# Are Jeopardy players stupid? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599 "2001-08-09T15:14:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/21 "2001-08-09T17:16:45Z")
\ My all-time favorite “celebrity” quiz show was with three Playmates against…BEN STEIN. Dear God, I have never seen such a savage beating… \ ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/22 "2001-08-09T17:16:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chas.E \* > \*\*Having auditioned for Jeopardy, I can tell you from personal experience that it is a lot harder than it looks from your armchair in front of the TV. \*\* I must concur here. Jeopardy seems to be the only game show left where they honestly try to select the smartest players, instead of the most congenial or charismatic ones. It’s the only one I watch and enjoy. (OK - Weakest Link is also interesting, just because of the rapid fire questions.) Heck, if I get to the point where I can answer Final Jeopardy three out of five times (not counting teen or celeb weeks), I may go try out. My friend Tim is a game show fanatic and auditioned for many of them before finally getting on Hollywood Squares. First he tried out for Wheel of Fortune and they flat out told him he was too smart – go try out for Jeopardy. So he tried out for that show (I think he said it included an exam) and failed miserably. He played a practice round against a university professor and a librarian. (Tim is an auto mechanic - not exactly a career exposing one to lots of culture and academic trivia.) After a few other tries he got on Squares and - heh - lost. But he came away with some lovely parting gifts. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/23 "2001-08-09T17:20:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Munch \* > > The song is actually called “The Thinking Song.” There was a question a few weeks ago on Jeopardy that refered to its composer. \*\* That’s a subtitle. Merv originally called it “Theme for Tony” (his son), and chose it so he wouldn’t have to pay royalties for it. All the rest of you are right, except for the person who said celebrities are guaranteed “32 million” for their charities on Millionaire. Maybe that’s lire in the Italian version. On the US show, there are no guarantees for the charities. There’s no way to adequately describe the pressure and nerves that contestants feel when the money is real. That does mess up some contestants when they bet. On Jeopardy, the tape doesn’t even stop unless absolutely necessary - you have only the commercial break time to do your calculating, and that’s on paper. Some contestants are stuck without a calculator, too, apparently, making it hard to subtract their scores from twice their nearest competitor’s and add 1. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/24 "2001-08-09T18:03:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ElvisL1ves \* > All the rest of you are right, except for the person who said celebrities are guaranteed “32 million” for their charities on Millionaire. Maybe that’s lire in the Italian version. On the US show, there are no guarantees for the charities. > \*\* Actually, on Celebrity Millionaire they are guaranteed $32,000. ---
**Author:** ![cichlidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/25 "2001-08-09T18:10:21Z")
I don’t think regular Jeopardy! shows are all that easy, depends on the categories. I do call Celebrity Jeopardy!, “Jeopardy For Chimps” and usually have a less difficult time answering those questions. (must make me a chimp too) The episode in the OP was pretty bad though, even with the wagering straightened out. The final question was in the Children’s Literature category, and the question was something like: What is the first line of the poem from the 1800’s about a little girl named Mary Sawyer? I was screaming “Mary had a little lamb!” at the television, but it didn’t seem to do much good. Funny I guess, but I did feel some disgust that no one answered correctly. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/26 "2001-08-09T18:13:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tretiak \* > > Actually, on Celebrity Millionaire they are guaranteed $32,000. \*\* Only if they reach the Hot Seat, which is not guaranteed except for Ray Romano. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/27 "2001-08-09T18:17:52Z")
Hey – my mom was on Jeopardy! You saying she’s stupid? Huh? 😃 That being said, generally the celebrities do suck. That is because they do not have to go through the Testing from Hell that regular contestants do. Also, they may well be used to being on camera, but not in a game show format. It’s very different from being an actor. For us ordinary mortals to get on, first you have to take a written test, fifty questions, and you have to get something like 45 of them right to go on. Then they take the small percentage that pass that and run them through a mock game. And then they send you home and say they’ll call you if you get picked. All of this is accompanied by incredibly high levels of stress. She ended up tying for second, against an apparently unbeatable woman on her fifth day. One of the prizes was a case of Werther’s Original. I never want to eat that stuff again, and this was back in 1994. ---
