Let’s say the category was “Sporting Events” and the one that popped up when I buzzed in was “It’s the number of minutes in an American football game.”
Could I respond with “Is it 60?” Or “Could it be 60 minutes?”
I mean, Alex Trebek is always reminding people that their responses need to be in the form of a question, and inverting the verb/subject is in the form of a question. I know they’d be looking for “What is 60?” But that leads me to a pet peeve of mine regarding Jeopardy and their “questions.” I mean, if someone on the street randomly asked people “What is 60?” how many do you think would answer “The number of minutes in an American football game.” Most would just say “a number.”
My memory may be faulty here, but I’m sure I’ve seen at least one contestant reply with “Is it ___?”, and have Alex respond something like “Well, that *is *in the form of a question, so we’ll give it to you”
I suspect the answer is No because the questions you ask wouldn’t correctly answer any clue in question.
“Is it 60?” Is essentially a Yes or No question. “The number of minutes in an hour” is not a credible answer to that question (whereas it is an answer to “What is 60?”, although not the most likely one).
So I’m guessing it would be considered incorrect.
Edited to add that I think I remember Suburban Plankton’s anecdote, which allowed the guy to skate on a technicality. But I suspect if a contestant continued to ask in that fashion, the judges might intervene.
I go back and forth on this, or did when I watched Jeopardy! regularly. I can understand why you find it irritating, but it is a way to make the game a bit harder.
Keep in mind they drill the rules of the game into your head well before you get to the set. That is, I suspect if you had a habit of not answering in the form of a question, you wouldn’t get on the show. You also have the crew coming out at each commercial break. I think if you were getting it wrong, they’d give you a pep talk.
I also think you’d get away with it once, then Trebek would editorialize about how to answer J! questions.
Certainly, they accept “questions” that don’t really fit with the “answer.” In general, they’ll take almost ANY “Who was” or “What is” question, even if it’s not REALLY a match with the answer.
Would they take silly questions? Maybe- it depends. I know that on celebrity shows, they allowed Gene Shalit to goof around respond with “Has anybody seen Socrates?” and “Have you ever met my friend Abraham Lincoln?” Would they let a NON-celebrity do that? I dunno.
I’d imagine one of the main reasons they still keep it around is to strengthen the Jeopardy trademark since it helps them stay a bit more distinct from other quiz shows.
“Could you tell me something about…?” would be a question that would fit the answer provided in most cases. When I’m on the show (should be soon assuming they start booking people who haven’t tried out) I’ll give it a shot and see how they react.
And people do regularly lose points for screwing it up…though sometimes they come back with the answer properly phrased but still lose the points only because Alex already said no.
What I think is more funny is how many people on Win Ben Stein’s Money that answered in the form of a question. There was something about the way that show was set up that made people think it was Jeopardy!.
On the one hand, I have to wonder, based on that novelty, if they just thought it was going to be another game show that would run for one or two season. As you [Skald] said, it does get annoying after a while. I know, when I’m sitting at home I don’t answer in the form of a question, I just yell out the ‘answer’. OTOH, if they didn’t have that novelty would it have run for more then one or two seasons? I know it’s a bit smarter then the other shows but at it’s heart it’s just another trivia show. Maybe it does well because it’s a pretty simple game. No gimmics or gags, just answer a question and get some points, answer wrong and they take them away. Also, it’s one of those games where you can turn it on at any point and start watching. It doesn’t really matter what happened up until that point.
I suppose all these points kind of apply to Wheel of Fortune as well.
Twenty years or so ago, I recall a five-time champion who more than once successfully challenged a jdugment, on camera, when they disagreed with her pronunciation. I only remember the first time; the correct response was “What is Loeb” which she pronounced with a long e, and when Trebek ruled her wrong, she responded very quickly that she was referring to the name spelling l-o-e-b, and that in her neck of the woods they pronounced as she had, not the incorrect way with the long o. I think they gave her the points because they were kind of afraid of her.
That chick was all kinds of awesome. Every time she won she did a little celebratory dance.
What if you responded with the question, “How many minutes are in an American football game?”
the clue, or answer would appropriately be “The number of minutes in an American football game” to such a question, even though that is not very informational.
Have I just found a loophole??? can I got on Jeopardy and make millions now???
