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This is the Jeopardy! Thread of Encompassment [RIP Alex Trebek]


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39 minutes ago, gyroprotagonist said:

enjoying the TOC.  the questions overall seem more difficult than 'standard' Jeopardy.  There were 3-4 yesterday in James' match where nobody buzzed in. 

Matt is trying so hard to buzz in.  A couple times, it actually seemed like he didn't even know the question or the answer.

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Just now, Jerry Callo said:

Matt is trying so hard to buzz in.  A couple times, it actually seemed like he didn't even know the question or the answer.

i see people sometimes hammering the buzzer.  I thought i read somewhere that there is a slight penalty (a few milliseconds or something) to doing this as it has to reset.  that the key is just timing your first press of the buzzer to coincide with the end of the read question.  could be totally making that up, though.

but yeah, Matt especially looks and sounds like he has no idea why he buzzed in until he spits out the answer with 1 red bar left on the timer.  

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54 minutes ago, gyroprotagonist said:

i see people sometimes hammering the buzzer.  I thought i read somewhere that there is a slight penalty (a few milliseconds or something) to doing this as it has to reset.  that the key is just timing your first press of the buzzer to coincide with the end of the read question.  could be totally making that up, though.

but yeah, Matt especially looks and sounds like he has no idea why he buzzed in until he spits out the answer with 1 red bar left on the timer.  

Matt's scattered and disorganized approach certainly explains why he feels that it's a valuable conservation of cognitive processing to always preface each of his responses with "what's?" rather than "who/what/where is?"

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3 hours ago, gyroprotagonist said:

i see people sometimes hammering the buzzer.  I thought i read somewhere that there is a slight penalty (a few milliseconds or something) to doing this as it has to reset.  that the key is just timing your first press of the buzzer to coincide with the end of the read question.  could be totally making that up, though.

but yeah, Matt especially looks and sounds like he has no idea why he buzzed in until he spits out the answer with 1 red bar left on the timer.  

 

2 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Matt's scattered and disorganized approach certainly explains why he feels that it's a valuable conservation of cognitive processing to always preface each of his responses with "what's?" rather than "who/what/where is?"

The “penalty” part is true. A ton of people have mentioned it and I think it might be in a book too. If I understand it right, the buttons have a debounce circuit in them (to not register multiple button presses on a single press). If you buzz in early, you have to wait for the button to reset to an unpressed state before you can buzz in properly.

As far as Amodio, you can tell he buzzed in many times before he’s fully recalled the answer. Hence his “What’s …………. The answer?” I also agree he likely just says “What’s” on auto pilot to not waste time when he has the answer. This isn’t wheel of fortune where you need to answer in a single phrase. 

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19 hours ago, WBT said:

This is a good read

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2023/5/16/23724784/jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-michael-davies-new-era

If Davo would only put Miyam out to pasture, I'd feel like the show is in good hands.

This was an amazing read. Thanks for posting it, I would have skimmed past it (saw it about 2-3 times on twitter) had you not posted it.

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Ben is pretty good.  9 games and 9 runaways.  Spoiler from today's game:

Spoiler

Why did they accept The Wizard of Oz in FJ?  The title of the book is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Just in the Jeopardy round they ruled against The Man with the Iron Mask instead of The Man in the Iron Mask

Masters semifinals start tonight with the points reset to zero.

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1 hour ago, WBT said:

Ben is pretty good.  9 games and 9 runaways.  Spoiler from today's game:

  Hide contents

Why did they accept The Wizard of Oz in FJ?  The title of the book is The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  Just in the Jeopardy round they ruled against The Man with the Iron Mask instead of The Man in the Iron Mask

 

 

Depends on the clue. But I would argue that in #1 - that's likely an accepted title because of other media while #2 - that's clearly a wrong answer because the right word is IN not WITH.

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The clue wording was:

Spoiler

The original 1900 printing of this book was in a pale green dust jacket stamped in a vivid jewel tone of green

Since two people answered the movie title and the other was wrong, and since it was a runaway game anyway, it didn't really matter.  But it seems like a clear wrong answer based on the clue.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Try as I might, I just can't watch Mayim. She's so bad at hosting that I just don't enjoy the show when she's on, and I've been watching religiously for almost 30 years. 

