The most amusing celebrity Jeopardy I ever saw was General Schwartzkopf (whose name I just misspelled) vs. two Baywatch bimbos. Needless to say, he was just mopping the floor with them… But one of the few questions he missed, the correct question was “Who was Douglas MacArthur?”. Which, y’know, you’d really have expected him to get.
Me & She can tolerate Celeb Jeopardy when we like one of the players, but it’s a waste of time all the same. The celebs screw around and for the most part don’t really try. As pointed out upstream.
The Kids’ and Teens’ tourneys are pathetic. We never watch them. We watch Jeopardy for the enjoyment of feeling challenged at an adult level. (On a good night of regular Civilian Grown-Ups Jeopardy, we’ll get about half of the answers right between the two of us.)
We’re not interested in watching children guessing about the principal exports of Peru.
We might be in the minority about this, but we feel pretty much the same way about the College tournaments. The A&Q’s are still dumbed down way too much. (Anybody else remember “GE College Bowl” from the
60’s and 70’s? That’s what College J should be like.)
(Ranting now) Are they EVER going to drop those idiotic video questions where a staffer, celebrity, noteworthy expert, or even The Great Trebek himself reads the question to us while standing in front of a Visual Aid? Those things kill the momentum of the game, stop it dead in its tracks, and take three or four times as long to be presented.
(Still ranting) Don’t they get complaints about Trebek’s patronizing sexism toward the female contestants? He makes the show hard to watch.
(Last one) There are two categories that seem to recur with irritating frequency: “The Bible” and “British Royalty.” Or is it just us.
Thanks, I feel better now.
No. There was a recent champion I couldn’t stand and my children were rooting for her just because they thought it was funny when she would win again and I would rant at the television.
Jeopardy comes on before Wheel of Fortune here also.
I thought I was the only person who had noticed that. I also think he sometimes makes little digs at the women when they get things right while stroking the men’s egos.
“Oscar Winners” pops up way more often than it should too.
Trebek seems to do that to both genders equally. Every once in a while he’ll give a very patronizing “That’s right” to a question that he deems easy. I’ve seen him do it to both men and women. And if it’s a question relating to the 60s or Canada, you can be sure he’ll be a jerk about it.
Agreed. But: sounding quite surprised that the answer given is correct; and/or saying outright, or strongly suggesting by tone of voice, “Good for you!” with a patronizing verbal pat on the head –
I can’t remember ever seeing him do this to a male contestant. Females- routinely.
Exhibit B: Addressing female contestants in their 20’s as “Young Lady.” He did this for the 10,000th time just the other night. I have never heard him condescend like that to an adult male.
Exhibit C: Referring to a contestant as “very bright.” Females often; Males- not that I can recall.
He clearly considers female contestants to be underdogs, and makes no effort to hide it. He’s been like this for as long as we can remember, and if anything seems to be getting worse.
As for Teen Week… I don’t mind it, but I’m a Jeopardy junkie. I actually have it as a series record on my DVR. I was amazed that the folks last night (I think) all got the one about Reagan wrong (they didn’t know his nickname was “Dutch”).
I totally root against people. Especially last week (or was it the week before?) when there was the blonde woman with the really weird head. Her forehead was all weird and her eyes seemed to be the wrong size for her head. And there was an “uh” in ever question. She was so annoying… I soooo rooted against her. I also tend to root against the champions. I like to see new blood. Or maybe I’ll root for them for a couple shows, but I like there to be a new winner every so often. I was totally rooting against Ken Jennings by the end.
But to the OP… yes, it does seem a little dumbed down. But my husband, who isn’t as good at trivia games and quiz shows, likes it. I think it makes it more accessible to the every day Joe.
I don’t like the teen tourneys either. Or the kids as well.
I’ll usually root against guys who seem arrogant or cocky. Especially if they win more than one game. I don’t want to see them on TV again, so let’s go opponents!
I find the Teen Tournament especially annoying right now because I just got a call for an audition. At least I can work on my timing, but I’m having to search out videos of old shows randomly (the J! archives don’t work for me as far as testing myself, I find).