Jeopardy! Season 31 (2014-2015)

[M. Darcy]

Thanks everyone! 

 

Heh, my parents always look up the FJ question early in the day and when my Mom said my Dad had no clue, my response was "does he not pay attention to me??!!" since I am obsessed with the royal family. 

[proserpina65]

I didn't see last night's show (I get Jeopardy on a Baltimore station and they didn't air it for obvious reasons) but after checking J! Archive, I can see that I would've done good in the first round, slightly less good in DJ, and rocked FJ, which seemed exceedingly easy to me.  Plus, I got 'quirt' - in fact, I tried to use that as the answer to the clue for 'crop'.

Or you're an American.  We fought a war in 1776 to get away from those bozos.

IDK, our bozos aren't any better; in fact, they're often worse.  I'm American, and yet I knew the FJ the moment I saw it.  Some of us are Anglophiles.

Edited April 28, 2015 by proserpina65

[alias1]

I liked how Tim played and was hoping he'd win

I was really rooting for Tim.  He was a lot of fun, in addition to being smart.  At one point he actually had the lead.  I wish he would have bet big on his DD since he knew the answer.  Can a contestant be on Jeopardy again after coming in 2nd or 3rd?

[saber5055]

I dislike everything that has to do with the British monarchy which means I tanked FJ. I guess if I were going on this show I'd have to bite the bullet and read something about them. But as is, no, I can't stand anything about them. So "George Clooney" was my wild stab-in-the-dark that I knew was wrong.

 

So can Trebek see what contestants write for FJ? Because he told the woman he guessed she wished she had more money to bet because she got FJ correct, this before she showed her answer.

 

Trebek's dad is/was a chef, indeed. Maybe that's why he keeps ranking on Greg for his occupation, it's some Freudian thing.

 

I would have said, "I bet it all" for a DD in the whip category since I've had horses all my life so have a lifetime of experience with every sort of whip. But that Indiana Jones DD was beyond easy. The DD should have been "quirt" since I was the only one shouting that TS answer, hoping one of the contestants would hear me and buzz in.

 

But then, Indiana Jones is in keeping with the stupidly easy DDs lately. What's up with that?

 

Can a contestant be on Jeopardy again after coming in 2nd or 3rd?

 

 

It's my understanding that if you have ever appeared on the show you cannot appear again. Unless you're some big winner and are asked back for a special series.

Edited April 28, 2015 by saber5055

[Jesse]

I did have a mad moment of trying to figure out who Pippa Middleton married, until I realized that was wayyyyy too obscure and they were obviously going for Prince William.

 

Me too! 

 

That seemed like a real "know it or don't" kind of question -- there was no way to figure it out if you didn't know.

[M. Darcy]

 

It's my understanding that if you have ever appeared on the show you cannot appear again.

Yeah, unless you are back for a tournament, once you are on, that's it.  Unless you were on during the Art Fleming years, then you can go on again.  There is a rumor floating around that if Alex retires, then we can return but it may just be wishful thinking. 

[HelenBaby]

When I was on the show, they told us we couldn't be on another game show for five years and never on Jeopardy!

[Chicken Wing]

That seemed like a real "know it or don't" kind of question -- there was no way to figure it out if you didn't know.

 

Yes and no to that. I figured it out right away because of the date (let's see, what couple got married in April 2011 who is famous enough for that date to be worthy of being a context clue?) and the fact that I did happen to know that Kate Middleton's family owns some sort of party-planning company and were quite wealthy from it. I had no idea what the company was called - never cared enough to find out, still don't - and I never really thought of Kate as an "heiress" to that company's fortune, but yeah, that would have to be who they were talking about.

[proserpina65]

Yeah, unless you are back for a tournament, once you are on, that's it.  Unless you were on during the Art Fleming years, then you can go on again.  There is a rumor floating around that if Alex retires, then we can return but it may just be wishful thinking. 

It seems to me there was something to this effect in the paperwork I received, but it's been several years, so I might be mis-remembering.

[Fex]

Me too! 

 

That seemed like a real "know it or don't" kind of question -- there was no way to figure it out if you didn't know.

I guessed Prince William at the very last second, thinking I was probably way off. I refuse to give no answer for FJ even if I'm completely clueless. My thought process was "hmmmm, rich people" and "wasn't the royal wedding about 4 years ago?" but I didn't think I was going to be right!

[peeayebee]

So can Trebek see what contestants write for FJ? Because he told the woman he guessed she wished she had more money to bet because she got FJ correct, this before she showed her answer.

I figure he saw her write immediately, without hesitation.

[mojoween]

Kinda awkward the way he did it, though. "Too bad you got all those questions wrong or didn't ring in faster. You could have won PILES of money!" Uh, gee, thanks Alex.

