, er, an actress who presumably portrayed Anne Boleyn at some point. One might have guessed this from the fact that the image was a photo. I don't think so.

I was also very cross to see this image, which I - correctly - identified as John Lennon, even though I knew for certain it was not, in fact, John Lennon.



I identified the actual subject via Google's disconcertingly smart image search.

Do you recognise him?

Comments

[dine]

I would not have pegged that person as being John Lennon. wonder why they picked a picture that looked so unlike him? (other than to be tricksy, of course)

[pensnest]

I suspect they actually did not know that this wasn't John Lennon. Long hair, round glasses - who else could it be?

In fairness, the chap in question is playing John Lennon in this photo. But, seriously.

[stranger]

I went looking and found at least two "British Icons" quizzes on ostensibly different sites. The format and questions overlapped a lot, but often differed in the clue-pictures. One had your actor-as-Lennon and the other a picture most likely of the real Lennon. One had a well-known portrait of Elizabeth I, one had a fairly obvious movie-costumed version with bad makeup. The one where I think the pictures are all either period portraits (not always the period of the subject, but well-known representations) or accurate photos is at Offbeat. Actually, I'm not sure about Thatcher in that one, who looks like an actress of herself, but surely Thatcher was professionally made-up for any kind of posed photos, so it's hard to tell.

Is there, perchance, a "British Icons As Portrayed On Screen" quiz? That would be interesting. A friend of mine has a hobby of watching historical movies and pointing out when they were filmed according to the 40s (or 50s or 70s) hairstyles and the costume lines under the ruffs and panniers.

[pensnest]

I must have fallen into the one that isn't at Offbeat! As for the 'as portrayed on screen' quiz, that sounds as though it ought to be a thing, definitely, though I haven't seen one.

It is hilarious watching 'period' stuff from different decades. I have a DVD of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd", which I think is the original Broadway production, and I cannot stop staring at Todd's bouffant hair.

[watervole]

Oh dear... When is an icon not an icon....

[pensnest]

Though he sorta is, depending on how fannish a person happens to be...

[oldtoadwoman]

Is that Christopher Eccleston? I haven't seen the movie in which he played Lennon, but I've seen pictures from other angles where I know I never would have recognized him if it hadn't been labeled.