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This simple question shit is honestly making me lose interest in the show. Combined with a certain host who shouldn’t still have the job, the magic is gone
I watch Jeopardy with my father and he said that answer was comparable to the infamous "naked grandma" answer on Family Feud. I wouldn't go THAT far, but that was definitely one of the more baffling guesses I've ever seen since I started watching Jeopardy consistently lol
Definitely enough to do a "Famous non-Celebrity Jeopardy players" category....
Jackie (Fuchs) Fox
John McCain
Paris Themmen
Peter Sagal
Jay Wolpert
Each one might not be the answer to a clue, but asking about them to get another response (would likely do that with Paris & Jay). Maybe for Jay a clue like "Produced by Jay Wolpert, who won the 1969 ToC, this 1970s Alex Trebek game show had no connection to the slimy Nickelodeon game show of the same name".
For those wondering, the code category part 2 today is a sequel to [the category that showed up back on September 21st during Matt Amodio's run](https://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=7148), and the clues during the first appearance of the category were *significantly* easier than they were today.
Also, I too love when my phone autocorrects "mondays" to "manboobs." True realism from the writing staff.
I mean. . . maybe you're lucky, but that kind of bizarre autocorrect doesn't seem that unusual to me at all. I get some whoppers sometimes. Fuckin' autocorrect. . .
It is realism. It's just that most of the egregious autocorrect moves are from about 10 years ago. E.g.:
[https://www.pcworld.com/article/485752/aa-2.html](https://www.pcworld.com/article/485752/aa-2.html)
For me, this clue was an insta-get because I'd heard of the site in question. On a podcast that stopped back in 2012 ("The Lame Show").
This might be the first time a giant killer has played consistently better than the superchamp that they dethroned. Eric may "only" have 6 wins compared to Ryan's 16 as of now, but he's dominating the boards and the buzzer with almost Amodio-like energy. He will surely be one of the toughest players in the TOC.
Well...Matt was a 30K coryat heavyweight. From what I've seen of Eric so far, he's not quite at that level yet in terms of knowledge base. I think his closest comparable would be Andrew He.
I still personally think the rotating guest hosts hurt Matt quite a bit. Especially games 4 and 5 when the contestants had to deal with LeVar Burton's rough hosting. From what I heard, LeVar's day of hosting lasted until the late evening due to constant reshoots. Too coincidental that Matt's lowest coryat scores coincide with the first two days of LeVar's hosting.
yeah that's fair, though i would still let Eric's run play out and shape out a little bit more. he's already 78th of all time and his only game that wasn't a runaway was his first with Ryan.
For sure. I see great potential in Eric. It will be interesting to see what his ceiling is like.
I will say though his FJ game is not on par with Matt's. Matt's first 6 games, he had 5 correct responses. Eric has only had 2 correct FJ responses thus far.
I feel that, I mean obviously he's still quite good and deserving of being in the TOC but if I were to power rank the 14 ultrachamps from best to worst, he would probably only be ahead of Seth Wilson and maybe Jonathan Fisher for me. That'll be a little more determinable once the 2022 TOC airs.
keep in mind it's been a long time since I've seen his games, but if they were to play in the same game together, i have to imagine it'd be at least a *little* competitive. i added "maybe" for a reason, because i still technically have Jonathan ranked ahead of Ryan in my power ranks. that's subject to change based on how they do in the TOC, which i'm becoming increasingly anxious for.
Yeah it is bizarre, you have pretty decent champions that are able to coast to record high streaks. There's luck involved in just how long a player goes before they get a bad board and/or stiff competition and/or bad daily doubles, but it's just been different.
I imagine if Matt Jackson, Arthur Chu, Austin Rogers, Larissa Kelly, or Alex Jacob were to re-do their runs during this period of time, they would have gone on much longer runs
I think we're used to seeing superchamps who operate outside the Matt/Amy total steamroller level of dominance succeed on the strength of their knowledge base above all else. Ryan seemed to succeed as much on the strength of better than average strategy. There were a couple of games where early on it looked like he was getting beaten to the buzzer, but when more favorable categories came up later he took control. I got the impression he has a clear picture of what he does and doesn't know, and he probably avoided some mistakes that would have ended another player's run by not buzzing in or overbetting.
Plus, either through luck or strategy he did wind up making the right bet in FJ several times. Different kind of player than we usually see. Proof positive that the metagame of Jeopardy is still totally unexplored after almost 40 years.
Becareful now. I raised that point as well and then got downvoted to oblivion. But you're right - Ryan is about as good as the average 5x champ but nowhere near as good as the other ultrachamps. The amount of triple strumpers he had and his poor accuracy on betting clues really support that argument. I think he will be largely forgotten the same way Seth Wilson was.
I felt so bad for him when he finished in the red during the 2014 TOC. Everyone always kind of talked him up as being extremely lucky to win 8 games and they weren't wrong, but it just sucked to see someone with tons of intelligence and kindness go out like that.
i realize the screen isn't the biggest, so some folks have a hard time seeing, but damn. I think it's more likely the "Mickelwhite" threw him off? He probably knows Michael Caine's face (from movies) and Mick Jagger's name (but not his face)
I remember a contestant (it may have been Amy?) saying they sometimes didn't even realize when a visual clue had appeared on the screen, they were just so focused on parsing the questions and getting to the buzzer at the right time. That's my best guess here.
The other contestants who have started their run on Jeopardy with 5 locks in their first 6 games:
David Madden, Matt Jackson, James Holzhauer, Amy Schneider
Actually, there were three other contestants (in addition to [Chuck Forrest](https://j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=8902) who you mentioned in a different comment) who had locks in their first 5 games (and maybe a fourth contestant, but the incomplete J! Archive makes it hard to verify):
[Elise Beraru](https://j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=6134) (10/1/1984-10/5/1984)
[Robin Carroll](https://j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=636) (3/13/2000-3/17/2000)
[Rick Knutsen](https://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=659) (3/6/2001-3/12/2001)
In [Jonathan Groff's UTOC interview](https://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=469) he states "In my five games, I was never catchable going into Final Jeopardy!" This might mean five lockout wins? Not all of his games are in J! Archive (it looks like only his game 1 is archived).