My local affiliate runs a rerun at 3am every weekday, so I've got ~150 reruns accumulated on my DVR that I have been subsisting on since the Masters tournament. 

Ken is back on July 3.

Here's a useful Twitter account I just discovered:

 

Edited by Prepuce of Doom
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A few things

I'm curious to see how the writers strike affects Jeopardy come the fall. It's already hit the TOC with a few champs saying they would skip, which forced Sony to push back the TOC

https://deadline.com/2023/07/jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-moved-due-to-writers-strike-1235448258/

https://deadline.com/2023/07/jeopardy-tournament-of-champions-champions-boycott-writers-strike-1235447720/

 

Second

I really recommend the THIS IS JEOPARDY! podcast. It a history of the show, really good stuff.

That links to the whole show - I'm about halfway through right now.

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On 6/22/2023 at 10:54 PM, Prepuce of Doom said:

Try as I might, I just can't watch Mayim. She's so bad at hosting that I just don't enjoy the show when she's on, and I've been watching religiously for almost 30 years. 

I'm catching up on my backlog right now and am in the middle of her run. I realize what her biggest problem is - she is basically just asking the questions, and that's it. She horribly facilitates the show. She sometimes will remind you what is going, but usually it's something like:

Quote

 

Mayim: Asks the last question

Contestant: Gives the answer

<weird pause>

Mayim: That is correct. And with that that's the end of the Jeopardy! round, we'll be right back after this.

 

I just watched an episode where one of the contestants didn't make final and she's said "It's time for Final Jeopardy! and we have to say goodbye to Skylar, it was fun having your here. And our category is ..." Seriously? That's it?!?! Her story was all the times she tried out for the show and that's all she can say? Fucking lame.

If you listen to the 2nd episode of that podcast I linked (titled "Here's Your Host, Alex Trabek") you realize that her major failing is that she doesn't love the show the way that Alex did and Ken does. Wanting the show to be perfect is what made them so great at the show. She doesn't seem to have that.

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23 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

All too often, Mayim seems surprised when a contestant give the correct answer.  <weird pause>  Almost as if she has to look at her notes to discern the answer is correct. 

exactly. and Ken knows immediately, so he doesn't have the weird pauses. makes him seem so much smoother.

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Haven't been able to watch in over a month because of a silly contract dispute between Nexstar and Uverse/Direct TV.  Really sucks because it's kind of me and my son's deal to watch together and discern how much we suck at geography, and the difference between Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Dutch (f da Dutch).

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My biggest gripe with Mayim is she acts like the contestants are dumb when they miss a question. She does the stupid pause thing and then goes "uh, no, it was actually x"

Where as Ken has a much better demeanor. He'll say things like "yeah, that was a tough one" or "ooh not quite - that was actually the 2nd novel she wrote" etc.

He has a much better knowledge of the game and seems more empathetic with the contestants. 

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7 hours ago, Jerry Callo said:

All too often, Mayim seems surprised when a contestant give the correct answer.  <weird pause>  Almost as if she has to look at her notes to discern the answer is correct. 

She likely does. And while I don’t expect her to know the answers, I do expect her to prepare, which that shows she doesn’t.  

6 hours ago, ztejas said:

My biggest gripe with Mayim is she acts like the contestants are dumb when they miss a question. She does the stupid pause thing and then goes "uh, no, it was actually x"

Where as Ken has a much better demeanor. He'll say things like "yeah, that was a tough one" or "ooh not quite - that was actually the 2nd novel she wrote" etc.

He has a much better knowledge of the game and seems more empathetic with the contestants. 

It’s his knowledge, plus the love of the show I mentioned above. He wants the contestants to take away a great time, win or lose. It’s just not the same for Mayim. Almost like this is a second job for her. 