[ChicagoCita]

I'm American, and yet I knew the FJ the moment I saw it.  Some of us are Anglophiles.

 

Or English history majors. ;-)  Not that I was in school when Kate came on the scene, but old habits die hard.

[GreekGeek]

Great job by Greg tonight. All 3 players were decent, although I was shocked that the Supremes were a TS. Poor Salvatore seemed to mess up any question where a specific number of letters or syllables was important. The "two syllable" category was ridiculously broad.

 

Puss in Boots was cute, but he took a bit too much time.

 

I never knew "7th heaven" was Islam. Live and learn.

 

Happy that knowing Latin helped me figure out "Novocastrian" = from Newcastle.

 

I got FJ, but I was sure there must have been some 80's film I was forgetting about. I can't think of any Saturday Night Live-skit characters made into successful full length movies since Wayne's World, either. 

[mojoween]

I have extremely fond memories of going to see "Wayne's World" in the theater. And to this day when "Bohemian Rhapsody" is on anyone in the car does the headbanging.

I said "Wayne's World" immediately but I wasn't sure what they were considering a hit because I think "Coneheads" came out first but I don't think it could be considered a hit by any measure.

I also would have bet the farm on FJ, Greg was so annoyed with himself.

I feel like the Czech category was really dumbed down because I knew all of the answers that they got to.

Greg didn't seem very happy with the Puss in Boots category. Before they went to commercial he had a really pissy look on his face. And wasn't Antonio Banderas Puss in Boots? That didn't sound like him.

Edited April 29, 2015 by mojoween

[pandora spocks]

Did anyone else find the Puss in the Boots-themed category as pointlessly lame as I did?

[Kitkat52]

I thought The Coneheads was the final answer - 1982. Wayne's World was in the early 90s.

[opus]

 

Puss in Boots was cute, but he took a bit too much time

Was that Antonio Bandaras?

[Fex]

This bluenoser was disappointed no one got Nova Scotia!

 

Did Alex do a Church Lady impression?!! Hahaha

[opus]

I thought The Coneheads was the final answer - 1982. Wayne's World was in the early 90s.

Coneheads was released in 1993. (Made 21 mil domestically).

[GreekGeek]

I thought The Coneheads was the final answer - 1982. Wayne's World was in the early 90s.

I thought of them too, but they weren't a hit as a movie.

 

ETA: They were indeed post-Wayne's World. For some reason I thought they were earlier.

Edited April 29, 2015 by GreekGeek

[CarpeDiem54]

Greg is doing great. That was a pretty good game.

To be fair, Puss-n-Boots is waaaay more entertaining than Sandra Day O'Connor, but a few of those clues were really too long.

Interesting about 7th heaven. I'll have to go read up on that.

So they have a category called Montgomery and then show a picture of the guy. What's next? Have the person wearing a t-shirt that says "my name is ..."

I guessed on FJ. Wayne's World was the only SNL related movie I could think of.

[rubaco]

Was that Antonio Bandaras?

 

I'm guessing it was Eric Bauza, who does the voice on the Netflix series. I knew there would be complaints here about how much time he ate up, but I'm a sucker for Puss, so I enjoyed the category. 

[CarpeDiem54]

This bluenoser was disappointed no one got Nova Scotia!

I did!

[YoureSoUrban]

So they know Destiny’s Child but The Supremes are a TS? 

It sucks we lost the last clue in the first round to promote Dreamworks.

 

It also sucks for me  when Alex says someone will finish in second place even before he checks the last contestant’s answer. I get that the mathematical probability is extremely high, but why be so dismissive? I like to acknowledge the possibility the leader may be so arrogant as to bet everything and get it wrong. I also believe in unicorns.

[pandora spocks]

I guessed on FJ. Wayne's World was the only SNL related movie I could think of.

 

 

There was also Night At the Roxbury, It's Pat and The Ladies' Man but who wants to count them?

Edited April 29, 2015 by pandora spocks

[saber5055]

I can't think of any Saturday Night Live-skit characters made into successful full length movies since Wayne's World, either.

 

 

It could be "successful" was the key. Most SNL movies have tanked big time. Night at the Roxbury and McGruber come to mind. But why didn't I know Coneheads was a movie? And I totally and completely forgot about Wayne's World, which I've seen so many times I can recite lines. Go figure.

 

And yeah, Antonio Bandaras voiced Puss today and in the Shrek movies. I knew the question to that answer! (Plus I saw a commercial promo saying Antonia aka Puss would be a Jeopardy category.)

 

Did Alex do a Church Lady impression?!! Hahaha

 

 

Yes he did. Which had absolutely nothing to do with FJ. I knew for sure there was no Church Lady movie, even if the only two SNL movies I could think of were the two above.