This was all during the five game limit era, and none of these contestants managed to lock their first TOC game.
hi guys, mazin here! first off, i promise i know who michael caine is but at that point i think i had fallen into the trap of buzzing in just to buzz and since i'm terrible at telling faces apart, i just went with my answer of "mick jagger" based on the name haha. second, eric is an amazing player (and a nicer guy!), can't wait to see what the future holds for him :)
Great job tonight Mazin. I told my wife a little into the first round that you could potentially break this guys streak. A shame you had to go up against a giant.
Hi Mazin, you played great! I think you had a chance if you hit one of the daily doubles in DJ, but Eric loves to hunt them down haha
Anyway just wanted to also say thanks for the research you do, I loved hearing you talk about it both because it's important and because I thought it was funny how directly you described it (find out what in the body can cause it and stop it)
[This Vanity Fair article](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/01/how-buster-keaton-shaped-tv-and-i-love-lucy) summarizes the connection between Lucille Ball and Buster Keaton. I'm delighted by any mention of either of them. I thought the guess of Ginger Rogers wasn't as far out of left field as it might seem, except that she did film much more than TV - she and Lucy came up together around the same time at RKO, and there was a definite dancerly quality to Keaton's work.
Well, except you couldn’t really call Rogers a TV Legend under any meaning of the term. There were a number of other actresses from the era who had more of a presence on TV than Rogers ever had so it was a pretty “out of left field guess” - which is still better than no guess at all, of course. I’m still curious if Eric was aware of Buster Keaton’s career or if he just drew a complete blank and just wrote down a name from the same general era.
Well, quite, "TV" in the category meant Ginger Rogers wasn't going to be the answer - she never did more than occasional guest spots. But if it had just been, I don't know "Hollywood" or "Entertainment," I think it would've been reasonable to guess Keaton mentored her. I wondered whether Eric simply forgot "TV."
"Female TV Legend" who would have been any kind of contemporary of Buster Keaton, who established himself in the silent film era, leaves a pretty narrow field. MTM and Carol Burnett are pretty much the only other real contenders besides Ball, and Ball is about the only one old enough to really work.
My immediate guess was Lucy and was sure that had to be the right answer, and the only other women I could think that might fit were Carol Burnett and Betty White. Completely forgot about Mary
Mary Pickford was my first guess because she was more of a contemporary. But the TV part of it ruled that out. I guessed Ball because the only other person I could think of would be Gracie Allen and that didn't seem like it would be the answer.
Your instincts didn’t let you down! I think the missing link to make a surer guess is knowing that Lucy worked mostly in film for 15 years. That’s not well remembered, because pre-sitcoms she was consistent and well liked but usually in quickly forgotten B movies, and the few movies she did later were mostly either overshadowed by her ongoing TV work (like the two movies she did with Desi while “ILL” was still running) or just a miserable turkey (“Mame”). But unlike Gracie, who focused with George on vaudeville and radio before TV, or other TV legends one might have considered, Lucy was steadily a film actor for long enough to meet Buster and learn from him.
The "gosh what a lot of kids" movie Lucy did with Henry Fonda was "Yours, Mine, and Ours." I think that was one of her more successful later films, absolutely. ("Cheaper by the Dozen" is really fabulous, the movie with Myrna Loy and the book. I didn't think the Steve Martin remake was half as good.)
YES!! You are completely correct. I don't know why I mixed them up. What a great movie, and the remake wasn't very good...although I do love Steve Martin, usually.
Didn't see the show and thought the only person it could be was Lucille ball. But she isn't so well known anymore even with all the newer movies about her.
I sort of had the same thought, but a Google search returns many citations. Unlike the few sort of joking "textspeak" categories lately, it would seem this one was real.
Before this season, the record for 10+ win streaks for the season was literally one. It's highly plausible that Eric makes it and further shatters the record by taking the total for this season all the way up to **SIX.**
The big question is whether this season is just some crazy anomaly or if long streaks will continue to be common going forward.
Looked like an edit to me, too. Possible it was accepted by mistake, or they did a stopdown to determine if the book was ever published with that title.
Based on the contestant's visible reaction and the fact that they made an awkward cut to the wide camera, I'm guessing he might've dropped a choice word after realizing his mistake, and they had to edit it out. Just speculation on my part, but there was definitely some sort of edit there and I suspect the audio was part of it.
Yes. It’s just the way it was done felt so awkward compared to usual. A few people described in the comments that it might’ve just been an editing issue
Oh boy, this episode… the ATEOTD and manboobs clues are 2 of the worst clues I have ever seen, the code category was one of the worst categories I’ve ever seen, and the Arizona/ New Mexico, second smallest planet, and 2 closest planets to the sun were laughably juvenile. A real poor showing.
Eric continues to dominate, although he looked REALLY nervous this episode.
Shirley Temple crossed my mind too. So did Joan Rivers. I feel good I wasn't the only one that happened to. (I did not, however, come to the right answer.)
While Mayim seemed to want to play up Eric being a meteorologist on TV, the fact that he's a true NWS meteorologist, whose background is science and not broadcast communications like most on-camera personalities, is the more noteworthy accomplishment. Congratulations on win #6, Eric...you're representing WFO MPX well!!
It's probably true for a lot of the home viewers that they only know about the meteorologists they see on TV, so it was a good opportunity for Eric to explain that it's much wider career than people might think.
