Jeopardy! Season 38 (2021-2022)

[SeanC]

Looking at the length of champions’ streaks as well as dollar figures, it really highlights how James was basically playing a completely different game from everybody else. He pretty much perfected how to wring the most money out of any single game and operated on that level for an exceptional amount of time.

[MrAtoz]

15 hours ago, Driad said:

"Good Samaritan" is often used to mean "any helpful person" but the way I learned the story, Samaritans were discriminated against. My teacher compared the story to a Black person in the southern U.S. helping an injured white sheriff.

Not just discriminated against, but very hated.  My minister has said that if you want to know how that story would have landed to Jesus's listeners, imagine it as "the good Islamic fundamentalist."

[dgpolo]

In my market Dr. Strangelove was playing on TCM while I watched Jeopardy.

A game show that I watched earlier in the day told me Niagara was the oldest park.

I did get FJ because of the rhyme.

[Gemma Violet]

Key-to-life element (in a comet's tail):  I'm shocked none of them got carbon.  That's the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard "key-to-life."

Edited May 4, 2022 by Gemma Violet

[PBnJay]

11 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

Not a good night here, but I did get terrier. Shout out to @saber5055

She thanks you @MINDTHINKR. She got a laugh that they showed a Bedlington, which almost no one has even heard of much less know it's a terrier. And again, it was in a pet clip. If anyone remembers sometime back, a Miniature Pinscher video was shown and the breed name for a "Min Pin" was a TS. The video was of a dog owned by a friend of @saber5055's, and THAT time it was a real and lovely show dog. And still a TS!

4 minutes ago, dgpolo said:

I did get FJ because of the rhyme.

I got FJ and didn't even notice the rhyme until reading about it here! Duh!

[Driad]

The road to Boston's Logan Airport is the McClellan Highway.  An appropriate name for a road with thousands of people going nowhere.

[ams1001]

Not bad tonight - 80% / 70% / 75%. Ran Reality TV and A My Name Is in J! and World Currencies and Movies in DJ. TSes were carbon, mirror, euro, Serengeti National Park. FJ was an instaguess (not because it rhymes; it was just the first one that came to mind).

 

[Katy M]

I got FJ right.

I got the missed clues of carbon, mirror, Stuyvesant, Artemis, euro, and Serengetti (sp?)

I got the entire category of TV right, and if I hadn't gotten King Richard, I would have gotten the entire category of movies wrong and I think that would have been kind of funny since they're somewhat similar categories.  

[Browncoat]

Instaget FJ for me tonight, and it was entirely because of the rhyme.

I was surprised that carbon was a TS -- it was the first element to come to mind.  I also got mirror, hypertension and hyperspace, and euro.  

[Bastet]

Boy, that was all Mattea's game in DJ.

The carbon TS to start the game was a doozy.  I was a bit surprised no one guessed Serengeti, but carbon was shocking.

I just had an okay first round; I only ran names and - to my great surprise as I'd only seen one show - reality TV.  I got all but one in NASA and hundreds, but missed two each in the others.

In DJ, I ran currencies and movies, but missed two each in everything else other than fictional places, in which I missed three.

I am absolutely terrible at battle names, but got FJ thanks to the rhyme.

[Driad]

 

An ancestor of mine was under McClellan's command. McC kept them waiting around long enough for my ancestor to get malaria and miss Antietam. (He died of the malaria instead.)

[SomeTameGazelle]

2 hours ago, dgpolo said:

I did get FJ because of the rhyme.

It's only relatively recently (and thanks to Jeopardy) that I learned that it isn't pronounced with 4 syllables (an-ti-et-am), so I was luckily able to key in on the rhyme as well.

 

[Prevailing Wind]

Because of the rhyme, I said Cheatham; never got past that to get to Antietam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheatham_Hill

[WaitForMe]

On 5/3/2022 at 3:10 PM, bankerchick said:

It's not the strategy.  It's the exaggerated sigh, the mumbled 'I guess I'll take football' and the expectation that this will be treated as endearing (which I have to admit, it does appear to be to many here.)  It bugged me that I skipped a few episodes specifically because of her, so I thought I would try again last night and immediately had to listen to Ken recap all her boring stories and watch her reluctantly select the football category so by the time she got the Daily Double, I was out again.  Having said all that, I am clearly in the minority here so I guess I'll just shut up and put Jeopardy out of my mind until such time as she's gone or I find something else permanent to do at 7:30 each weeknight.

I agree with you!!  I watch until she’s ahead and then that’s all I can stand. I just hope she wins enough to buy her house very, very soon. Then I’ll start watching Jeopardy again. Until then I guess I’ll pass. 

