Did anybody catch the Double Jeopardy answer tonight in the category, “Begins with a body part?” The video show a picture of a chinchilla, but the guy blanked on it, and could only come up with a WAG:
“What is a titmouse, Alex?”
Priceless.
“What is a titmouse, Alex?”
He actually apologized to Alex after responding, which made me think that he was stuck, and decided to intentionally go for a laugh.
Haha, less than ten seconds before I saw this thread, I heard that answer. Made me smile. Should’ve asked, “What is an anus-rabbit, Alex?”
Joe
Oh god that reminds me of this other synonym one from ages ago… I’m paraphrasing:
Alex: “This gardening implement is the same word for a licentious or profligate individual.”
Some smartass: “What is a hoe?” Much laughter ensues.
(they were actually looking for rake, but I personally think hoe should be acceptable. maybe it was deemed too “slangy” for the category)
That was Ken Jennings who did that one. Also, hoe and ho are homophones, but not homonyms, which is why it wasn’t correct.
Thanks for the clarification. But is there really only one correct way to spell “ho”? It’s an abbreviation for “whore” which legitimately has an e in it. I’ve seen the word spelled variously as hoe and ho.
I can’t even say “titmouse” without giggling like a schoolgirl. Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!
Dunno why, but it reminds me of the College Jeopardy kid who answered “hymen” when he meant “stamen”. It was humorous.
Would a hoe qualify as being profligate, though?
What’d he win Johnny? A front page story on The Huffington Post! Congratulations!
What I couldn’t believe about today’s show was that no one got that Final Jeopardy! Come on! The answer was so obvious that I felt like it was still the Teen Tournament!
What’s worse was the clue was looking for an author and two of the wrong answers weren’t even that.
The guy looked embarrassed when he answered titmouse, which is why he apologized. But he won anyway.
I knew chinchilla and Wilde. Why haven’t they contacted me to appear on the show yet?
I saw it, and it seemed much of the laugh got edited out of the broadcast.
Yeah, that was really, really obvious. I mean, what the fuck else could the answer be? Chatterly? That’s just… astonishing.
Joe
Only if you take the view that the written rather than spoken form of the word is canonical. IMHO there is no compelling reason to do so, especially in the context of a game where responses are given orally. If you want to claim that “ho” and “hoe” are different words on the basis of separate spellings, then you could just as easily claim that “rake” (the gardening implement) and “rake” (the immoral person) are different words based on the basis of separate etymologies.
The actual clue was “This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.”
Actually both rakes have identical etymologies, both coming from the Middle Low German rāke, racke, spade, shovel. (OED). Rake meaning immoral person is a shortening of the original term, rakehell, ie the verb rake + hell.
Unless the gardening implement was also once called a rakehell, you have just posted pretty conclusive proof that the terms have different etymologies.
But a hoe isn’t seeking pleasure necessarily–she’s making money by satisfying the pleasure needs of others.