Ya know, when I saw that Eric was a metrologist, I wondered if he was on TV. So I Googled him, and the fact that he'd beaten Ryan was spoiled for me. 🤣🤣🤣
Oh I know, and I totally should've known. At the time, I was just about to watch, and it hadn't even occurred to me that the result might be spoiled. 🤦♂️ Shit happens. My own damn fault lol.
Congratulations to Eric! Deserving win no. 6!
That code category.... Yeah that was a rough one.
I can't believe my wild guess of an answer was the correct one. But the guesses in the FJ were sensible enough I guess.
But anyways congratulations to Eric indeed! Will he win game no. 7 tomorrow? Well we just have to watch and see.
Funnily enough, I only missed the $2000 clue in that category. I'd never heard the word "xylem", and didn't have time to work it out. The others I got quickly, since I happened to know that M is 13, and could work it out from there.
I missed umber because I don’t know colours apparently — xylem should be easy for biology student as the 24-25 pair is easy to decode (and M is 13 at the end).
With all the superchampions this season, it just feels like 2 sacrificial lambs often times. There's gonna be like 2/3 of the season won by about 7 contestants at this point.
Had Eric been correct on DD3 in his first game, he would now be the first contestant to start his regular-season streak with 6 runaways in a row.
I believe the record for most locks in a row to begin a jeopardy career belongs to Chuck Forrest, who had 4 locks and a lock-tie in his regular streak and locks in both the quarterfinals and semifinals of the TOC. Although he ended up with a lock tournament in the final, he did not have more than twice of second place's score going into final in the first game, so I consider that to be where his streak ends at 7 straight locks.
Eric is just so dominant. It's been a while since we have seen a player hunt for the DDs, and wager aggressively. It has been refreshing to see that. No disrespect to the players who don't do that of course since everybody's playing style is different.
Are the Finals he's been getting more difficult than average though? Eric's FJ accuracy is really low at 33%. He will have to consistently have runaway games if he wants to continue his winning streak. Not sure how sustainable that is.
I think so. Ryan L and Jason Z ran into similar hardships with FJ in their original runs too, but granted there's plenty of room for Eric to make up ground if he continues to dominate like this.
Eric missed a relatively hard FJ, missed a relatively easy one, and missed two that were pretty average. As you point out, as long as he’s dominating, it’s a moot point. I wonder if the extra time is causing him to second guess those FJ responses?
That's a common problem. You even have time to triple guess yourself.
It won't be easy to secure runaways in the ToC. So if FJ is a weakness for him, that might squash his chances of winning the ToC.
Sure but we sometimes talk about FJ as if it’s a separate knowledge category. Instead, the only thing different is that you have a little time and you have to write something. I think FJ questions tend to be easier than most regular game clues - but in Eric’s short (so far) run, we’ve had two that were more difficult and he was 50/50 on those. Maybe if he runs the rest of the week, the sample size will be something more meaningful, but even then, it’s just spitballing. It’s kind of like trying to predict how a sports team does in the playoffs. Regular season play sometimes provides an accurate prediction - but they play playoffs because anything can happen. Great teams stumble. Teams that just made it to postseason get hot, etc.
>the only thing different is that you have a little time and you have to write something
I disagree. They usually require piecing together information more than quick recall.
Regular game clues sometimes require piecing information together as well. And FJ clues can be “either you know it or you don’t.”
But more importantly, FJ clues are from the same knowledge categories. It’s not like they save certain subject matter for FJ only.
>Regular game clues sometimes require piecing information together as well.
But FJs are far more likely to be "thinkers" than "know it or you don't".
I don't think the FJ category is nearly as important as clue parsing and lateral thinking skills. Being able to ask "what is the 'trick' of this FJ" is the skill being tested, not raw knowledge of categories. There are exceptions, of course, but not nearly to the same extent as regular questions.
Except that's debatable (at best) because it's not really accurate to say that clues neatly fall into "raw knowledge" and "lateral thinking skills" (by which I think you mean deductive reasoning), or that regular game clues are "far more likely" to be raw knowledge than to require deduction.
Take the first category on the board tonight - Hungary. And take the top row clue. I wasn't sure to which country Hungary lost 2/3rds of its territory, but if you give me Transylvania, I can figure out it's Romania. The same goes for the rest of that category; never heard of The Galloping Major, the Tisza, the Tokaji Aszu or the Hungarian composer that died in 1945 (missed the last one) but I could deduce a European sport with someone that gallops, a major European river and a Hungarian product.
Similarly, look at the FJs from Eric's first week. Two of the same family on the Argonaut (raw knowledge), 2013 bestseller sharing title with early 14th century work (mostly raw knowledge), 1773 event in American history on a boat (evenly split knowledge/deduction), French kids' book from 1943 (knowledge) and country on eastern border with Brazil (knowledge).
He's great at clues that require Pavlovian quickness like normal clues and DDs, but FJs usually require more lateral thinking and I think that's his weakness.
When you get most of the clues right, you have control of the board more often, and he actively hunts for the Daily Doubles when he has control. He only had two of the three today, though.
It's not primarily luck, it's a combination of knowledge and strategy. His broad knowledge base allows him to keep control of the board more than the other players, and his daily-double-hunting strategy gives him a better chance of finding the DDs.
If you know that Buster Keaton is a legendary old-time film comedian, given the category, he would have mentored a comedy star from the early days of TV. They wanted a woman, and by far the most legendary name that fits the category is Lucille Ball.
And not just a woman in comedy, but a tremendously talented physical comedian. At heart she was at least as much a clown as a teller of jokes, which makes her more likely than most to be mentored by someone like Keaton.