[Quickbeam]

All those dog shows paid off again! Bedlington! 

[zapper]

I remember all the hate/love/hate/love discussions during Matt's run (anyone remember the "Matt Imodium" jokes?)

I think, that at the end of the day, people just don't long runs of champions and want the 5 game limit to return.

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, Katy M said:

I got the missed clues of carbon, mirror, Stuyvesant, Artemis, euro, and Serengetti (sp?)

I did pretty well, although I did say Peter Minuet, not Stuyvesant.  Got the rest though.  I was surprised none of them got Artemis.

9 minutes ago, zapper said:

I remember all the hate/love/hate/love discussions during Matt's run (anyone remember the "Matt Imodium" jokes?)

I think, that at the end of the day, people just don't long runs of champions and want the 5 game limit to return.

This is part of it for me.  Although I'd problem put the limit at 10 rather than 5.  And I do make exceptions for champions I really like.

[Katy M]

24 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

This is part of it for me.  Although I'd problem put the limit at 10 rather than 5.  And I do make exceptions for champions I really like.

I would be OK with anything between 10 to 15.  Maybe even 20.  That's more than most long-terms go anyway, but at least you would *know* that it was coming to an end.

[Bastet]

17 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

It's only relatively recently (and thanks to Jeopardy) that I learned that it isn't pronounced with 4 syllables (an-ti-et-am),

Same here.

[DrSpaceman73]

Well I'd be a horrible songwriter because I thought it was bull run ii. Trying fitting that battle in a song. 

[Bastet]

Archive game for me.

The privileged TS surprised me a bit; obviously as an attorney I am biased, but I would think courtroom dramas on TV made that something at least one contestant would know (spousal privilege is a favored plot device, and attorney-client privilege gets referenced a good deal [often incorrectly]), with the "P" spotted.  Alpha Centauri surprised me a little bit, too; it seems like that gets asked about a fair bit.

This is the first time Mattea has not been in the lead heading into FJ, right?  She's lucky Sarah didn't know it; if she had, with her wager, she'd have won.

Poor T.J.'s coryat score was -$3600.  Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, I blew the art category entirely, and doubt very much being able to see the paintings in two of the clues would have changed that.  I missed two each in sports and wars.  I ran the other three categories in the first round (giving myself credit for pie chart, knowing I'd certainly recognize that, and for Wil Wheaton, whom I'm pretty sure I'd have recognized).

In DJ, I only ran trust and IT, but I got all but one in everything else other than Pulitzer winners, where I missed three.

FJ was an instaget.

[catrice2]

5 hours ago, zapper said:

I remember all the hate/love/hate/love discussions during Matt's run (anyone remember the "Matt Imodium" jokes?)

I think, that at the end of the day, people just don't long runs of champions and want the 5 game limit to return.

This right here is why I side eye the "ken was the best."  He was the best under he current rules.  Who really knows who was the best to play the game?  All things were not the same. Back then they did not have this high dollar tournaments and people were limited to 5 days.  This is why in sports I also side eye the GOAT (an acronym I have come to dislike) debates when equipment is different, rules are different, even the way and access they have to take care of their bodies is different.  In general I don't like comparing people that way but I hate how everyone pretends that some of the whiny NBA  players could have made it back in day when every scratch was not ruled a foul and you didn't have all the flopping and acting.

[Quickbeam]

Tip: watch Citizen Kane. Sigh! 

[ams1001]

Damn, did terrible in the first round (50%) and pretty good (80%) in the second! Ran TV Mothers and Bridges, got all the DDs and TSes of neutron star, Rhine, Pittsburgh, and Shoemaker-Levy.

Dammit, Sarah got my hopes up.

[853fisher]

Ah, poor Sarah!  If she had decided to take a wild guess in the last few seconds, it's not inconceivable she might have landed on the correct answer, sine it's one of "the" movies on every list she might have studied, even if she hadn't ever seen it.  I'm not unhappy to see Mattea continue (I think my friend could beat her tomorrow!), but what a finish it would have been for Sarah to pluck a win from thin air. 

3 minutes ago, Bastet said:

The privileged TS surprised me a bit; obviously as an attorney I am biased, but I would think courtroom dramas on TV made that something at least one contestant would know (spousal privilege is a favored plot device, and attorney-client privilege gets referenced a good deal [often incorrectly]), with the "P" spotted.

I thought that too.  I also recall several mentions of various types of legal privilege in the news recently WRT the workings of our government.

[Katy M]

I had no idea for FJ. I said Genghis Khan, which of course meant no sense.  What i really waned to say was Xanadu.  