 

It also sucks for me  when Alex says someone will finish in second place even before he checks the last contestant’s answer. I get that the mathematical probability is extremely high, but why be so dismissive? I like to acknowledge the possibility the leader may be so arrogant as to bet everything and get it wrong. I also believe in unicorns.

 

 

Gah, yes, to this. Like yesterday, when he told the woman in third place it was too bad she didn't have tons of money because she would have won instead of coming in third. Like ... DUH. I wanted Greg The Chef to win, but i almost wished he had bet it all and lost just so Trebek would look like a moron.

 

Of course, if that had happened Trebek's comments would have been edited out. 

Edited April 29, 2015 by saber5055

[peeayebee]

Yes he did. Which had absolutely nothing to do with FJ. I knew for sure there was no Church Lady movie, even if the only two SNL movies I could think of were the two above.

I assume he did that voice because of Dana Carvey. I guess he could have said something like, "Will you prove yourself worthy by getting this right?" 

[proserpina65]

Happy that knowing Latin helped me figure out "Novocastrian" = from Newcastle.

 

I don't know much Latin, but "novo" = "new" is one of the few things I do remember.  Plus, I watch the English Premier League, so Newcastle was pretty fresh in my mind anyway.

 

I'm deeply ashamed that I didn't get FJ - and I've seen Wayne's World!  (Even quote the "we're resistant to change" bit occasionally.)  I said Coneheads, knowing that wasn't really a hit movie.  Must have some kind of Mike Myers block or something.

So they have a category called Montgomery and then show a picture of the guy.

 

To be fair, a lot of people wouldn't recognize Montgomery Clift if he was sitting across from them at lunch - I wouldn't, for instance, although I knew who it was from the rest of the clue.  (Of course, he'd look a wee bit different now, not sure I'd want to see that at lunch.)

[ottoDbusdriver]

I'm deeply ashamed that I didn't get FJ - and I've seen Wayne's World!  (Even quote the "we're resistant to change" bit occasionally.)  I said Coneheads, knowing that wasn't really a hit movie.  Must have some kind of Mike Myers block or something.

 

I guessed Coneheads as well, since the Coneheads were part of the Dan Ackroyd era of SNL back in the late 70s, and I thought for sure the Coneheads movie was made before Wayne's World, when in fact it came out a year after Wayne's World.

[Chicken Wing]

The first thing that popped into my head was, for some reason, Coneheads, but I couldn't quite remember when that came out and what, if any, other SNL-inspired movie might have come out before it. Wayne's World duh'd its way into my head seconds before time ran out.

[Prevailing Wind]

I thought Coneheads, too, but only because we were just talking about them at work.  There's a doggy there who's not happy with his e-collar, so I changed his name temporarily to Beldar Conehead (from France) and was pleasantly surprised at the number of young Vet Techs who knew what I meant.

 

I enjoyed Pooos in Booots, but thought the Inigo Montoya clue was WAY too easy.

[M. Darcy]

 

I'm guessing it was Eric Bauza, who does the voice on the Netflix series.

It was - the writers were live tweeting during the episode and said it was him. 

 

Don't forget about Stuart Saves His Family! 

[Browncoat]

I was prepared to hate the Puss in Boots clues, and they were slow, but then they threw in the Princess Bride reference and my hate melted away.

[Totale]

Did anyone else find the Puss in the Boots-themed category as pointlessly lame as I did?

 

I did, but mostly I was sad because for say a modest 10% share of the product placement money they spent just on Jeopardy I would have told them making a Puss In Boots movie is a dumb idea, and saved them millions.

[Roaster]

Today's FJ was what I think of as a Quadruple Stumper - all three contestants missed it and so did I.  Once Alex mentioned the place where the equipment was I got it.  But I never would have got it based on the original clue.  Who would think a room on a ship would be called a Shack?

[opus]

 

Don't forget about Stuart Saves His Family!

Or better yet, do.

[mojoween]

FJ didn't even make sense to me so I was totally lost.

I have adored Jonny Lee Miller for 20 years so I couldn't get mad at Elementary.

Greg is so personable in his interviews but all business when playing. I like that about him. Probably because he doesn't speak in a monotone, heh.

[Tunia]

OMG...I actually figured out that FJ answer!

[Trey]

I had a hard time making sense of FJ too, so I just tried to think of a company that's been in the news lately.    I might have thought of Radio Shack if I didn't think it already went out of business a long time ago.

 

I liked the Elementary category too, mostly because I love the show and JLM and LL so I got all the answers.  Also got all the plurals answers - I was pretty proud of knowing matrices. 

 

The two challengers seemed to be doing pretty well so I was surprised when I looked at the score about halfway through DJ and saw Greg had a massive lead.  Fellow in the middle nearly pulled it out on the DD but just missed.