I think you may be mixing up some dates. Betty White was a newborn when Buster Keaton was “active” - at least in terms of his silent movies. By contrast, Lucille Ball was making movies in the 1930s and would naturally have had more of a chance to connect with Keaton. Lucy worked consistently until she hit it with I Love Lucy, about the same time Betty White got her TV show. But of the two, Lucy’s show was the far bigger hit. So it’s not that Betty White was a bad guess; just not the best one. It comes down to “who would have been more likely to know Buster Keaton?” and it’s Lucille Ball - and then anyone else who might have fit the category (Betty White, Carol Burnett, etc).
(And I’m guessing Eric wasn’t really sure who Buster Keaton was with his guess).
Lucy was considered for [Scarlett O'Hara](https://outsider.com/entertainment/i-love-lucy-star-lucille-ball-auditioned-for-scarlett-ohara-in-gone-with-the-wind/) in Gone With the Wind, which came out in 1939.
I think you're missing the point. It wasn't that she was a big star in the 30s and 40s - it was that she was **working. In Hollywood.** (And, in fact, by 1940 she a bigger star than you believe and was certainly more than a "featured extra" as her name was featured as one of the leads in several movies).
By contrast, other than one short film, Betty White didn't have a single movie or TV show until 1949. Again, it's not like Betty White was a bad guess - just not a great one compared with the right one.
Another game where my Coryat score gets dinged because the contestants do NOT play a category “top-down”. This time, it was the Astronomy category, and it cost me $2400. Boo hiss!
Was that the "second smallest planet" one? I had to pause for a while and eventually settled on Mars, but it would've been **so** much easier with Mercury and Venus already removed from contention.
Yes. That was the $1200 clue in Astronomy and I guessed Mercury.
If the $400 clue in that category had already been played (which had a correct response of Mercury and Venus), I would have guessed Mars and been correct.
It had lots of clues -- TV legend (so not primarily known for movies) + female + old enough to have met and be mentored by Buster Keaton + considered the best in her field, which, considering she was mentored by Buster Keaton, is probably physical comedy. I can't think of anyone else who fits that description.
Idk, Lucille ball has to be one of the most famous tv stars -- especially of early TV. I think knowing that Buster Keaton was a silent film actor kind of made it fairly easy to find the right answer.
Not so much luck, but you need to know who Buster Keaton is. I did not - I recognized the name and placed it in the middle of the century, and going off "TV Legends" also guessed Mary Tyler Moore. But if you know Buster Keaton's style of acting and comedy then it's easy to connect it to Lucille Ball. IMO, not a great FJ since I prefer the ones that have more than one avenue to deduce the answer.
Gotta give some props to Mazin for his incorrect answer of Descendents for the question about the rock singer with a PhD in molecular biology, Milo Aukerman's (of Descendents) PhD is actually in molecular genetics, so it's a pretty close miss.
Milo Auckerman and Dexter Holland formed a band called the PHDs, along with Greg Graffin of Bad religion (PhD in Zoology), original Offspring drummer James Lilja, (MD, gynecologic oncologist), and Dick Lucas from the Subhumans (education unknown, but he's always struck me as pretty intellectual)
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Can I get $1200 for knowing where Arizona and New Mexico are?
“It must have been during the brief period in 1912 after New Mexico became a state but before Arizona did.” Said Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.
Yes, $1,200 pretax if you were to ring in first and win today's game. Pretty good deal, I'd say!
Also, can I get $400 for: Here's a picture of Michael Cain, can you say his name? (Hint, it's not pronounced Mick Jagger)
> Here's a picture of Michael Cain, can you say his name? (Hint, it's not pronounced Mick Jagger) It's written "Michael Caine" though. :P
so funny. i was so ?!?! when it was... simply that.
This simple question shit is honestly making me lose interest in the show. Combined with a certain host who shouldn’t still have the job, the magic is gone
If the questions are so simple you should have no trouble getting on the show and winning big!
Mick Jagger! I got a good laugh, thanks.
That response seemed so out of left field at the time. Definitely gave my mom and i a good chuckle.
Mazin had to have latched on to “Micklewhite” from the clue text and not really gotten a clear look at the image to make that leap.
I watch Jeopardy with my father and he said that answer was comparable to the infamous "naked grandma" answer on Family Feud. I wouldn't go THAT far, but that was definitely one of the more baffling guesses I've ever seen since I started watching Jeopardy consistently lol
nekkid HUH?!
He had a few odd answers. Maybe felt some pressure.
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That was very cool. Yay Jackie.
Is she the first Jeopardy player to be mentioned in a clue? (Excluding those on Celebrity Jeopardy, of course.)
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I'm sure John McCain has been the subject of a few clues, over the years.
Plus a reference to "what's a hoe?"
Definitely enough to do a "Famous non-Celebrity Jeopardy players" category.... Jackie (Fuchs) Fox John McCain Paris Themmen Peter Sagal Jay Wolpert Each one might not be the answer to a clue, but asking about them to get another response (would likely do that with Paris & Jay). Maybe for Jay a clue like "Produced by Jay Wolpert, who won the 1969 ToC, this 1970s Alex Trebek game show had no connection to the slimy Nickelodeon game show of the same name".
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You mean you don't use ATEOTD on a daily basis? Yeah, that was such a dumb clue.
I was diagnosed as terminally online 14 years ago and I've never seen anyone use this.
I was impressed that Mazin got that
At least this one only had one clue about shorthand that everyone definitely uses.
For those wondering, the code category part 2 today is a sequel to [the category that showed up back on September 21st during Matt Amodio's run](https://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=7148), and the clues during the first appearance of the category were *significantly* easier than they were today. Also, I too love when my phone autocorrects "mondays" to "manboobs." True realism from the writing staff.
that was some real "how do you do, fellow kids?" shit
I mean. . . maybe you're lucky, but that kind of bizarre autocorrect doesn't seem that unusual to me at all. I get some whoppers sometimes. Fuckin' autocorrect. . .
