Jeopardy! Season 38 (2021-2022)

[laredhead]

I wonder how the other champions are going to react to Mattea's little comments throughout the game?  

 

[zoey1996]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

 

I said TikTok, because I had no clue.

 

I thought of Ted Talks, but FJ did not come to me.  
I knew several ts’s, including Culloden (thanks, Outlander), Meals Ready to Eat, and rubber chicken.

[Bastet]

I'm glad games where there's only one contestant left for FJ are rarities; those solo FJ segments are kind of weird and awkward.

The rubber chicken TS surprised me; is that phrase no longer a common shorthand for banquet food?

But I had just as bad a game as the two challengers.  I was way off my game in the first round.  I only ran swolemates (and had to look up what the hell that meant during the first commercial break).  I got all but one in beach, but missed three in actors and two each in the rest.

I wasn't as far off my norm in DJ, but didn't do well; I only ran "sex", got all but one in singers, and missed a whopping four in captains and two each in the rest.

FJ took almost the whole time to come to me, but it finally did.

[Leeds]

Am I the only person who has no idea on earth what a swole mate is?

[ams1001]

4 minutes ago, Leeds said:

Am I the only person who has no idea on earth what a swole mate is?

swole: extremely muscular (used especially of a man)

So clues about muscles/exercise and a pun on soul mate.

[Bastet]

5 minutes ago, Leeds said:

Am I the only person who has no idea on earth what a swole mate is?

I know now, because I looked it up during the first commercial break -- it's a gym buddy (thus the clues being about the muscles worked via various exercises), a play on "soulmate".  Prior to the episode, though, I'd never heard that term. 

[853fisher]

I've observed on social media that "swolemate" can be used to refer to a gym buddy (not necessarily also your romantic partner) or to a romantic partner with an athletic body (not necessarily anyone you train with).  That seems like a great setup for a comedy of misunderstandings.  The drawback: all the characters, like anyone I've met in real life who uses that term unironically, would be pretty insufferable.

[Leeds]

12 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

swole: extremely muscular (used especially of a man)

So clues about muscles/exercise and a pun on soul mate.

At this point I'm thinking I'd rather I hadn't asked!

[Packerbrewerbadger]

I always felt that Matt Amodio held back at the end if a contestant was in danger of missing final jeopardy to give them a chance and he had a big lead anyway. But Mattea kept ringing in til the end. 

[laredhead]

Packerbrewerbadger, I'm glad you said that because I also thought the same thing several times.  He had amassed a lot of $$ by going for the big $$ clues, and I wondered if he did hold back late in the game so that the other contestants could win a few dollars. 

[853fisher]

I recall that perception about Matt too.  Some thought it was to give the others a chance to get on the board.  Some thought it was to rest his own brain.  I don't think he was ever asked about it in any of the interviews I read, but his response might have been revealing.

At any rate, I don't mind Mattea going full steam ahead.  After she's pulled far ahead, the challengers will walk away with the same $2K/$1K whether they finish with marginally higher in-game totals or not, and I understand why she'd want to show her best or simply amass more money.  It also occurs to me that, since she doesn't leave the low value clues for last like Matt did, she couldn't easily back off on those clues in the same position.

Edited April 21, 2022 by 853fisher

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Packerbrewerbadger said:

I always felt that Matt Amodio held back at the end if a contestant was in danger of missing final jeopardy to give them a chance and he had a big lead anyway. But Mattea kept ringing in til the end. 

Good for both of them -- two valid strategies (and hers makes sense given her wagering strategy with DD and FJ and way of traversing the board, while his makes sense with his wagering more and board jumping).

Edited April 21, 2022 by Bastet

[possibilities]

Mattea smokes the competition without betting big on Daily Doubles, without jumping around the board hunting for them (usually), and without breaking a sweat. She even manages to chatter without slowing things down (they usually clear the board in an era when frequently not doing so was really annoying the hell out of me). She likes to start at the low value clues and work her way through a category unless it's going badly, which is something a lot of viewers have commented is something they wish more players would do. I find her quite impressive and rather refreshing.

[30 Helens]

1 hour ago, 853fisher said:

I don't mind Mattea going full steam ahead.  

If only she would! She had two chances today to make a massive payday: last DD and FJ, where she had literally no competition and no chance of losing. I don’t believe there isn’t a part of her that wants to take the chance, otherwise we wouldn’t hear her grumbling so often after DDs that she should have bet more.

I know many people here find her wagering strategy prudent (and I’m sure Sony loves it, too), but I find it boring, predictable, and a waste of perfectly good free money.

Clearly she’s a bird-in-the-hand kind of person. I just wish she’d ease her grip, because that poor bird is getting strangled.