 

I enjoyed the game even if it did end up being a runaway.

[CarpeDiem54]

I feel like a genius! I got FJ, thanks to my Dad, the ex-navy man who used to refer to the alcove where the phone was in the hall as the radio shack.

Greg is doing great and I'm enjoying his run. I, too, was surprised at how far ahead of the other competitors he was today.

I liked the plurals category. I missed opera, however.

[saber5055]

I liked the Elementary category too, mostly because I love the show and JLM and LL so I got all the answers.

 

 

I've never seen Elementary (I cannot get that channel), but I watch Sherlock so got all the answers that way. Well, that plus I've read all the books/stories.

 

Today's FJ was what I think of as a Quadruple Stumper

 

 

Make that a Quintuple Stumper. And, like Mojoween said: FJ didn't even make sense to me so I was totally lost. I spent more time trying to figure out how that sentence was put together than trying to come up with an answer.

 

Who would think a room on a ship would be called a Shack?

 

 

This made me think of the infamous "Love Shack" baby!

 

I like Greg so hope he continues winning. He provides nothing to rank on, interestingly. What's up with that?

[YoureSoUrban]

 

I have adored Jonny Lee Miller for 20 years so I couldn't get mad at Elementary.

Same here, and Lucy Liu has had my devotion since Kill Bill. I will forgive CBS and Jeopardy for pimping them out like that, but then need to stick to animated characters.

 

I am so over Greg and runaway games. Alex was particularly snotty toward Sarah. Why make her read her FJ answer when he knew, she knew, we all knew it was wrong?

 

 

I liked the plurals category. I missed opera, however.

I really enjoyed that too

Edited April 30, 2015 by YoureSoUrban

[peeayebee]

FJ didn't even make sense to me so I was totally lost.

Me too. I didn't know what to concentrate on to figure it out. I suppose if I had come up with Radio, the rest would have followed.

 

I thought Greg had said Standards and Poors, which didn't sound right to me. As the game proceeded, I googled and found that it's Standard and Poor's. I'm glad the judges finally called him on it.

 

The liquors category -- The only one I didn't get was chartreuse. I don't think I ever heard of that. Oh, and when the kahlua clue came up, I was actually sipping my kahlua and milk.

 

I kept shouting "Silver!" at my TV when Sarah had her DD. I thought it was pretty easy. Silicon... Silver. Oh well.

 

Why did the clue for Tonga have "friendly" in quotes?

[Bastet]

I knew FJ pretty quickly.  I can’t point to exactly why I know the room housing radio equipment on a ship was called the radio shack back then (and still is?) - maybe from old films - but, at any rate, I do.  So the language along the lines of "calling up the tube that [something] had been torpedoed" told me that part of a ship was the "small, two-word room" to which the clue was referring.  There being a chain store by that name in the news recently confirmed it for me.  (As a side note, Radio Shack used to be such a useful store, but I haven’t shopped there in probably 20 years.  It really strayed from its purpose.)

 

I’ve never been interested in Sherlock Holmes, so I didn’t know much in the Elementary category.  On the other hand, I loved the category about elements (where you had to identify the one that follows alphabetically).  I was surprised she couldn't come up with silver, but she probably just skipped too far ahead for her starting point (trying to think of elements starting with "sin," "sl-something," etc.).

 

I also ran the “vo”cabulary and plurals categories.  And the liqueurs category.

 

It was obvious to me the champ appended an S to “Standard” (in the S&P) clue, which I heard even over muttering aloud that a clue asking what S&P stands for should not need a secondary hint.

 

I thought the Cape Horn clue was highly over-valued as a DD in DJ, so was surprised the contestant missed it.

 

The Tonga/"friendly" association went right over my head, too.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Bastet

[Pallida]

The wording of FJ also confused me.

I was already rather irritated by Jeopardy stooping to fat shaming by that point though.

[dcalley]

Why did the clue for Tonga have "friendly" in quotes?

I didn't know either. Wikipedia says "Tonga became known as the Friendly Islands because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773."

[Bastet]

Interesting.  Is the "Friendly Islands" nickname a more commonly-known fact than I suspect?  (I was trying to think of island nations with names sounding similar to a synonym for friendly, and since there is no Affableland or Convivialtown I was stumped.)

Edited April 30, 2015 by Bastet

[mojoween]

Pallida I agree. That "New South Wales/Whales" clue was terrible.

[GreekGeek]

The wording of FJ also confused me.

I was already rather irritated by Jeopardy stooping to fat shaming by that point though.

Yes, New South "Whales" was a bit of a low blow, but I didn't recall anything really offensive about the other clues. Why should size be out of bounds as a category, any more than race, gender, age, or any other aspect of people?