# Jeopardy Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-question/681575>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 18, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-question/681575 "2014-02-18T01:13:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-question/681575/21 "2014-02-18T15:13:17Z")

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It’s weird, that’s the one question everybody asks. Don’t you think I’d have known all the goddamned answers if they’d given us the categories?!

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-question/681575/22 "2014-02-18T15:22:00Z")

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Another point is that Jeopardy clues almost always actually contain two clues. So you might get something like “This author of \<book title\> was awarded the 1996 such-and-such award for best novelist”. Even if you’ve never heard of that award, you might know who the author of that book was, or vice-versa.

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-question/681575/23 "2014-02-18T17:30:20Z")

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Also, some of them are gimmes. “This Norwegian playwright” is going to be Ibsen. “Finnish-American architect” is Saarinen. People think you knew that Saarinen, was, I don’t know, let’s Wikipedia, born on his father’s birthday - no, you looked for the clue that was in the clue.

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**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-question/681575/24 "2014-02-18T18:45:28Z")

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About the only ‘books’ on the questions are the various ones written by former contestants. I found Bob Harris’s _Prisoner of Trebeckistan_ to be the most enjoyable, especially concerning his prep for the various shows he was on. And if he knew the categories in advance, he wouldn’t have lost on the Final Jeopardy! question in his Ultimate Tournament of Champions appearance - it was about the opening paragraph of his father’s favorite _Jabberwocky_.

There is an amazing amount of preparation that goes into learning the possible questions. There are statistics available with just a little searching on the most popular categories in the history of the show, and even a place that publishes the questions that were asked on (pretty much) every episode.

The real issue isn’t how the contestants know so much, it should be how the writer’s can come up with so many differing questions every week without obvious repeats.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-question/681575/25 "2014-02-18T18:51:27Z")

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> [@x-ray\_vision](#):
>
> [http://www.jeopardy-faqs.com/game-mechanics.html](http://www.jeopardy-faqs.com/game-mechanics.html)

Considering the numerous and embarrassing grammatical errors in that page, I’m hoping that isn’t an official Jeopardy! site.

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