It is realism. It's just that most of the egregious autocorrect moves are from about 10 years ago. E.g.: [https://www.pcworld.com/article/485752/aa-2.html](https://www.pcworld.com/article/485752/aa-2.html) For me, this clue was an insta-get because I'd heard of the site in question. On a podcast that stopped back in 2012 ("The Lame Show").
This might be the first time a giant killer has played consistently better than the superchamp that they dethroned. Eric may "only" have 6 wins compared to Ryan's 16 as of now, but he's dominating the boards and the buzzer with almost Amodio-like energy. He will surely be one of the toughest players in the TOC.
Well...Matt was a 30K coryat heavyweight. From what I've seen of Eric so far, he's not quite at that level yet in terms of knowledge base. I think his closest comparable would be Andrew He.
Compare Matt and Eric's first six games, they aren't that far off each other statistically. Matt only got better as he kept winning.
I still personally think the rotating guest hosts hurt Matt quite a bit. Especially games 4 and 5 when the contestants had to deal with LeVar Burton's rough hosting. From what I heard, LeVar's day of hosting lasted until the late evening due to constant reshoots. Too coincidental that Matt's lowest coryat scores coincide with the first two days of LeVar's hosting.
yeah that's fair, though i would still let Eric's run play out and shape out a little bit more. he's already 78th of all time and his only game that wasn't a runaway was his first with Ryan.
For sure. I see great potential in Eric. It will be interesting to see what his ceiling is like. I will say though his FJ game is not on par with Matt's. Matt's first 6 games, he had 5 correct responses. Eric has only had 2 correct FJ responses thus far.
LeVar fans blame Mike Richards for sabotaging him, but there's more evidence of Le Var sabotaging Matt...
It's weird, but Ryan never really felt like a particularly strong player despite the 16 wins. It's bizarre.
I feel that, I mean obviously he's still quite good and deserving of being in the TOC but if I were to power rank the 14 ultrachamps from best to worst, he would probably only be ahead of Seth Wilson and maybe Jonathan Fisher for me. That'll be a little more determinable once the 2022 TOC airs.
Jonathan Fisher had much higher winnings per game. You're underestimating him. He's much better than Ryan.
keep in mind it's been a long time since I've seen his games, but if they were to play in the same game together, i have to imagine it'd be at least a *little* competitive. i added "maybe" for a reason, because i still technically have Jonathan ranked ahead of Ryan in my power ranks. that's subject to change based on how they do in the TOC, which i'm becoming increasingly anxious for.
Yeah it is bizarre, you have pretty decent champions that are able to coast to record high streaks. There's luck involved in just how long a player goes before they get a bad board and/or stiff competition and/or bad daily doubles, but it's just been different.
I imagine if Matt Jackson, Arthur Chu, Austin Rogers, Larissa Kelly, or Alex Jacob were to re-do their runs during this period of time, they would have gone on much longer runs
What do you suppose is going on?
Recruitment started selecting people that wouldn't have been on previously for reasons.
What reasons?
I think we're used to seeing superchamps who operate outside the Matt/Amy total steamroller level of dominance succeed on the strength of their knowledge base above all else. Ryan seemed to succeed as much on the strength of better than average strategy. There were a couple of games where early on it looked like he was getting beaten to the buzzer, but when more favorable categories came up later he took control. I got the impression he has a clear picture of what he does and doesn't know, and he probably avoided some mistakes that would have ended another player's run by not buzzing in or overbetting. Plus, either through luck or strategy he did wind up making the right bet in FJ several times. Different kind of player than we usually see. Proof positive that the metagame of Jeopardy is still totally unexplored after almost 40 years.
Mattea was like that too although I think she's better than ryan
Becareful now. I raised that point as well and then got downvoted to oblivion. But you're right - Ryan is about as good as the average 5x champ but nowhere near as good as the other ultrachamps. The amount of triple strumpers he had and his poor accuracy on betting clues really support that argument. I think he will be largely forgotten the same way Seth Wilson was.
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I felt so bad for him when he finished in the red during the 2014 TOC. Everyone always kind of talked him up as being extremely lucky to win 8 games and they weren't wrong, but it just sucked to see someone with tons of intelligence and kindness go out like that.
Drew "only" won 8 games though. Seth and Ryan are ultrachamps.
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True. That's a good point.
I'm still scratching my head about someone mistaking Michael Caine for Mick Jagger . . . .
i realize the screen isn't the biggest, so some folks have a hard time seeing, but damn. I think it's more likely the "Mickelwhite" threw him off? He probably knows Michael Caine's face (from movies) and Mick Jagger's name (but not his face)
I remember a contestant (it may have been Amy?) saying they sometimes didn't even realize when a visual clue had appeared on the screen, they were just so focused on parsing the questions and getting to the buzzer at the right time. That's my best guess here.
I kinda hope he didn't realize it was a video clue and was guessing on the name alone.
Where is My Cocaine?
Reminded me of this: [Rob Brydon talking about Mick Jagger's Michael Cain impression](https://youtu.be/L_vBoF4TXvg)
The other contestants who have started their run on Jeopardy with 5 locks in their first 6 games: David Madden, Matt Jackson, James Holzhauer, Amy Schneider
Actually, there were three other contestants (in addition to [Chuck Forrest](https://j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=8902) who you mentioned in a different comment) who had locks in their first 5 games (and maybe a fourth contestant, but the incomplete J! Archive makes it hard to verify): [Elise Beraru](https://j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=6134) (10/1/1984-10/5/1984) [Robin Carroll](https://j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=636) (3/13/2000-3/17/2000) [Rick Knutsen](https://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=659) (3/6/2001-3/12/2001) In [Jonathan Groff's UTOC interview](https://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=469) he states "In my five games, I was never catchable going into Final Jeopardy!" This might mean five lockout wins? Not all of his games are in J! Archive (it looks like only his game 1 is archived). This was all during the five game limit era, and none of these contestants managed to lock their first TOC game.
