‘Barbie’ Clue Rattles ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestants as Champ Reveals ‘The Office’ Link

‘Barbie’ Clue Rattles ‘Jeopardy!’ Contestants as Champ Reveals ‘The Office’ Link

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The new Jeopardy! champion on Thursday’s (May 8) episode revealed that he once shared the stage with an actor from The Office.

The contestants also didn’t know the Final Jeopardy question making it another game with a final Triple Stumper. This one would have been easy though if they knew anything about pop culture.

Dan Moren, from Sommerville, Massachusetts, returned for his second game after winning a one-day total of $17,200. The writer and podcaster played against Christen Aragoni, from Washington D.C., and Michael Mungin, from Kirkland, Washington, on Thursday, May 8.

“Yesterday’s game was a thriller, and it all came down to Final Jeopardy, where Dan Moren didn’t love the category, ‘The Grammys‘ and decided not to bet a penny and won,” host Ken Jennings said at the beginning of the episode.

Aside from writing books, Moren is also known for sharing the stage with John Krasinski. He was in an elementary school production of Annie with him. Krasinski was Daddy Warbucks in the sixth grade, and Moren was Daddy Warbucks’ servant when he was in fifth grade. Krasinksi isn’t the only one to be on TV as Moren now has two appearances on the game show.

Moren picked up seven correct questions in the first half of the game, giving him a wide lead with $5,800. He also found the first Daily Double of the game on the 19th clue. He wagered $3,000 with $6,400 in his bank. The clue in “Unofficial State Nicknames,” read, “‘The Rainbow State.’” Moren answered “What is Hawaii?” increasing his lead to $9,400.

By the end of the round, he still led with $10,800 and fourteen correct responses out of 30. Moren did not answer one question wrong. Aragoni, a writer and editor, who has synesthesia, which is seeing words as colors in one’s mind, was far behind with $3,800. Mungin, a librarian, only had $1,600 after answering four questions correctly and one wrong. That was the only question of the round answered wrong except for the five Triple Stumpers.

However, Moren didn’t have as much luck in Double Jeopardy. Although he answered almost half of the questions in the round right, he found both of the Daily Doubles and got them both wrong. Moren also flew through the category “Writers” answering all but one of the questions right.

The first DD wasn’t found until clue 18. In “May Days! May Days!” it read, “A union & a company, they fought the ‘Battle of the Overpass’ on May 26, 1937.” Moren hesitates before saying, “What is EZ?” He was wrong as the answer was United Auto Workers. He lost $2,000, giving him $18,000.

He then found the second one six questions later. Moren also wagered $2,000 for this one out of $18,400. The clue in “Eye on Asia,” was “The only Asian country with Portuguese as an official language, it gained full independence from Indonesia in 2002.” Moren sighed before answering “What is Papua New Guinea?” However, he was wrong again with the correct answer being East Timor. His total dropped again, but not so much that he didn’t have a runaway win.

Moren ended the round with $18,800. Mungin, who fell in love with Jeopardy! when he got the Nintendo game as an eighth birthday present, wasn’t even halfway to Moren’s total with $7,400. Aragoni was in third with $800. Unless Moren made a crazy wager in Final Jeopardy, he was almost guaranteed a win.

The category for Final Jeopardy was “Movie Directors.” The clue read, “As of 2025, this director has made just 4 feature films; three were nominated for Best Picture.” The game came down to another Triple Stumper. Aragoni didn’t put down an answer. She wagered $0, ending with $800. Mungin answered, “Who is Damien Chazelle?” He was wrong and dropped to $4,800 after wagering $2,600. Moren’s answer was “Who is Chloe Zhao?” That was also wrong so Moren dropped down to $2,500, giving him a final total of $16,300.

The correct answer was Greta Gerwig. The three films that were nominated for Best Picture were Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie. She co-directed Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg.

This made Moren a two-day winner with a total of $33,500. He will be back on Friday, May 9, to try and win his third game against two new opponents.

“I’m… really not a fan of the phrasing of that Final Jeopardy clue. Greta Gerwig has apparently directed four feature films (she co-directed the indie Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg back in 2008, which, from what I can tell, ran for one week in one theatre), but the clue doesn’t say that she’s ‘directed’ four feature films–it says she’s ‘made’ four, but including her acting career, she has made so, so many more than that. I thought of her but discounted her on that basis. I honestly don’t get how such sketchy wording makes it through the editing process, when it’s so easy to be explicit and just say ‘This person has directed or co-directed four feature films …’ It’s technically correct if you interpret it the way they intend, and I wasn’t able to find any other correct responses, but still, I really don’t get how such ambiguous wording makes it through the editing process, when it’d be so easy to rephrase it to be clear for the contestants, a Reddit user said.

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