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Rick G. Rosner (born May 2, 1960) is an American known primarily for starring in a Domino's Pizza commercial, though his name was misspelled as 'Rossner' in the caption. He has supposedly received some of the highest scores ever recorded on IQ tests designed to measure exceptional intelligence (Morris 1986, Prager 1997). He has become known for applying his high IQ to activities not usually associated with geniuses. Rosner has used fake IDs to repeatedly return to high school, worked as a stripper, roller-skating waiter, bouncer, and nude model, (Morris 1986, Anderson & Van Atta 1988, Chotzinoff 1985, Rosner 1991, Moore & Markoe 1994, Rivera 1989) and sued the quiz show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" over an allegedly flawed question (Bronstad 2004, Jennings 2006).

IQ

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 (Morris 1990, Prager 1997, Miyaguchi) 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 (Hoeflin 1989, 1997 & 1998; Towers 1991, 1998 & 1999; Vaughn et al., 1999), which corresponds to a ratio IQ of approximately 250 (Scoville 1999). 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, Rick Rosner claims to have scored a 200 on the IQ test.

On April 9 2009, Rosner was the special guest on Bill Simmons' popular ESPN podcast "The BS Report" discussing returning again and again to high school, controversial quiz show questions, sports betting and more.

"Obsessed"

In May of 2009 Rosner was featured on an episode of A&E Television's Obsessed. The episode downplayed or ignored Rosner's past in the spotlight and instead focused on his obsession with working out and fear of aging/dying. ^[1]

See also

• Marilyn vos Savant, for a discussion of adult (deviation) IQ scores and how they correspond to childhood (ratio) IQ scores.
• Errol Morris

References

• Anderson, Jack; Van Atta, Dale (1988-11-28). "Is 176 I.Q. Enough for White House?". Washington Post.  . Longer version published as "Bush's New Chief Of Staff May Be Too Smart For Job". Portland, Oregon: The Oregonian. 1988-11-28.  , and "Sununu’s book smarts make him one in a million". 1988-11-29.  . From the article: “Tied with Sununu were…Solomon Golomb…and Rick Rosner, a University of Colorado physics student who made his living as a roller skating waiter and a stripper. Rosner’s method of undressing was to set his clothes on fire.”
• Berliner, Uli (1992-12-28). "Mega smart is very, VERY smart, indeed". San Diego Union-Tribune.  
• Bronstad, Amanda (June 7, 2004). "Fine Print Stymies game show writer’s try in front of camera". Los Angeles Business Journal. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_23_26/ai_n6076559. Retrieved 2007-12-23.  
• Bultas, Bill. "High IQ Societies: News & Articles: Interviews with Rick Rosner and Chris Langan on Errol Morris’ ‘First Person’", puzz.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-27. http://www.puzz.com/highiqsocieties.html
• Byrd, Veronica (July 30, 2001). "Passages: Legal Matters". People magazine. pp. 67.  
• Chotzinoff, Robin (November 20-26, 1985). "Is This the Smartest Man in America?". Westword.   Includes photos of Rosner stripping with paper suit on fire.
• Chotzinoff, Robin (November 2, 2000). "Surrender, Regis". Westword. http://www.westword.com/2000-11-02/news/surrender-regis/. Retrieved 2007-12-23.  
• Costas, Bob (December 4, 2001). "Richard Rosner, former contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and his attorney, Rene Tovar, discuss the reasons they are filing a lawsuit, claiming that a question was unfair". The Today Show, NBC News.  . Transcript available at Lexis-Nexis (subscription required).
• Crank Yankers. "Helen Higgins has her Film Developed," Crank Yankers, episode 2.17, October 28, 2003. In this episode, photos are shown of a puppet's head on Rosner's body.
• Fonseca, Nicholas (July 27, 2001). "Monitor: Courts". Entertainment Weekly. pp. 14.  
• Gay, Jason (December 15, 2002). "Kimmel Hires Jilted Contestant". New York Observer. http://www.observer.com/node/46857. Retrieved 2007-12-23.  
• Gibson, Daryl. "'Genius' launches trial flight of scientific theory," Boulder Daily Camera, April 5, 1986.
• Hoeflin, Ronald K. 'The Sixth Norming of the Mega Test', May, 1989. Hoeflin estimates that a 44 on the Mega Test corresponds to an IQ of 180, and a 47 on the Mega corresponds to an IQ of 190. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Hoeflin, Ronald K (1998). "The Statistical Technique for Combining IQ Scores". http://www.megasociety.org/noesis/141/ferguson.html. Retrieved 2007-12-23.  
• Hoeflin, Ronald K.; Miyguchi, Darryl “Titan Test norming”, 1997. Hoeflin estimates that a perfect score on the Titan Test corresponds to an IQ of more than 190. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Jennings, Ken. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs, New York: Villard, pp. 110–111. ISBN 1-400006445-7
• Jimmy Kimmel Live! "Rick Week", 2003; "Will Rick Eat It?", episode 255, March 10, 2004 (In episode 264, March 23, 2004, Rosner ate a dirty hot dog.); "So You Think You Can Dance Naked on top of a Fifth Grader, Asshole?" (Fox promo parody), episode 917, September 6, 2007.
• Jones, Tao. "Worse than you suspected: Boy wonder takes to skies with theory of the Bland Universe", Colorado Daily, April 4, 1986.
• Kantor, Michael. “The Rick Rosner Story”, Half Sigma. February 5, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.