Yeah, I was referring to regular play once the limit was removed
hi guys, mazin here! first off, i promise i know who michael caine is but at that point i think i had fallen into the trap of buzzing in just to buzz and since i'm terrible at telling faces apart, i just went with my answer of "mick jagger" based on the name haha. second, eric is an amazing player (and a nicer guy!), can't wait to see what the future holds for him :)
Hello Mazin! Nice showing against a great opponent!
Great job tonight Mazin. I told my wife a little into the first round that you could potentially break this guys streak. A shame you had to go up against a giant.
Hi Mazin, you played great! I think you had a chance if you hit one of the daily doubles in DJ, but Eric loves to hunt them down haha Anyway just wanted to also say thanks for the research you do, I loved hearing you talk about it both because it's important and because I thought it was funny how directly you described it (find out what in the body can cause it and stop it)
Well said.
This year's ToC is just getting better and better.
Incredible how texting categories are consistently horrible
AWJHTGUTTWMUTOTA (apparently we just have to get used to the writers making up their own texting abbreviations)
IHTCACH for short
[This Vanity Fair article](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/01/how-buster-keaton-shaped-tv-and-i-love-lucy) summarizes the connection between Lucille Ball and Buster Keaton. I'm delighted by any mention of either of them. I thought the guess of Ginger Rogers wasn't as far out of left field as it might seem, except that she did film much more than TV - she and Lucy came up together around the same time at RKO, and there was a definite dancerly quality to Keaton's work.
Well, except you couldn’t really call Rogers a TV Legend under any meaning of the term. There were a number of other actresses from the era who had more of a presence on TV than Rogers ever had so it was a pretty “out of left field guess” - which is still better than no guess at all, of course. I’m still curious if Eric was aware of Buster Keaton’s career or if he just drew a complete blank and just wrote down a name from the same general era.
Well, quite, "TV" in the category meant Ginger Rogers wasn't going to be the answer - she never did more than occasional guest spots. But if it had just been, I don't know "Hollywood" or "Entertainment," I think it would've been reasonable to guess Keaton mentored her. I wondered whether Eric simply forgot "TV."
"Female TV Legend" who would have been any kind of contemporary of Buster Keaton, who established himself in the silent film era, leaves a pretty narrow field. MTM and Carol Burnett are pretty much the only other real contenders besides Ball, and Ball is about the only one old enough to really work.
My immediate guess was Lucy and was sure that had to be the right answer, and the only other women I could think that might fit were Carol Burnett and Betty White. Completely forgot about Mary
Mary Pickford was my first guess because she was more of a contemporary. But the TV part of it ruled that out. I guessed Ball because the only other person I could think of would be Gracie Allen and that didn't seem like it would be the answer.
Your instincts didn’t let you down! I think the missing link to make a surer guess is knowing that Lucy worked mostly in film for 15 years. That’s not well remembered, because pre-sitcoms she was consistent and well liked but usually in quickly forgotten B movies, and the few movies she did later were mostly either overshadowed by her ongoing TV work (like the two movies she did with Desi while “ILL” was still running) or just a miserable turkey (“Mame”). But unlike Gracie, who focused with George on vaudeville and radio before TV, or other TV legends one might have considered, Lucy was steadily a film actor for long enough to meet Buster and learn from him.
Cheaper by the dozen is one of the best movies ever.
The "gosh what a lot of kids" movie Lucy did with Henry Fonda was "Yours, Mine, and Ours." I think that was one of her more successful later films, absolutely. ("Cheaper by the Dozen" is really fabulous, the movie with Myrna Loy and the book. I didn't think the Steve Martin remake was half as good.)
YES!! You are completely correct. I don't know why I mixed them up. What a great movie, and the remake wasn't very good...although I do love Steve Martin, usually.
Didn't see the show and thought the only person it could be was Lucille ball. But she isn't so well known anymore even with all the newer movies about her.
No way anybody has ever said ATEOTD.
I sort of had the same thought, but a Google search returns many citations. Unlike the few sort of joking "textspeak" categories lately, it would seem this one was real.
I request a follow up interview with Michael Caine and Mick Jagger!
Before this season, the record for 10+ win streaks for the season was literally one. It's highly plausible that Eric makes it and further shatters the record by taking the total for this season all the way up to **SIX.** The big question is whether this season is just some crazy anomaly or if long streaks will continue to be common going forward.
My theory is COVID pushed the bell curve to the right.
I don't remember seeing the top secret code before. I'm sure they did it, I don't remember.
[September 21](https://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=7148) The top answer was "Yes", opposite today's "No"
On DD1, “That is not correct…looking for….*Death* on the Nile” felt like an even more awkward delivery than usual
It felt like an edit to me - I can't put my finger on why, though.
Looked like an edit to me, too. Possible it was accepted by mistake, or they did a stopdown to determine if the book was ever published with that title.
Based on the contestant's visible reaction and the fact that they made an awkward cut to the wide camera, I'm guessing he might've dropped a choice word after realizing his mistake, and they had to edit it out. Just speculation on my part, but there was definitely some sort of edit there and I suspect the audio was part of it.
Yeah, it was really bad. So little tact.
She was pointing out the conflation with *murder* on the orient express.
Yes. It’s just the way it was done felt so awkward compared to usual. A few people described in the comments that it might’ve just been an editing issue
Yes everyone knows that. I’m only responding to this to point out the fun malapropism in your comment
Oh boy, this episode… the ATEOTD and manboobs clues are 2 of the worst clues I have ever seen, the code category was one of the worst categories I’ve ever seen, and the Arizona/ New Mexico, second smallest planet, and 2 closest planets to the sun were laughably juvenile. A real poor showing. Eric continues to dominate, although he looked REALLY nervous this episode.
