So as I was hosting SD Jeopardy, this question ran through my mind a couple times. If you were a contestant, which categories would assure you getting almost all of them right in the first round. Categories can be as general or specific as you wish.
For me it would have to be
The Works of Stephen King.
Characters on “The Simpsons”
All about Dean Koontz’s “Strangers”
Chinese Food
“Fight Club”
Original Nintendo Games
Yours?
Winning Categories:
The Pogues
The Films of the Coen Brothers
Georgian History
What Not To Say
Sam & Max: Freelance Police
Types of Gravy
And if I can transmogrify the thread a little, my worst possible losing categories would be:
Sports
Calculus
Physics
Economics
Essential Literature
What Women Like
Science
Nature
Computers
Louisiana
The Civil War
Aviation
Hmmmm…I’ll take “What MeatBeast ate for dinner” for $1000, please.
Hmmmm…six, huh?
“Serial Killers”
“The Brothers Grimm”
“Magickal Grimoires”
“Spongebob Squarepants”
“Italian Cooking”
“The Exorcist III”
Nice little hodgepodge. Um…
re-reads selections and feels a little more odd than a couple of seconds ago
Some general ones:
Science Fiction
Photography
Bible
Astronomy
Ancient History
World War Two
If we need to be more specific, just break down the above generals a little further. Like instead of Sci-Fi, say Star Trek, instead of Bible, say Biblical Word Origins, and so forth…
Craft Supplies
Hamlet
British Transvestite Comedians
1970s AM Radio Hits
Kevin Smith Movies
Irish Folk Music
hmmm,
“Sports”
“Geography”
“Weird Al Yankovich”
“TV Sitcoms”
“sense and sensibility”
“Steven Spielberg Movies”
Star Trek
Astronomy
Marvel Comics
Ancient History
Greek Mythology
Professional Wrestling
I’m not an expert in any of those sans the first but consider myself fairly knowledgeable about them. With my luck, I’d probably be competing against the reanimated corpse of Gene Roddenberry and Stan Lee though.
Unless one of the questions involves knowing how to spell his last name correctly.
Fire Service & Hazardous Materials
Photography
Automobiles
Cats and Parrots
The Security Industry
Building Construction
Let’s see…
Potent Potables
The Works of Robert A. Heinlein
Homebrewing
Guns & Ammo
The Ouevre of Joss Whedon
Dave Brubeck
My top six categories? I’ve actually pictured this before…
Alex Trebek: Your categories are…
Dinosaurs
Greek Mythology
Comic Book Characters
The Movies of Kevin Smith
Shakespeare
Astronomy
The United Nations
TOSO: falls over
Trebek: Oh my God, are you alright?!
TOSO: from the floor I’m just so happy…
Geography
Botany
Anatomy
History
Anthropology
Archeology
Cat Facts
Shakespeare’s Tragedies
Tori Amos Trivia
Gaiman’s Sandman
HBO Dramas
William Tecumseh Sherman
I think Alex Trebek would be more than a bit bemused by that combination.
-Books Astroboy14 has recently read.
-Movies Astroboy14 has recently seen.
-Sexual fetishes of Astroboy14.
-Useless trivia that Astroboy14 knows.
-Care and feeding of Astrogirl.
-Advanced quantum physics and conflicts with String Theory.
(Well, OK… maybe not the last one, but up til then the game was too easy! 
)
Lucky for you one of the categories isn’t “Counting.” 
(Assuming I’m not pitted against any SDMB members who also express confidence with regard to any or all of these categories)
World Capitals
Spelling (as in U-Z-B-E-K-I-S-T-A-N, not Aaron and Tori)
Women’s Basketball
Primates (monkeys, apes, lemurs, etc., not high-ranking clergymen)
Billy Joel Songs
Name That Poet
I could have really stacked the deck by including more English-major-friendly and geography categories, but opted to construct a board that could realistically be featured on the show.
It isn’t the least bit possible that I am right and he is wrong?
The Blues
Shakespeare
Tennis
Rock of the 70s
The Simpsons
The Marx Brothers
The Simpsons
Family Guy
Things That Rhyme With “Urple”
Current American Presidents
Invader Zim
The Civil War
I’d lose with:
Science
Mathmatics
Word Origins
Baseball
English Literature
Rare African Fossils