I’m a few episodes behind, but I thought the 10/21 FJ about area codes was quite easy, and it turned out to be a triple stumper. Go figure.
I enjoyed Dargan and was hoping he’d become a long-time champ. Oh well.
Some minor rants about Jeopardy:
After the Daily-Doubles are found, they still pick away at the middle dollar clues as if trying to find another DD. Just clean up the categories from the top, or from the bottom.
After Final is done, the winner solicits hand shakes from the losers. Self-congratulation doesn’t look good here.
I don’t think of the winner shaking hands with the other two “self congratulation” but instead thanking them for well-fought competition. Similarly, at the end of a tennis match, the players will shake hands.
I can still remember the triple-stumper FJ with the clue “In 1992, New York got the first one: 917.”
(Answer: overlay area code .)
If you never used a rotary phone, it likely doesn’t occur to you that the higher the digit the longer it takes for the dial to rotate back to the beginning. Dargan was the oldest contestant, and he’s only 50, it’s possible he never used one.
And if they didn’t go shake the loser’s hands, someone else would complain that they’re arrogantly ignoring their competitors.
I’ve noticed that too, but you could argue that by continuing the Forrest Bounce it will keep your competitors confused and give you a buzzer advantage.
Interestingly we’ve been watching Ken’s run on (insert Canadian streaming service here) and so far he has been finishing up category top to bottom.
Top-to-bottom helps, especially in “odd” categories. Sometimes the clues flow down, and you need either seeing the previous clues or a sharp mind to get some.
There was one category many years ago, something like “rock guitar gods”, and going top down, the last one was the daily double. Going by clues 1-4, it was obvious, and (at home) I was like “Alex, I will make it a true daily double, and furthermore, my reply without seeing the clue is ‘Who is Eric Clapton’.”
I was right.
I would like to see the producers occasionally troll the contestants by making the bottom clues dependent on the clues above them.
For instance
The response to the $200 clue is “What is 144?”
The answer to the $400 . “This is the square root to the $200 question”
No way you can respond correctly if the $200 had not been picked yet.
My fuzzy memory seems to recall that in some of the more high-concept categories, the lowest-valued clue was often worded in a way that sort of explained the category, and the subsequent clues wouldn’t have made much sense without it.
Seems they don’t do that anymore, now that nobody ever picks the first clue first.
There have been couple times where the category had to be chosen in order and Ken specifically pointed this out when reading the names. I don’t remember what it was though.
I think they still do. My wife has the game channel on all day so I sometimes sit and watch. Just the other day it was obvious the contestants were avoiding on oddly named category and scattering picks all around. Then one person took the top question and made it more obvious what was needed and the contestants then ran that entire category.
I recall a category within the past few years called “Follow the Lieder.” The top clue made it clear, to those who might not know, that “Lieder” refers to 19th century German art songs, as written by people like Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and so forth. They didn’t pick the top clue first, however, and the contestants seemed to find it confusing for that reason.
Yesterday’s game had this category:
I’M A SWOLE MAN
I spent the entire time trying to figure out what that meant. It was all questions about weight lifting. I have no idea.
(yes, now I could look it up. What fun is that?)
And yes, nearly every game has one category read by some celebrity, promoting something. Some people are not cut out for reading clues, but surprisingly, Grover was not the worst.
Play it, Steve!
Well, I got it. Good one. I still listen to that album.
Harrison Whitaker is clearly crushing the competition, but he speaks so fast I’m surprised that they haven’t dinged him yet on not phrasing the answer in the form of a question - his “What’s” or “What is” is so fast and soft it’s often inaudible.
Um, no.
And yes, Grover was not the worst. Elmo however . . .
I think Jeopardy! has gotten tougher. The questions often seem more like TOC level questions in just regular seasonal Jeopardy! I’m barely getting half on a good day. It’s not old age: I know I never knew those facts. Some I didn’t even know there was something to know!
Still, the contestants often do worse than me, so I’m not sure what to make of all that. Is it being biased to create more multi-game winners?
Well, consider my post 33 - I’m seeing a lot of 21st century pop culture questions now. I’m not good at them, and neither are the contestants.
Last night had a category of “Duets”. Other than Stevie Nicks (my generation) I didn’t get a single one.