It Pays To Be Ignorant
Mutual / CBS / NBC
Mutual / CBS / NBC · 1943–1951
35 EpisodesFortnightlyPGSince 1943
The run
- Network
- Mutual / CBS / NBC
- Years active
- 1943–1951
- Surviving broadcasts
- 35
- Genre
- comedy
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951. Tom Howard put absurdly easy questions — "What is a reigning beauty?" — to a panel of Harry McNaughton, Lulu McConnell and George Shelton, who never answered them. It was radio's most durable parody of the quiz format. Episode titles here come from the first question asked. Public-domain transfers from the Internet Archive.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
7 dated broadcasts across 9 years on the air, with 7 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1943, in original transmission order.
- 1. What is a Reigning Beauty · 4 Oct 1943
- 2. Why Is a Watchdog Smaller In The Daytime · 7 Feb 1944
- 3. Is it Bad Luck to Postpone a Wedding · 12 May 1944
What is a Reigning Beauty
4 Oct 1943 · 30 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
Why Is a Watchdog Smaller In The Daytime
7 Feb 1944 · 30 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
Is it Bad Luck to Postpone a Wedding
12 May 1944 · 27 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
How Do You Keep Milk From Souring
14 Jul 1944 · 28 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
What is an Optimist
18 Aug 1944 · 30 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
What Did the Dog Say When He Sat on the Sandpaper
1 Sep 1944 · 27 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
How Can You Tell A Jersey Cow
8 Sep 1944 · 29 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
What is the Best Way to Keep Bills Down
15 Sep 1944 · 28 min
It Pays To Be Ignorant began on Mutual in 1942 and moved to CBS and then NBC, running to 1951.
Same seasons
comedy on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
Friends in front of a microphone
Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of It Pays To Be Ignorant
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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