I got the missed clues of Austria and Rhine.

Bad night.

[Prevailing Wind]

DAMN. So close, yet so far.

[Katy M]

34 minutes ago, Bastet said:

The privileged TS surprised me a bit; obviously as an attorney I am biased, but I would think courtroom dramas on TV made that something at least one contestant would know (spousal privilege is a favored plot device, and attorney-client privilege gets referenced a good deal [often incorrectly]), with the "P" spotted.  Alpha Centauri surprised me a little bit, too; it seems like that gets asked about a fair bit.

I knew both when I heard them but I couldn't think of them.  I think I'd pretty muchjust given up by the time we got to Alpha Centauri.

[Browncoat]

I've never seen Citizen Kane either, but took a guess.  It's a well-known movie, and considered by many to be the bestest movie evah! (no idea, since I haven't seen it!), so I figured why not guess that one.  Yay, me.

The only TS I wrote down were Spirit of '76, and Rubens.  I got distracted by something shiny in the middle of the show.

[Gemma Violet]

13 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

DAMN. So close, yet so far.

You took the words right out of my mouth.  We can't have nice things. 😄

[dgpolo]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

What i really waned to say was Xanadu.  

Xanadu was in the clue, hey, that rhymes! I knew Kane's mansion was called Xanadu so I got that FJ.

1 hour ago, Gemma Violet said:

We can't have nice things

Well, I can.

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I had no idea for FJ. I said Genghis Khan, which of course meant no sense.  What i really waned to say was Xanadu.  

I got the missed clues of Austria and Rhine.

Bad night.

My dumb FJ answer was Gunga Din, I assume on the theory that one poem is pretty much like another. I have seen bits and pieces of Citizen Kane but I have never watched it attentively.

[Prevailing Wind]

I said, "Lost Horizon."

[Leeds]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

I've never seen Citizen Kane either, but took a guess.  It's a well-known movie, and considered by many to be the bestest movie evah! (no idea, since I haven't seen it!), so I figured why not guess that one.  Yay, me.

 

Believe me, you're not missing anything.

[HyeChaps]

That was exciting!  It was fun to watch.  If only Sarah could have heard me yelling at the television. . . 

[blueray]

wow what an ending. I really thought that was it and that Mattea had a good run. Then she pulls an upset!

I was surprised Sarah didn't get it. Of course I was naming classic movies to my TV, none of which were Citizen Kane (and I've seen that one). 

[shapeshifter]

Since I share with Mattea the seeming necessity of using vocalizations and hand gestures to trigger thought processes to locate data stored in my gray matter, I must always forgive her these tics, even when I too find them a little irritating, along with my attending feelings of empathetic embarrassment. 
Today that paid off for me with a big vicarious thrill at her surprise win against seeming unbeatable odds. Yeah! We won!

That said, I would have been very happy to have Sarah Snider, a middle school humanities teacher, as the new champ, and would have enjoyed seeing her break records too. It could have been fun to hear Ken make punny Dad jokes based on her last name being almost the same as JeopardyAmy's. 
And, Sarah, I feel a variation of your humiliation in that I can't even remember if I've seen Citizen Kane. Fortunately, I will also quickly forget this humiliation. 

My wrong guess for FJ was The King and I, which apparently isn't too bad, given that Xanadu is "also known as Zanadu or Shengdu, is a mythical place that is rooted in an actual area of Inner Mongolia" (languagehumanities.org/what-is-xanadu.htm). 
I'm not sure how my mind or memory works these days. 
But @Prevailing Wind, I do recall watching Lost Horizon on a tiny kitchen TV about 10 years ago, and I think that wasn't a bad guess either.

Wednesday I did get Antietam for FJ because of the rhyme, which is probably a good memory trigger (thanks, Jeopardy! clue writers!) for most people? Or is that only for those whose first language is culturally Western?
I also got the Wednesday TSs of carbon and The 900s (only the last 17 years of my librarian career was in academia with the Library of Congress classification numbering system; before that it was all Dewey Decimal).

 

[Gemma Violet]

I've made a couple of negative remarks about Mattea upthread.  To Mattea fans, sorry about that.  Upon reflection, I'm now trying to see it from other's point of view.  I feel bad when someone criticizes a celebrity I like so I'll mellow out a bit on my Mattea remarks.   

[bad things are bad]

I was sure Mattea was gone, but when I saw Sarah's face during FJ, it was clear she had no clue.

