I don't really like this topic, because I think
that quizbowlers (myself included) occasionally have a
nasty tendency to assert that their choice of topic
makes them better than the hoi polloi.
Yes,
there probably is some correlation between PPG and IQ,
but IQ appears to be such a shallow measure of
intelligence - anything that can rate your level of anything
after 180 seconds probably doesn't measure something
very deep.
The questions that Shawn mentioned
deal much more with what I would consider "real"
intelligence, which is application of minutia into a coherent
whole - comparing Seurat and Warhol, explaining why the
Periodic Table is set up the way it is, composing a
symphony et cetera. I get the feeling that the Smartest
Kid In America wasn't wasting his or her time
recalling this stuff on Fox for some dinky little title,
and was instead putting his or her intelligence to
some degree of valuable use.
I'm not saying
that qb is by its nature pretentious, but being able
to name the main characters in The Taming of the
Shrew is of limited real world value and is not an
indicator of much depth of knowledge, and it shouldn't be
considered otherwise.