Rick Rosner
Encyclopedia
Richard G. "Rick" Rosner (born May 2, 1960) is an American
television writer and media figure known for his high intelligence test scores and his unusual career. He is reported to have achieved some of the highest scores ever recorded on IQ tests
designed to measure exceptional intelligence
. He has become known for applying his high IQ to activities not usually associated with genius
es. Rosner claims to have used fake IDs to re-enroll in high school repeatedly, and he has worked as a stripper
, roller-skating waiter
, bouncer
, and nude model
. He has appeared in numerous documentaries and profiles about his activities and views. He has also appeared in a Domino's Pizza
commercial and sued the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire
over an allegedly flawed question he missed as a contestant in 2000. He writes and produces for quiz show
s and for several programs produced by Jimmy Kimmel
, including The Man Show
, Crank Yankers
, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!
. After graduating high school and attending University of Colorado, Boulder on and off for several years, he repeated several years of high school voluntarily in Albuquerque, New Mexico
and elsewhere using forged
documents. As an aspiring media figure, he placed a number of ads with titles about physics in the entertainment trade journal Variety
while attending college. Rosner moved to New York
and wrote for MTV
. When his wife got a job offer in California, they moved west.
According to unverified scores on tests designed to measure high intelligence, Rosner claims to have one of the world’s highest IQs. In 1985, he claims to have scored 44 out of 48 on Ron Hoeflin’s Mega Test, the second-highest score among the nearly 4,000 people who took the test. In 1990, Rosner claims to have received a perfect score on Hoeflin’s equally difficult Titan Test and, in 1991, scored 47 in a second attempt at the Mega Test. His combined scores indicate an adult (deviation) IQ
in the mid- to high-190s From 1991 to 1997, Rosner was editor of Noesis, the journal of the Mega Society
, an organization open to people who have scored at the one-in-a-million level on tests of general intelligence. More recently, Rosner claims to have scored a 200 on the IQ test.
. He then scripted a number of clip shows, countdowns, and outtake programs in the 1990s. Rosner's 2000 appearance on the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire
led to a lawsuit over an allegedly flawed question he missed on the elevation of various country capitals. His letter-writing campaign and attempts to get brought back on the show led to his being profiled in the Errol Morris
series First Person
. Jimmy Kimmel
later hired him as a writer, producer and occasional on-air talent. In 2008, he appeared in a Domino's Pizza
ad for a line of oven-baked sandwiches. On April 9, 2009, Rosner appeared on Bill Simmons
' ESPN
podcast "The BS Report." In May 2009 Rosner was featured on an episode of A&E Television's Obsessed
. The episode focused on his obsession with working out and fear of aging/dying.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television writer and media figure known for his high intelligence test scores and his unusual career. He is reported to have achieved some of the highest scores ever recorded on IQ tests
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
designed to measure exceptional intelligence
Intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....
. He has become known for applying his high IQ to activities not usually associated with genius
Genius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
es. Rosner claims to have used fake IDs to re-enroll in high school repeatedly, and he has worked as a stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
, roller-skating waiter
Waiter
Waiting staff, wait staff, or waitstaff are those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers — supplying them with food and drink as requested. Traditionally, a male waiting tables is called a "waiter" and a female a "waitress" with the gender-neutral version being a "server"...
, bouncer
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
, and nude model
Fetish model
A fetish model is a model who models fetish clothing or devices that augment his or her body in a fetish manner or in fetishistic situations, though he or she may not work exclusively in that form of modeling....
. He has appeared in numerous documentaries and profiles about his activities and views. He has also appeared in a Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S....
commercial and sued the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
over an allegedly flawed question he missed as a contestant in 2000. He writes and produces for quiz show
Quiz Show
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...
s and for several programs produced by Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money...
, including The Man Show
The Man Show
The Man Show is an American comedy television show on Comedy Central. It was created in 1999 by its two original co-hosts, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla, and their executive producer Daniel Kellison.-Format:...
, Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers
Crank Yankers is an American TV show produced by Adam Carolla, Jimmy Kimmel and Daniel Kellison that featured actual prank calls made by show regulars and celebrity guests, and re-enacted onscreen by puppets for a visual aid to show the viewer what is happening in the call...
, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Early life, education, intelligence tests
Rosner grew up in Boulder, ColoradoBoulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
. After graduating high school and attending University of Colorado, Boulder on and off for several years, he repeated several years of high school voluntarily in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
and elsewhere using forged
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
documents. As an aspiring media figure, he placed a number of ads with titles about physics in the entertainment trade journal Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
while attending college. Rosner moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and wrote for MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. When his wife got a job offer in California, they moved west.
According to unverified scores on tests designed to measure high intelligence, Rosner claims to have one of the world’s highest IQs. In 1985, he claims to have scored 44 out of 48 on Ron Hoeflin’s Mega Test, the second-highest score among the nearly 4,000 people who took the test. In 1990, Rosner claims to have received a perfect score on Hoeflin’s equally difficult Titan Test and, in 1991, scored 47 in a second attempt at the Mega Test. His combined scores indicate an adult (deviation) IQ
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
in the mid- to high-190s From 1991 to 1997, Rosner was editor of Noesis, the journal of the Mega Society
Mega Society
Founded in 1982 by Ronald K. Hoeflin to facilitate psychometric research, the Mega Society is a high IQ society open to people who have scored at the one-in-a-million level on a test of general intelligence claimed to be able to discriminate at that level...
, an organization open to people who have scored at the one-in-a-million level on tests of general intelligence. More recently, Rosner claims to have scored a 200 on the IQ test.
Media activity and appearances
Rosner began writing for quiz shows in 1987 on the MTV series Remote ControlRemote Control (game show)
Remote Control is a TV game show that ran on MTV for three seasons from 1987 until 1990. It was MTV's first original non-musical program. New episodes were made for first-run syndication in 1989 which were distributed by Viacom...
. He then scripted a number of clip shows, countdowns, and outtake programs in the 1990s. Rosner's 2000 appearance on the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television quiz show which offers a maximum prize of $1,000,000 for correctly answering 14 consecutive multiple-choice questions of random difficulty. Until 2010, the format required contestants to correctly answer 15 consecutive questions of increasing...
led to a lawsuit over an allegedly flawed question he missed on the elevation of various country capitals. His letter-writing campaign and attempts to get brought back on the show led to his being profiled in the Errol Morris
Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris is an American director. In 2003, The Guardian put him seventh in its list of the world's 40 best directors. Also in 2003, his film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.-Early life and...
series First Person
First Person (TV series)
First Person was an American TV series produced and directed by Errol Morris. The show engaged a varied group of individuals from civil advocates to criminals....
. Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money...
later hired him as a writer, producer and occasional on-air talent. In 2008, he appeared in a Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S....
ad for a line of oven-baked sandwiches. On April 9, 2009, Rosner appeared on Bill Simmons
Bill Simmons
William J. "Bill" Simmons III is a sports columnist, author, and podcaster. He currently writes columns and hosts podcasts for Grantland.com, which is affiliated with ESPN.com. He is a former writer for ESPN The Magazine and Jimmy Kimmel Live!...
' ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
podcast "The BS Report." In May 2009 Rosner was featured on an episode of A&E Television's Obsessed
Obsessed (TV series)
Obsessed is an American documentary series that began airing on the A&E Network on May 29, 2009. The series depicts the real-life struggle and treatment of people with anxiety disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and general anxiety...
. The episode focused on his obsession with working out and fear of aging/dying.
Further reading
- Kantor, Michael. The Rick Rosner Story. Half Sigma. February 5, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
- Paquet, PaulPaul PaquetPaul Stephen Paquet is a nationally syndicated trivia columnist and a trivia writer, based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In December 2008, he took over the Trivia Bits column from Stanley Newman. It runs in 14 newspapers throughout the United States...
. Interview: Rick Rosner, quiz show writer. March 2004. Via triviahalloffame.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.