[853fisher]

1 minute ago, 30 Helens said:

If only she would! She had two chances today to make a massive payday: last DD and FJ, where she had literally no competition and no chance of losing. I don’t believe there isn’t a part of her that wants to take the chance, otherwise we wouldn’t hear her grumbling so often after DDs that she should have bet more.

I know many people here find her wagering strategy prudent (and I’m sure Sony loves it, too), but I find it boring, predictable, and a waste of perfectly good free money.

Clearly she’s a bird-in-the-hand kind of person. I just wish she’d ease her grip, because that poor bird is getting strangled.

I can't say I disagree with you there!  Very easy for me to be blasé about a stranger's money, but I'd be excited if she bet a little more.  A 20-something on an internet clue, and she didn't feel comfortable enough to bet on herself just a little more in that FJ, for example?  If I had $5 for every time she's said something like "oh, I should have bet more," I'd have enough to...well, still.

[Trey]

Ken really did not want to say the word "sex" but I guess it was okay to spell it.

A one-person FJ really is sad.  I felt so bad for the two challengers.  They just never seemed to get off the ground.

I got the ts's of Jesse L. Martin, rubber chicken, WAVEs, and Culloden.

Never heard of Masterclass. It looks interesting.

[Prevailing Wind]

20 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I did better in that category than I expected, missing only Dominican.

My very first job was at a Catholic women's college, run by Dominican nuns. In addition to a pitiful salary, they offered me a free education - one class per semester. Since I was not Catholic, they couldn't force me to take religion classes, so they put me in a philosophy class (I had no choice as to the classes I was assigned.)  According to the Dominican nuns, there is only ONE philosopher: St. Thomas Aquinas.  That class was the biggest waste of time...but, gee, over 50 years later, it came in handy on Jeopardy!  LOL

[SomeTameGazelle]

6 minutes ago, Trey said:

Ken really did not want to say the word "sex" but I guess it was okay to spell it.

I thought he was performing reluctance, not actually too prudish. He said sexy perfectly normally and only acted embarrassed to spell the letters.  They cut to a shot of Ken as he said it which made me wonder whether this was a pick up to improve the delivery or just that they thought it thought it was more effective as a joke to show him saying it.

[MrAtoz]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

The rubber chicken TS surprised me; is that phrase no longer a common shorthand for banquet food?

To me, "rubber chicken" is one of those things that prop comics throw around.  I have never heard it used to refer to actual food.

[graybrown bird]

I associate " rubber chicken" with old-time politicking -- like "glad-handing," and kissing babies.  Someone running for office would go to a lot of banquets, i.e. hit the "rubber chicken circuit."

[ams1001]

1 hour ago, Trey said:

I got the ts's of Jesse L. Martin,

I was annoyed I didn't get that one, especially given the recent RENT clue; he was in it at the time I saw it, though he wasn't there that day. But I blanked on his name.

[zapper]

1 hour ago, graybrown bird said:

I associate " rubber chicken" with old-time politicking -- like "glad-handing," and kissing babies.  Someone running for office would go to a lot of banquets, i.e. hit the "rubber chicken circuit."

exactly - where the candidate would speak at a lot of banquets with bad food - ie: rubber chicken.

[chessiegal]

Here's the rubber chicken clue.

Quote

Unappetizing term for the chicken proverbially served at a banquet or testimonial dinner

I think it's a good clue. It's not easy to prepare food for large amounts of people (banquet), so when chicken is served, and not cooked properly, can be rubbery. Therefore, rubber chicken.

[DrSpaceman73]

Yeah the current champ is annoying me now. Limp wristed hand gestures and the commentary on her bets I don't need. 

[proserpina65]

15 hours ago, Katy M said:

I said TikTok, because I had no clue.

I said "I have no frickin idea" because I literally didn't have one.

16 hours ago, ams1001 said:

My TSes were Rubber Chicken, Meals Ready to Eat, Neil DeGrasse Tyson,

I got those, plus Buzzard's Bay, WAVES and Jesse L. Martin (whom I did not call Jesse L. Green for a change).  I came up with "Moor" but couldn't quite get to Culloden in time, despite having been there.

14 hours ago, laredhead said:

I wonder how the other champions are going to react to Mattea's little comments throughout the game?  

 

Given that many of them did the same thing, probably they won't care at all.

I did pretty well in the first round, missing two in Leagues (I got Stanford and Cornell mixed up, as always and I've never heard of League of Legends) and 2 in Actors (Viveca A. Fox and whoever that was from The Good Place which I didn't watch).

DJ wasn't quite as good.  I missed 2 clues in Literature, 1 in Scientists (Pascal, a computer language I actually had taken in college!), 1 in Sex-y (Middlesex), and 1 in Captain America (Truman).  And I only got yoyo and whittling in the last category.

Edited April 21, 2022 by proserpina65

[proserpina65]

12 hours ago, 853fisher said:

At any rate, I don't mind Mattea going full steam ahead.  After she's pulled far ahead, the challengers will walk away with the same $2K/$1K whether they finish with marginally higher in-game totals or not, and I understand why she'd want to show her best or simply amass more money.