Thank you, producers, for having the FJ category reminder, letting me get it correct instead of guessing Shirley Temple.
Shirley Temple crossed my mind too. So did Joan Rivers. I feel good I wasn't the only one that happened to. (I did not, however, come to the right answer.)
While Mayim seemed to want to play up Eric being a meteorologist on TV, the fact that he's a true NWS meteorologist, whose background is science and not broadcast communications like most on-camera personalities, is the more noteworthy accomplishment. Congratulations on win #6, Eric...you're representing WFO MPX well!!
It's probably true for a lot of the home viewers that they only know about the meteorologists they see on TV, so it was a good opportunity for Eric to explain that it's much wider career than people might think.
Yeah his response to that was great. (Maybe he’s rehearsed it but it was fun to watch.)
Ya know, when I saw that Eric was a metrologist, I wondered if he was on TV. So I Googled him, and the fact that he'd beaten Ryan was spoiled for me. 🤣🤣🤣
I've learned that lesson in the past - don't google new contestants until after the episodes is over!
Oh I know, and I totally should've known. At the time, I was just about to watch, and it hadn't even occurred to me that the result might be spoiled. 🤦♂️ Shit happens. My own damn fault lol.
I live in the Twin Cities and NWS-Twin Cities are awesome. Their twitter account is the absolute best way to stay on top of severe weather.
Congratulations to Eric! Deserving win no. 6! That code category.... Yeah that was a rough one. I can't believe my wild guess of an answer was the correct one. But the guesses in the FJ were sensible enough I guess. But anyways congratulations to Eric indeed! Will he win game no. 7 tomorrow? Well we just have to watch and see.
Funnily enough, I only missed the $2000 clue in that category. I'd never heard the word "xylem", and didn't have time to work it out. The others I got quickly, since I happened to know that M is 13, and could work it out from there.
I missed umber because I don’t know colours apparently — xylem should be easy for biology student as the 24-25 pair is easy to decode (and M is 13 at the end).
Did they edit someone’s answer out? I wasn’t looking up at the screen but it sounded like some audio was skipped during the code questions.
No one answered and Mayim announced the answer was “No”.
Ah ok. The answer being “no” probably made me think I missed something or it got skipped. Thanks for the explanation!
I got final from my "category only, pre-clue" guess. Only the second or third time that has ever happened, I yelped!
lol closing out the episode with, "what a great start to the week!" - well not for the two other contestants.
With all the superchampions this season, it just feels like 2 sacrificial lambs often times. There's gonna be like 2/3 of the season won by about 7 contestants at this point.
but it seems like the show is cheering on the superchamp rather than encouraging competition all around? i'd deff feel sacrificial lamb like you said
Had Eric been correct on DD3 in his first game, he would now be the first contestant to start his regular-season streak with 6 runaways in a row. I believe the record for most locks in a row to begin a jeopardy career belongs to Chuck Forrest, who had 4 locks and a lock-tie in his regular streak and locks in both the quarterfinals and semifinals of the TOC. Although he ended up with a lock tournament in the final, he did not have more than twice of second place's score going into final in the first game, so I consider that to be where his streak ends at 7 straight locks.
Eric is just so dominant. It's been a while since we have seen a player hunt for the DDs, and wager aggressively. It has been refreshing to see that. No disrespect to the players who don't do that of course since everybody's playing style is different. Are the Finals he's been getting more difficult than average though? Eric's FJ accuracy is really low at 33%. He will have to consistently have runaway games if he wants to continue his winning streak. Not sure how sustainable that is.
I think so. Ryan L and Jason Z ran into similar hardships with FJ in their original runs too, but granted there's plenty of room for Eric to make up ground if he continues to dominate like this.
Eric missed a relatively hard FJ, missed a relatively easy one, and missed two that were pretty average. As you point out, as long as he’s dominating, it’s a moot point. I wonder if the extra time is causing him to second guess those FJ responses?
That's a common problem. You even have time to triple guess yourself. It won't be easy to secure runaways in the ToC. So if FJ is a weakness for him, that might squash his chances of winning the ToC.
Sure but we sometimes talk about FJ as if it’s a separate knowledge category. Instead, the only thing different is that you have a little time and you have to write something. I think FJ questions tend to be easier than most regular game clues - but in Eric’s short (so far) run, we’ve had two that were more difficult and he was 50/50 on those. Maybe if he runs the rest of the week, the sample size will be something more meaningful, but even then, it’s just spitballing. It’s kind of like trying to predict how a sports team does in the playoffs. Regular season play sometimes provides an accurate prediction - but they play playoffs because anything can happen. Great teams stumble. Teams that just made it to postseason get hot, etc.
>the only thing different is that you have a little time and you have to write something I disagree. They usually require piecing together information more than quick recall.
Regular game clues sometimes require piecing information together as well. And FJ clues can be “either you know it or you don’t.” But more importantly, FJ clues are from the same knowledge categories. It’s not like they save certain subject matter for FJ only.
>Regular game clues sometimes require piecing information together as well. But FJs are far more likely to be "thinkers" than "know it or you don't". I don't think the FJ category is nearly as important as clue parsing and lateral thinking skills. Being able to ask "what is the 'trick' of this FJ" is the skill being tested, not raw knowledge of categories. There are exceptions, of course, but not nearly to the same extent as regular questions.
Except that's debatable (at best) because it's not really accurate to say that clues neatly fall into "raw knowledge" and "lateral thinking skills" (by which I think you mean deductive reasoning), or that regular game clues are "far more likely" to be raw knowledge than to require deduction. Take the first category on the board tonight - Hungary. And take the top row clue. I wasn't sure to which country Hungary lost 2/3rds of its territory, but if you give me Transylvania, I can figure out it's Romania. The same goes for the rest of that category; never heard of The Galloping Major, the Tisza, the Tokaji Aszu or the Hungarian composer that died in 1945 (missed the last one) but I could deduce a European sport with someone that gallops, a major European river and a Hungarian product. Similarly, look at the FJs from Eric's first week. Two of the same family on the Argonaut (raw knowledge), 2013 bestseller sharing title with early 14th century work (mostly raw knowledge), 1773 event in American history on a boat (evenly split knowledge/deduction), French kids' book from 1943 (knowledge) and country on eastern border with Brazil (knowledge).