**Author:** ![23skidoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f04885/32.png) [@23skidoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/23skidoo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/28 "2001-08-09T19:12:56Z")
I saw the Celebrity Jeopardy with Seth Green and the guy from the Bare Naked Ladies. What killed me about the show was the betting strategy of the Bare Naked Ladies guy. Going into Final Jeopardy, Seth Green and Celebrity #3 were tied with around 5,200 each. BNL guy only has around 1,300. Trebek then advised him, as he often does to players who are way behind and have sad looks on their faces: “But you’re not out of it yet; remember that your opponents will both be competing for first place and may end up cancelling each other out.” Even if BNL guy doubled his money, there was no way of him catching up, except as Trebek noted, if his opponents cancel each other out. BNL still bets every thing. Funny thing was that his opponenents _did_ end up cancelling each other out. Unfortunately, he bet everything and walked away a loser. Had he bet nothing, he would have won. I think the moral of the story is “Listen to Alex Trebek’s advice if he is talking about you.” ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/29 "2001-08-09T19:58:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cichlidiot \* > \*\*I don’t think regular Jeopardy! shows are all that easy, depends on the categories. I do call Celebrity Jeopardy!, “Jeopardy For Chimps” and usually have a less difficult time answering those questions. (must make me a chimp too) The episode in the OP was pretty bad though, even with the wagering straightened out. The final question was in the Children’s Literature category, and the question was something like: > > What is the first line of the poem from the 1800’s about a little girl named Mary Sawyer? > > I was screaming “Mary had a little lamb!” at the television, but it didn’t seem to do much good. Funny I guess, but I did feel some disgust that no one answered correctly. \*\* I saw that. But that wasn’t the Seth-Brandi-Steve episode. That was part of the College Tournament, which makes it even stupider. One person put down “What is ‘There once was a man from Nantucket?,’” which led Alex to comment something like, “You must have a different definition of children’s literature that I do.” Stupid college students…maybe if they actually did something beside smoking and having sex and (insert another braindead college student stereotype here), they could be as smart as Steven Hawking. ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/30 "2001-08-09T20:07:54Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by mobo85 \* \*\* > [@](#): > > I saw that. But that wasn’t the Seth-Brandi-Steve episode. That was part of the College Tournament, which makes it even stupider. > > One person put down “What is ‘There once was a man from Nantucket?,’” which led Alex to comment something like, “You must have a different definition of children’s literature that I do.” Stupid college students…maybe if they actually did something beside smoking and having sex and (insert another braindead college student stereotype here), they could be as smart as Steven Hawking. \*\* No, I just saw this episode last Friday, and it was the final question for the Seth-Brandi-Steve show. Steve was the one who used the Nantucket answer. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/31 "2001-08-09T20:24:35Z")
My favorite Celebrity Jeopardy! moment came when Kirsten Dunst (sp?) was on the show. The answer was something like, “Of Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn, the planet that is nearest to the Earth.” Dunst rang in and responded, “What is Pluto?” My jaw actually dropped. Here the writers had already helpfully narrowed it down to three, and she picks a planet _that’s not even on the list!_. I don’t watch Celebrity Jeopardy! anymore. I just check back a week later when the real thing comes back. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/32 "2001-08-09T20:42:05Z")
Sometimes you get pretty smart celebrities. I remember one with Teri Garr and Ed Asner, and they were both neck-and neck, answering pretty impressive questions and leaving the third guy in the dust (don’t remember who it was). I think Asner won b/c he knew the current Premier of Israel, which was Rabin at the time. Since that was a few years ago, maybe the general IQ of celebs has gone down since then? ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/33 "2001-08-09T20:51:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by whiterabbit \* > **For us ordinary mortals to get on, first you have to take a written test, fifty questions, and you have to get something like 45 of them right to go on. Then they take the small percentage that pass that and run them through a mock game. And then they send you home and say they’ll call you if you get picked. All of this is accompanied by incredibly high levels of stress.** Yeah, the test was insanely tough. It has all the obscurest categories that you hope aren’t going to appear in the TV game. For me it was The Bible. If you want to get on Jeopardy, you better know your bible inside and out because it WILL be on the test. And if you stall while thinking about one or two questions, you will not complete the test. Anyway, I have to laugh when thinking about Jeopardy. When I lived in LA, I met a woman named Trixie (not her real name, but the name she used in real life!) who was from my home town and a graduate from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. When I casually mentioned I had auditioned for Jeopardy, she told me about a screenplay she’d written as her MFA thesis. It told of a small town Iowa boy who was known as the local Jeopardy whiz, he was the most celebrated person in his town. People would assemble at his home every day to watch him shout out the answers and he was always correct. So the town took up a collection to send him for an audition, and he gets on the show. The whole town sees him appear on the show… and he totally chokes, blowing every question. He is humiliated in front of his whole town, and slinks back to his home and becomes the local pariah. Trixie complained that she had shopped the script around town, and despite the excellent reputation of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in the Hollywood screenwriting community, her script had been rejected at every studio in town. A few months later she moved back to Iowa, having failed at her dream of becoming a screenwriter. She never realized that she had accidentally written her autobiography, using Jeopardy as a metaphor. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/34 "2001-08-09T20:54:04Z")
bughunter wrote: > [@](#): > > First he tried out for Wheel of Fortune and they flat out told him he was too smart – go try out for Jeopardy. My in-laws were watching Wheel one evening when I happened to be around. The puzzle spelled “To be or not to be.” The lady who finally got it was then given the opportunity to name the Shakespeare play that it was from. She missed it. My only thought was that this certainly wasn’t Jeopardy that I was watching. > [@](#): > > (Tim is an auto mechanic - not exactly a career exposing one to lots of culture and academic trivia.) I’ve read a book about the Jeopardy show (I’ve always wanted to be a contestant), and they note that a disproportionate number of five-time champs, including the all-time highest money winner, are policemen. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/35 "2001-08-09T21:05:35Z")
Does there remain a General Question here? ---
**Author:** ![Spyderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@Spyderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spyderman)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/36 "2001-08-09T21:48:51Z")
ok, ``` if you answered every question correct (except the daily doubles and the final question, because then you could win/loose the amount bet) and left no questions unanswered, how much money would you walk away with? ``` ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/37 "2001-08-09T22:02:32Z")
That’s easy: Six categories times $1500 per category in the Jeopardy round equals $9000. Twice that for Double Jeopardy is $18,000. Together that’s $27,000. Now assuming you bet everything in Final Jeopardy, you could concievably walk away with $54,000, or more if you got greedy in the Daily Doubles. What’s the maximum anyone has ever scored in one game? ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/38 "2001-08-09T22:11:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bughunter \* > \*\*What’s the maximum anyone has ever scored in one game? \*\* From the [official Jeopardy! website](http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/shows/jeopardy/home.htm). > [@](#): > > The highest amount a player has ever won in one game. > Correct! In 1992, Jerome Vered won $34,000 in one game. The phrasing is odd because I quoted it from their trivia game. And for the all-time money winner… > [@](#): > > Q: Who is the all-time winner? > A: Frank Spangenberg, an officer with the New York Transit Police Department, holds “JEOPARDY!'s” all-time regular winnings record. Officer Spangenberg’s winnings to date total $144,397 and he has played in “SUPER JEOPARDY!” and won “JEOPARDY!'s” 10th Anniversary championship. That should buy him a lot of tacos. ---
**Author:** ![23skidoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f04885/32.png) [@23skidoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/23skidoo)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/39 "2001-08-09T22:24:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bughunter \* > \*\*That’s easy: > > Six categories times $1500 per category in the Jeopardy round equals $9000. Twice that for Double Jeopardy is $18,000. Together that’s $27,000. > > Now assuming you bet everything in Final Jeopardy, you could concievably walk away with $54,000, or more if you got greedy in the Daily Doubles. > > What’s the maximum anyone has ever scored in one game? \*\* Alot more from the Daily Doubles. Assuming you got both Daily Doubles as the last two $100 questions in Round One, you could have earned a possible $8,800 before the last two questions. Two “true daily doubles” turns that into $35,200. You can rack up another $17,600 in Round Two, assuming that you leave the Daily Doubles for the last two $200 questions in Round Two. Add that to what you got from round 1 gives you $52,800. Two more “true daily doubles” gives you $211,200. Bet it all in Final Jeopardy and walk away with $422,400. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2001, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599/40 "2001-08-09T22:41:35Z")
> [@](#): > > **Assuming you got both Daily Doubles as the last two $100 questions in Round One** Umm, there’s only one Daily Double in round 1. And they’re answers (or clues), not questions. But using your assumptions (daily doubles found last, under top row clues), the one would give you a possible $17,800 at the end of round 1, and then you can earn $17,600 more before uncovering the daily doubles in round 2. These will allow you to quadruple the total, and you get $141,600. Then you can double it again in Final Jeopardy, and stroll off with a cool 283,200. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-jeopardy-players-stupid/75599.md?page=3)