God knows she'd be criticized for it if she had held back at the end.

[Mindthinkr]

Thats my favorite Pascal joke. 
 

I got Buzzard’s Bay, Meals Ready to Eat, Culloden and Pascal. No idea for FJ. I want to give Sean some credit. When he got the DD he did try to catch up to Mattea and bet it all. I’m sorry that didn’t work out better for him.  

[853fisher]

14 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

I want to give Sean some credit. When he got the DD he did try to catch up to Mattea and bet it all. I’m sorry that didn’t work out better for him.  

Yes, that's true.  I also thought he was quite a good sport.  Not that Loni was unsporting, but Sean seemed especially gracious, appearing to smile and applaud sincerely as late as Mattea's last DD.  I always appreciate that kind of attitude.

[bad things are bad]

16 hours ago, dcalley said:

Mattea and Tina Belcher have something in common.

Had EXACTLY the same thought 😁

[Toothbrush]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

Jesse L. Martin (whom I did not call Jesse L. Green for a change).  

lol! Ed Green & Lennie Briscoe are one of my favorite L&O partnerships. 

As a British detective show fan, I loved Sean’s interview and enjoy the same shows he mentioned. 
 

I wish Mattea would have bet it all in FJ, or within a few thousand $$. She’s always saying she wishes she had wagered more on her DDs so here was her chance. She couldn’t lose the game, had already won over $200k, and doesn’t know a world without the internet. I have to say that her little quirks are starting to annoy me, but I’m extremely impressed by her knowledge. 

[ams1001]

1 hour ago, Toothbrush said:

She’s always saying she wishes she had wagered more on her DDs

I really wish she'd stop doing that. If you're not going to bet more aggressively despite regretting not having done so almost every time, then just shut up about it.

Edited April 21, 2022 by ams1001

[zapper]

1 hour ago, Toothbrush said:

As a British detective show fan, I loved Sean’s interview and enjoy the same shows he mentioned. 

When my wife heard Endeavor (which we are blitzing right now) she asked if we needed to cheer for Sean instead of fellow Canadian Mattea.

 

At that point I decided to watch the remainder of the game from the other sofa.

[Toothbrush]

7 minutes ago, zapper said:

When my wife heard Endeavor (which we are blitzing right now) she asked if we needed to cheer for Sean instead of fellow Canadian Mattea.

 

At that point I decided to watch the remainder of the game from the other sofa.

I started rooting for him after that! 

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

whom I did not call Jesse L. Green for a change

Heh. I did yell excitedly: Jesse L. Greene!

The TS of MREs surprised me. I guess they’re all more familiar with war time facts from earlier times?

For FJ I was pleading with Mattea: $10,000. Just $10K. You can do just $10K.

But she didn’t hear me.

I also try coaching Mattea to go with Amy’s conservative $3K wagers. But that’s not getting through either.

I understand the impetus to not throw away money that comes from having had to live frugally for most or all of one’s life.

But. Oy. In the TOC, Matt Amodio (my internet godson) is going to totally make mincemeat of Mattea (my younger self) with his strategic wagers.

But what do I know? I seem to be heading into another 0/5 FJ week.

[proserpina65]

41 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

But. Oy. In the TOC, Matt Amodio (my internet godson) is going to totally make mincemeat of Mattea (my younger self) with his strategic wagers.

Or maybe not.  He might very well get burned by large wagers like Roger Craig in the Decades Tournament.  The lesson there is never to listen to Ken Jennings when he tells you to bet it all.

[ams1001]

Gah! My channel froze for a bit when Ken was reading the first "That's Not Cannon" clue (which I knew, anyway); I changed to the other station (I'm in between NYC and Philly and I get both ABC stations) just in time to hear the response to the second. Checked the archive to see what the clue was and I definitely would have gotten it so I gave myself the point. Can't say I was expecting a story about being a drag queen from Alex but now I want to see his show.

Had a decent first round - Ran Golf Course (guess I've absorbed something from my dad's penchant for having golf on in the background when we're at my parents' house); missed three in California but only one or two each in the other categories.

Second round not so much; missed one each in Biblical Devotions and Simply Stellar, but 3-4 in the others.

But I got Final Jeopardy! Wasn't super sure but not too long ago there was a discussion (I think it was in this thread but I could be wrong) about Disney Princesses' "real" names and Sleeping Beauty/Aurora came up there.

My TSes were Laredo, Big River, sink, and Song of Solomon (DD).

 

[Bastet]

I'm going to be watching something else tonight, so just checked the archive.  Thankfully there weren't many clues with visual hints, and I either didn't need them or they wouldn't have helped.