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21 hours ago, Native Horn said:

Haven't been able to watch in over a month because of a silly contract dispute between Nexstar and Uverse/Direct TV.  Really sucks because it's kind of me and my son's deal to watch together and discern how much we suck at geography, and the difference between Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Dutch (f da Dutch).

We watch it on the YouTube streams.  You are not missing much.  It's reruns, due to the WGA strike.

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9 hours ago, Herpa Derpa said:

Saw that. Ruined my day. Mama Llama, Baby Llama and I watch Jeopardy most evenings. IMHO Ken Jennings is a walking, overtalking, self-referencing, narcissistic jagoff. Was hoping Mayim could return somehow. Well, just fuck.

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Saw that. Ruined my day. Mama Llama, Baby Llama and I watch Jeopardy most evenings. IMHO Ken Jennings is a walking, overtalking, self-referencing, narcissistic jagoff. Was hoping Mayim could return somehow. Well, just fuck.

She was terribad, so is he. There will never be another Trebek, but the show needs a professional host. The show’s very lackluster with either of those two.
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On 12/16/2023 at 3:31 PM, Bama Llama said:

Saw that. Ruined my day. Mama Llama, Baby Llama and I watch Jeopardy most evenings. IMHO Ken Jennings is a walking, overtalking, self-referencing, narcissistic jagoff. Was hoping Mayim could return somehow. Well, just fuck.

I don't know what I expected from an SEC camelid, but I strongly disagree with both of your assessments. 

Ken can be a little snarky for sure, but Mayim will go down in history as the New Coke of gameshow hosts. 

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You guys calling out Ken are on crack. He’s no Alex, he’s also not trying to be, but he is really good in the role.

Mayam, I really wanted to like her, I tried really hard, she never grew into the role. She got the job and stayed put.

If you watch Jeopardy! and want the next Alex, stop watching. There won’t be one. Alex was the first guy (for most of us) and won’t be replaced. Ken is doing a good job. Don’t expect Alex and give him a chance. Or stop watching and certainly stop bitching. 

On 12/16/2023 at 7:20 AM, Herpa Derpa said:

Get Out No GIF

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I stopped watching when Trebek left. I was a Jeopardy fan going back to Art Fleming (prizes from the Spiegel catalogue, Chicago, Illinois 60609), but neither of these two filled the bill. It's exactly like when Rolf Benirschke took over at Wheel of Fortune. A horrible idea but the exec in charge refuses to admit they fucked up until it tanks. 1 down, 1 to go.

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Last night's game was pretty damn good. The Asian guy, a former public defender from Lafayette LA, literally named Wang (paging Rodney Dangerfield as Al Czervik), won after acing a couple of daily doubles and some tough, odd answers. He bounded across the stage and hugged his defeated opponents, a Marine and a college prof.  I keep flashing on Mr. Wang interviewing the denizens of the Cajun Caliboose all of who talk like Coach O.

I know Ken is highly intelligent. I just don't like it when he seems to revel in contestant's errors and baits them into betting too much on daily doubles. I wouldn't care if the host was a AI dang roe-butt. 

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Bialik was hired because her D list celebrity was based on her brainy education. She was terrible because she just needed a job and took it. She has zero affinity for the gig or the interpersonal skills or banter needed to manage the game or build rapport in my living room. She was a bad hire.

Ken Jennings to me is much better suited for the role because he loves the game and did so great at it. He’s no trebek but no one is; trebek was fighting the “he’s no Art Fleming!” For a few years too. I don’t see a host out there that could do it better fight now but I think he’s the perfect backup qb and that’s not a slam on him.

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On 12/16/2023 at 3:31 PM, Bama Llama said:

Saw that. Ruined my day. Mama Llama, Baby Llama and I watch Jeopardy most evenings. IMHO Ken Jennings is a walking, overtalking, self-referencing, narcissistic jagoff. Was hoping Mayim could return somehow. Well, just fuck.

All of this.  Except, the exact opposite.

Bialik was terribad.

I think Jennings is pretty decent and getting better.  His love for the game shows through and he is reasonably personable. None of that applied to Bialik. 

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