I thought it was a super easy FJ, figuring anyone who got on the show would have some familiarity with Citizen Kane. We covered it in my film class in college and it gave me quite an appreciation for its place in cinematic history 

[Katy M]

10 hours ago, dgpolo said:

Xanadu was in the clue, hey, that rhymes! I knew Kane's mansion was called Xanadu so I got that FJ.

I knew it was in the clue (which also rhymes).  It's why I couldn't get it out of my head.  But, I didn't know that Kane's mansion was called anything and that would probably be the last movie I would have guessed.

[DrSpaceman73]

It's been years since I've seen citizen cane didn't know it. 

Oh well.  One more week with her....

 

[Trey]

I was so relieved when Mattea won.  I guess I'm just not ready to lose her yet.

I know I've never seen Citizen Kane, maybe just bits and pieces of it, and I did not know his mansion was called Xanadu.  I also guessed Lost Horizon for FJ.

[ABay]

I could hear the OTT newsreader saying "In Xanadu..." It's a shame Citizen Kane doesn't run on TV like Casablanca or The Wizard of Oz so more people would see it. I didn't see it until I was in college, even though by then it was available on VHS, because it was a classic and therefore had to be dull. But it's not, it's really quite fun and clips along nicely.

[MrAtoz]

10 hours ago, Leeds said:

Believe me, you're not missing anything.

I disagree with this in the strongest possible terms.

[Kimmmmmm]

20 hours ago, zapper said:

I remember all the hate/love/hate/love discussions during Matt's run (anyone remember the "Matt Imodium" jokes?)

I think, that at the end of the day, people just don't long runs of champions and want the 5 game limit to return.

I don't... enjoyed Matt, Amy and James during their runs. But just want Mattea and her posturing gone, along with Ken's slobbering.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Kimmmmmm

[Shermie]

Yay for Mattea for pulling back from the brink. I think she’s ready to go at this point, based on her casual “oh well” attitude. She’s already broken records with her run, and she’ll be back in the tournament of champions. 

I’ve tried to watch Citizen Kane, but no. I find a lot of old movies are just too hokey for me. The acting is so stilted; often I think “this won a best acting Oscar?” when I’m watching a classic. Plus, I think everybody knows the secret of CK by now, so it wouldn’t have the big surprise at the end anymore.

[3 is enough]

12 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I said, "Lost Horizon."

That was my thought as well.  I have never seen Citizen Kane.

Certainly was an exciting ending.  I thought Mattea had finally met her match.  
 

[zapper]

Something that gets comments is the characterized slobbering/fawning/summarizing over the current champ which occurs at the beginning of episodes. I don't think it has as much to do with a champion idolization but that it is more of what I call the "Previously of Jeopardy!" segment. I noticed it way back at the beginning of the season, perhaps before Matt's run.

The problem I see, is that this "previously on Jeopardy!" segment is strained as it tries to find interesting summations of ever increasing runs. I imagine there is a similar challenge in finding tidbits for interview number infinity+1 with a champion ("and then when I was six, I ate a spark plug" - "gee, that must have given you a charge" - pause for laughter).

So I don't see the problem as being champ worship, I see the problem being the whole 2 or 3 minute segment for "previously on Jeopardy!"

Back in the day, Alex would give a one-sentence welcome/summary and off we'd go.

Edited May 6, 2022 by zapper

[Katy M]

2 minutes ago, zapper said:

Something that gets comments is the characterized slobbering/fawning/summarizing over the current champ which occurs at the beginning of episodes. I don't think it has as much to do with a champion idolization but that it is more of what I call the "Previously of Jeopardy!" segment. I noticed it way back at the beginning of the season, perhaps before Matt's run.

The problem I see, is that this "previously on Jeopardy!" segment is strained as it tries to find interesting summations of ever increasing runs. I imagine there is a similar challenge in finding tidbits for interview number infinity+1 with a champion ("and then when I was six, I ate a spark plug" - "gee, that must have given you a charge" - pause for laughter).

So I don't see the problem as being champ worship, I see the problem being the whole 2 or 3 minute segment for "previously on Jeopardy!"

Back in the day, Alex would give a one-sentence welcome/summary and off we'd go.

I agree. Unless something truly interesting happened the game before, there's no need to mention it.  Like a 3 way tie, they all bet it all and up at zero, that would be worth commenting on, while at the same time explaining why there's no returning champ.

[zapper]

Up here in Canada, out on the west coast, we have a tea company "Murchies" which at one time also made coffee, but is primarily tea. The company has been around for 100 or so years and makes tea blends for all sorts of things (radio shows, anniversaries and so on).

I am surprised that they haven't come up with a "Mat-tea" blend for the current Canadian media-darling.