That’s what is funny about jeopardy. I knew Heyerdahl immediately, it was like “that’s too easy” but I’d never even heard of Song of Solomon.
I’d heard of Song of Solomon, I just thought it was from the 1980s. I knew it wasn’t Roots but couldn’t come up with anything better.
Isn’t that the Disney flick with Uncle Remus?
…
…I’ll see myself out.
There’s no objective scale for difficulty, and based on the category, one person’s simple may be another’s hard, but in general, the clues do get tougher and more obscure as you move down the board. So yes, betting bigger on a clue towards the top of the board makes sense, all other things being equal.
I haven’t noticed them doing such “gimmick” categories very much in recent years. (Perhaps that’s because players don’t run top to bottom as often these days.) Can you remember any recent examples?
To the members mathematically analyzing the optimal betting strategy for DD or FJ, I would politely suggest that players also must consider their comfort level with the category. If you are strong in that subject, then it is reasonable to bet aggressively. However, if you are weak in that subject, then it is prudent to bet more conservatively.
On the same day with the FJ about the Irish poet (4/27), there was a category in the first Round titled “Finish the Old Proverb.” I was astonished that I had never heard of any of them, but was proud that I was able to figure out most of them from context.
I had heard all of them. And the Final Jeopardy question was easy. If you did not know, the number of good guesses is still small.
There’s also the player’s own personality and how risk-averse they are in general. Mattea is only 23 years old and has probably never had a great deal of money of her own before. Remember after her first or second win, she was excited that she would be able to pay off her student loans. I can well understand her not wanting to risk any more of this sudden windfall than she absolutely has to, even if doing so might be theoretically “smarter.”
I agree. That does not mean betting a dollar was always the best move. But she bets modestly on DDs and in general. Although my strategy would differ, her results speak. How many of the games were even close?
This can definitely be a factor in DD but not in FJ. In FJ, you’re either going to beat your opponent or not, and you’ll get either the amount you wager or $2,000 or $1,000 if you come in 2nd or 3rd. Regardless of your comfort level with the category, you have a choice of winning $1 more than the next player’s total or $10,000 more. Which is better?
It’s been illegal for just over a century now, but that’s only a minor detail. Rare is the Thai corporate titan without a second wife. It’s even common among the rabble, as I’ve known men who can barely scratch together $500 a month, if that, with two wives/households, and never have I figured out how they manage that. My own father-in-law – not a corporate titan but still an upper executive in a small shipping firm – had at least one other wife and family, all of whom attended the wedding of my wife and myself. (I say “at least,” because evidence of a third wife squirreled away somewhere was found after his death, but that was never determined for sure.) And no, the main wife’s permission is not required, although they say many main wives encourage it as a means of taking some of the pressure off themselves, especially if it was an arranged marriage. Still, I’ve been told that at one point my father-in-law proposed combining his two families into one big household, and my mother-in-law raised so much hell about it that the idea was quickly dropped.
Ah well. C’est la vie.
I was glad they taped that guy saying the alphabet backwards. No way was I going to take his word for it!
Shocker in FJ. Cinema is not my strong point, but I thought it was easy.
Before FJ I told my wife that Matteo might lose, and that the other player was pretty good. When the clue showed up, I thought it was pretty easy, so I said to my wife that if the possible new champion didn’t know it, she didn’t deserve to win. And that is exactly what happened: “I’ve never seen Citizen Kane?” Really??!?
It’s hard to imagine someone passing the audition test and not knowing that Final Jeopardy answer.
Really? I mean, REALLY?
Heck, I blurted it out even before Ken had finished reading the clue.
Never seen? How can you not know the basics of it even if you’ve never seen it?
Watching FJ, it was painfully obvious that she didn’t know the answer, and that Mattea did.