I'm surprised no one heard about the concept of random sampling.
I think plenty of people of heard about it, just the way it was presented (keyword: kidnapping) stirred peoples imaginations. Isn't it more fun to picture Shiggy stalking some random Nintendo employees, puttin a bag on their head and carrying them over his shoulder to some secret play-test dungeon they have 10 floors below ground, then say... Shiggy just strolling up to the bathroom attendent and saying "hey, got a minute?"