# What was the meaning of this JEOPARDY! category?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-meaning-of-this-jeopardy-category/843190>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 8, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-meaning-of-this-jeopardy-category/843190 "2019-11-08T22:50:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-meaning-of-this-jeopardy-category/843190/1 "2019-11-08T22:50:55Z")

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I didn’t get it at all. Am I just dense?

In last night’s “Tournament of Champions” episode of Jeopardy, the first category in the Double Jeopardy round was titled “JEOPARDY!/KEYWORDS… NOT!” (Instead of a slash, it was a horizontal line beneath “JEOPARDY!”) Alex warned the players, “Be careful of this category!”

The clues in that column just seemed like random bits of trivia; no clever wordplay or any connection between the answers that I could see.

What was I missing?

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**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-meaning-of-this-jeopardy-category/843190/2 "2019-11-08T22:58:23Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Each clue had a series of keywords that are usually exclusively associated with a specific response, but in this case the correct response was something different. So while the clue had “Paul McCartney band” in it, the response was was Wings, not The Beatles. John Phillip Sousa is nicknamed the March King, but the rest of the clue was pointing to Elgar.
> 
> So basically, the writers were challenging the contestants to dismiss the obvious hints and zero in on the more obscure thing the clue was actually looking for. Diabolical category.

[More info.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Jeopardy/comments/dt9spn/jeopardy_keywords_not/)

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**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-meaning-of-this-jeopardy-category/843190/3 "2019-11-08T23:31:33Z")

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Hmmm… I went back and looked at all the clues again, and I guess it fits. But I - like most people, I’d wager - knew instantly that “Band on the Run” is not a Beatles song, Wisconsin doesn’t have a Central Valley, and Sousa wasn’t British. So I wasn’t getting that the clues were meant to be misleading.

Interesting idea, but I clearly wasn’t the only one left scratching his head.