Jeopardy! fans point out difference between ‘one of the craziest reversals’ and earlier clue
After Monday’s episode of Jeopardy!, fans of the show took to Reddit to share their thoughts about how one wrong answer could have led to a contestant losing
Jeopardy! fans shared their thoughts on the ruling (
Image: Jeopardy!)
It’s nothing new for Jeopardy! contestants to give answers that are only partly correct.
On Monday’s episode of the hit game show, Carolyn Gramling, a science writer from Washington, D.C., and Kevin Laskowski, an Episcopal priest from Falls Church, Virginia, went up against one-day winner Adam Hersh. The attorney from Brooklyn, New York had a total winnings of $29,000 as he went into the game.
During Double Jeopardy Carolyn picked the category “Rap Schools, Old & New” featured answers like Nicki Minaj and Public Enemy. Host Ken Jennings read out the clue: “MC Hammer used Rick James’ ‘Super Freak’ in this 1990 Top 10 Hit with a ‘Tactile’ title.”
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Adam answered: “Can’t Touch This,” which was ruled incorrect. Kevin then said: “U Can’t Touch This,” to which Ken confirmed: “That’s the full title, yes.”
One of the categories was about rap songs (
Image:
Jeopardy!)
One fan on Reddit theorized that Adam went on to lose the game in a “landslide” because he didn’t give the full title of the song. “That was one of the craziest reversals I can recall seeing,” they wrote.
“Adam seemed to be firmly in control through the entire J! round and the beginning of DJ, but when he dropped 3,000 on DD2 and then got dinged 1,200 several clues later for leaving the ‘U’ off of ‘U Can’t Touch This,’ Kevin got the rebound to take the lead, and then only 5 clues later Kevin had quickly doubled up on Adam (10,000 to 4,400), and from there just kept climbing.”
They continued: “Carolyn meanwhile snagged 2 bottom-row clues (worth 4,000) late in the game, which helped ensure Kevin’s runaway lead going into FJ. Add to that the fact that only Adam got FJ right, so he would have won if he’d been able to prevent the runaway.”
“Gotta be real careful on those,” he ended the comment. Another Reddit user brought up something similar that happened in the first round of the show.
Carolyn chose a clue from the category “Character ‘The’ Epithet” where the answer was Frosty the Snowman. She answered just: “Frosty,” which led to Ken staying silent.
After a few beats, she understood and answered with the character’s full name. When Ken was announcing the categories, he made clear that “the” needed to be in the response.
One Reddit user wrote: “It was generous not to rule immediately against her given that explanation.”
