It Pays to Be Ignorant is a 1942–51 radio comedy show which maintained its popularity during a nine-year run on three networks for such sponsors as Philip Morris, Chrysler, and DeSoto.

The show's creator, Tom Howard, was also the quizmaster who asked panelists Harry McNaughton, Lulu McConnell and George Shelton questions.

The show had a number of running gags which became catchphrases with listeners such as McNaughton's "Now we're back to Miss McConnell again" and Shelton's "I used to woik in that town."

[2] After two years, the series returned on NBC from July 5 to September 27, 1951;[2] by this point, Howard (who appeared in this version in an elaborate cap and gown outfit) did not acknowledge that the 1949 episodes ever happened (a surviving episode from the 1951 run implied that the show had never appeared on television before).

Further, two films also exist at the Library of Congress in the J. Fred and Leslie W. MacDonald Collection: a CBS kinescope from 1949, and an NBC installment from June 14, 1951 with all the DeSoto automobile commercials