I was off to another bad start; I missed three in golf, two in big, and one each in kitchen and book in the first round.  But in DJ, I did well other than in the biblical category, where I missed three.  I ran 1720s (thanks to several lucky guesses), capitals, and ungulates, and missed two each in the others.

I didn't get FJ, though.  I actually knew the goddess for once, but couldn't think of a film about an Aurora other than Terms of Endearment, and that obviously wasn't it, since it has no title character and wasn't made in the '50s.  I've never seen or read Sleeping Beauty, so I probably could have sat here until I keeled over and never come up with it.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Bastet

[Katy M]

I got FJ at the last second. I was trying to think if there was a movie called Aurora and then trying to figure out what else the goddesses name could be and then it dawned on me. Pun intended.

I got the missed clues of Laredo, Russia, Rachel and Song of Solomon.

I got the entire category of Freedom wrong and the entire category of Biblical right. 

Fairly good night, except for that freedom song category.

[Browncoat]

Yay!  Sleeping Beauty saved me from being shut out this week!  It wasn't quite an instaget -- I had to think about what the name of the Roman goddess was, but once I figured that out, I knew FJ.

I also got the TS of Laredo, Russia, Big River, sink, and Rachel, although that last one was a total guess.  I was shocked that I got it right.

[Maverick]

 Where is Mattea from?  I wish they would tell us these things.  She sounds like she might not be from the US.   Maybe somewhere in the Caribbean?   Oh, she's from Canada.  Glad I finally know.   Maybe now you can STFU about it, Ken.  I've probably seen half of her episodes and I'm sick of his Canadian "jokes".   We get it, she's a feriner.  

[Toothbrush]

I struggled with FJ because I thought Sleeping Beauty was made in the 40s but it was all I could think of. 

Meghan’s parents’ Jeopardy watching routine sounds a lot like my parents’. Except my parents pause the TV when they feel the need to discuss a clue.

[SomeTameGazelle]

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

But. Oy. In the TOC, Matt Amodio (my internet godson) is going to totally make mincemeat of Mattea (my younger self) with his strategic wagers.

Matt's style of play tended to allow him to accumulate a lot of cash, that's true. Mattea typically starts from the top of the board and doesn't have to bet large amounts to keep her lead. But in the TOC none of the money in the quarter and semi finals is real, is it? I wonder if Mattea can change her betting strategy to ensure she makes it to the semifinal and the final, especially if she doesn't place first and needs a wildcard spot to get through. The thing with regular play is she is conscious of playing with real money and obviously feels like risking $10K is losing $10K. I may be misremembering, but I thought it took Amy a while in her streak to start making larger bets since she had safe big winnings and could think of it as "house money".

One of the things I admire about Ken was that he was able to adapt to James' style of play and was much more aggressive in the GOAT tournament in order to take the crown. Of course he had several tournaments under his belt. Mattea is much younger and the TOC will be this year. She's obviously bright and I hope she can approach the TOC more assertively to put on a good showing. (I am probably still rooting for Matt to win though.)

[ProudMary]

Sometimes a TS hits hard. I called Richie Havens as soon as I saw the category name and never even expected it to be the $2K clue. I actually thought that Mattea might get it because I've been pleasantly surprised through her run at how well she does on clues that Alex would have termed "before your time."

I'll just leave this here:

 

[GreekGeek]

There were a lot of TS’s. I got Laredo, Russia, Big Dipper, Big River, bell, Rachel, and the Song of Solomon. I figured out FJ. Clever of them to make the answer a Disney cartoon! When I think of 50s movies, I generally think of huge spectacles like Ben Hur or something starring Brando, Dean, or Monroe.

At least it wasn’t another huge Mattea runaway. I thought Alex would have been a fun champ. I liked his “bonding with Dad” story, though it had its disturbing aspects. I wish Ken had asked him what he wore for the knife act!

[zoey1996]

Our cable went out just before Jeopardy! so I only checked the archive for FJ. I didn’t get it. 😕

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, GreekGeek said:

I thought Alex would have been a fun champ. I liked his “bonding with Dad” story, though it had its disturbing aspects. I wish Ken had asked him what he wore for the knife act!

Alex tweeted video of the event.

 

[30 Helens]

5 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Can't say I was expecting a story about being a drag queen from Alex but now I want to see his show.

I was really rooting for Alex. A, because I’m beyond ready for Mattea to leave and B, because if he had multiple wins maybe one of them would be as Alexis von Fierce. How fun would that be.

Alex’s dad is one scary dude, though. 

[Cotypubby]

Argh, I got hung up on “title character” and was trying to come up with Fifties films with a woman’s name in the title. Never would have come up with Sleeping Beauty.

[possibilities]

Alex was definitely fun. 

[DrSpaceman73]

I got big river just from context of the clue and category.  Huck Finn (or was it Tom sawyer?   Whatever) and big?  Big river makes sense.