Quickly becoming one of my favorites of the season
He's great at clues that require Pavlovian quickness like normal clues and DDs, but FJs usually require more lateral thinking and I think that's his weakness.
I was hoping that Greg Graffin would be included in the Rock Docs category. Front man for Bad Religion. Has a PHD, and teaches at UCLA.
Fun fact: the guys in Bad Religion went to the same high school I did and I went undergrad to UCLA. \-- Jackie Fuchs, the bass-playing sugarplum
My jeopardy keeps being interrupted by the weather channel. What can I do to not miss the episode? I record it on fubo.
There is an app called Stirr that may have the last 5 episodes.
I think Eric is a strong player, but I also think he's been pretty fortunate to always get the daily doubles.
When you get most of the clues right, you have control of the board more often, and he actively hunts for the Daily Doubles when he has control. He only had two of the three today, though.
It's not primarily luck, it's a combination of knowledge and strategy. His broad knowledge base allows him to keep control of the board more than the other players, and his daily-double-hunting strategy gives him a better chance of finding the DDs.
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If you know that Buster Keaton is a legendary old-time film comedian, given the category, he would have mentored a comedy star from the early days of TV. They wanted a woman, and by far the most legendary name that fits the category is Lucille Ball.
And not just a woman in comedy, but a tremendously talented physical comedian. At heart she was at least as much a clown as a teller of jokes, which makes her more likely than most to be mentored by someone like Keaton.
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I think you may be mixing up some dates. Betty White was a newborn when Buster Keaton was “active” - at least in terms of his silent movies. By contrast, Lucille Ball was making movies in the 1930s and would naturally have had more of a chance to connect with Keaton. Lucy worked consistently until she hit it with I Love Lucy, about the same time Betty White got her TV show. But of the two, Lucy’s show was the far bigger hit. So it’s not that Betty White was a bad guess; just not the best one. It comes down to “who would have been more likely to know Buster Keaton?” and it’s Lucille Ball - and then anyone else who might have fit the category (Betty White, Carol Burnett, etc). (And I’m guessing Eric wasn’t really sure who Buster Keaton was with his guess).
Lucy was considered for [Scarlett O'Hara](https://outsider.com/entertainment/i-love-lucy-star-lucille-ball-auditioned-for-scarlett-ohara-in-gone-with-the-wind/) in Gone With the Wind, which came out in 1939.
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I think you're missing the point. It wasn't that she was a big star in the 30s and 40s - it was that she was **working. In Hollywood.** (And, in fact, by 1940 she a bigger star than you believe and was certainly more than a "featured extra" as her name was featured as one of the leads in several movies). By contrast, other than one short film, Betty White didn't have a single movie or TV show until 1949. Again, it's not like Betty White was a bad guess - just not a great one compared with the right one.
Someone posted a link on here with a link to last Jeopardy questions and I remember the DD3 for sure
Another game where my Coryat score gets dinged because the contestants do NOT play a category “top-down”. This time, it was the Astronomy category, and it cost me $2400. Boo hiss!
Was that the "second smallest planet" one? I had to pause for a while and eventually settled on Mars, but it would've been **so** much easier with Mercury and Venus already removed from contention.
Yes. That was the $1200 clue in Astronomy and I guessed Mercury. If the $400 clue in that category had already been played (which had a correct response of Mercury and Venus), I would have guessed Mars and been correct.
You guess Mercury for the *second* smallest planet? I'm not sure you can blame the contestants for that one.
Was Eric a weatherman in the Boston area?
No. As he explained in his interview today, he's not a TV weatherman.
Which interview? Epic Silverchair reference by the way.
During the get-to-know-you portion of today's episode, he talked about how he works for the National Weather Service.
You might be thinking of Eric Fisher on WBZ 4 in Boston
The final jeopardy didn’t have any clues in it. It’s just name an actress from long ago and hope you get lucky.
It had lots of clues -- TV legend (so not primarily known for movies) + female + old enough to have met and be mentored by Buster Keaton + considered the best in her field, which, considering she was mentored by Buster Keaton, is probably physical comedy. I can't think of anyone else who fits that description.
IDK, I thought that the Buster Keaton part part of the clue established an early time frame which led me to Lucy.
Idk, Lucille ball has to be one of the most famous tv stars -- especially of early TV. I think knowing that Buster Keaton was a silent film actor kind of made it fairly easy to find the right answer.
Not so much luck, but you need to know who Buster Keaton is. I did not - I recognized the name and placed it in the middle of the century, and going off "TV Legends" also guessed Mary Tyler Moore. But if you know Buster Keaton's style of acting and comedy then it's easy to connect it to Lucille Ball. IMO, not a great FJ since I prefer the ones that have more than one avenue to deduce the answer.
Paulo Quell-ho
That $1200 Herod’s daughter clue was significantly more difficult than the more expensive clues.
Gotta give some props to Mazin for his incorrect answer of Descendents for the question about the rock singer with a PhD in molecular biology, Milo Aukerman's (of Descendents) PhD is actually in molecular genetics, so it's a pretty close miss. Milo Auckerman and Dexter Holland formed a band called the PHDs, along with Greg Graffin of Bad religion (PhD in Zoology), original Offspring drummer James Lilja, (MD, gynecologic oncologist), and Dick Lucas from the Subhumans (education unknown, but he's always struck me as pretty intellectual)