http://www.halfsigma.com/2007/02/the_rick_rosner.html

• Kolbert, Elizabeth (September 25, 2000). "Common Man". The New Yorker. pp. 68–75.  
• Krier, Beth Ann (July 28, 1992). "As Whiz Kids Grow Up; Do Exceptional Children Become Exceptional Adults? Not Always. Sometimes There Are A Few Bumps Along The Way". Los Angeles Times.  
• Li, David K. (December 22, 2001). "Hey Judge, Thanks a Million". New York Post.  . "ABC Says Wrong Is Right on Quiz Show". New York Post. November 28, 2001.  
• The Man Show. "Mr. Penis's Day Out." The Man Show, episode 420, April 20, 2003.
• Miyaguchi, Darryl. "Uncommonly Difficult IQ Tests: Introduction to the Hoeflin Tests: The Titan Test". http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/. Retrieved 2007-12-23.  . From the article: “The Titan Test is a more difficult twin to the Mega Test.”
• Moore, Michael, Markoe, Merrill (1994). "Talk Show". TV Nation, episode 6, NBC TV.  
• Morris, Errol, “One in a Million Trillion,” First Person (2000)
• Morris, Scot. "Games". Omni magazine January 1986.  
• Morris, Scot; Ronald K. Hoeflin. 'Mind Games: the hardest IQ test you'll ever love suffering through,” Omni magazine, April 1990, pp. 90 ff.
• Morris, Scot. 'World's Most Difficult IQ Test', Omni magazine, April 1985, pp. 128–132.
• Paquet, Paul. “Interview: Rick Rosner, quiz show writer”, March 2004. http://www.triviahalloffame.com/rosner.htm. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Prager, Joshua Harris 'Let's See Now, Complain Is to Club As Order Takeout Is to Restaurant,' The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, May 14, 1997
• Rivera, Geraldo. “People with an X-Rated Past”, Geraldo (syndicated talk show), December, 1989.
• Rosner, Rick. Advertisements, Daily Variety: "Gravitation is relativistically attenuated", January 22, 1986, p. 10; "Mach's Principle applies to gravitation", January 26, 1986, p. 30; "In a universe containing only two objects, the objects wouldn't be gravitationally attracted to each other", February 2, 2007.
• Rosner, Rick. “Ex-Contestant Wants to Question the Answers”, Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2001.
• Rosner, Rick. “When Good IQs Happen to Bad People”, Noesis 57, January 1991 http://www.megasociety.org/noesis/57.htm. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Scoville, John. 'Statistical Distribution of Childhood IQ Scores'. http://hiqnews.megafoundation.org/John_Scoville_Paper.htm. Retrieved on 2008-01-03.
• Smith, L.L. "Letter to the Editor," Colorado Daily, April 10, 1986.
• Stouffer, Linda; Vercammen, Paul. “Who Wants to Sue a Millionaire?” CNN Live at Daybreak, CNN, July 12, 2001. Transcript available at Lexis-Nexis (subscription required).
• Towers, Grady “Five Letters from Grady Towers”, 1998. http://megasociety.net/noesis/141/towers.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Towers, Grady. “Norming of the Mega Test”, 1991. Towers’ Rasch analysis of Mega test items led him to conclude that a Mega score of 44 corresponds to an IQ of 192, and a score of 47 corresponds to a score of 200. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Towers, Grady. “Some Observations on the Titan Test”, 1999. Towers notes that small sample sizes, ceiling-bumping effects, and the lack of high-level conventional tests make it difficult to establish exact norms for the top end of the Titan Test. Towers includes a table equating a perfect Titan score with a Mega score of 46 (corresponding to an IQ of 198). Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Vaughn, Fred et al. '1998/99 Membership Committee Report', The Prometheus Society Membership Committee (1999). A committee of ten people including four psychologists found that the Langdon Adult Intelligence Test, the Mega Test, and the Titan Test are able to discriminate at the 4.75 sigma (one in a million) level. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
• Zaslow, Jeffrey. "All that Zazz: Aspiring actors place hopes in classified ads," Chicago Sun-Times, May 29, 1990.

External links

• Errol Morris' First Person: Interview with Rick Rosner

• Rick Rosner at the Internet Movie Database
• The Daily Show's Moment of Zen for July 12, 2001: Rosner loses on Millionaire