Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Volante »

This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"

Was that FJ left over from a kids' tourney? :D
They go over these things in the room, so Alex knew (and he probably didn't need it explained) I think he was just doing his 'I'm out of touch' routine (that was a pretty exaggerated misread) and the others focused on keeping the game moving by shortening it.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by This Is Kirk! »

Volante wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:57 pm
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"

Was that FJ left over from a kids' tourney? :D
They go over these things in the room, so Alex knew (and he probably didn't need it explained) I think he was just doing his 'I'm out of touch' routine (that was a pretty exaggerated misread) and the others focused on keeping the game moving by shortening it.
Pretty sure Gary didn't shorten it, though.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by AFRET CMS »

MarkBarrett wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am Thanks for the earworm, writers, with that combo of PHENOMENA & "DEE" DEE DEE-DEE-DEE
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"
When the "Dee" category popped up, I have to admit to a bit of disappointment that Alec didn't attempt a little melody, and didn't even get a little rhythm going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCJMFXHalo
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Robert K S »

One theory is that he intentionally does this (obfuscation of natural-melodic categories or clues) to avoid any semblance of appearance of musical copyright controversy.

You have to look pretty far back in time to find Alex scooby-dooby-dooing anything to its actual melody.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by RobW »

AFRET CMS wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:23 pm
MarkBarrett wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am Thanks for the earworm, writers, with that combo of PHENOMENA & "DEE" DEE DEE-DEE-DEE
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"
When the "Dee" category popped up, I have to admit to a bit of disappointment that Alec didn't attempt a little melody, and didn't even get a little rhythm going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCJMFXHalo
This feels like an appropriate time to share one of my world-capital mnemonics: (Bahrain)

Bah-raay, uh-ay-in...........Ma-na-MA!

Pretty dumb, but sometimes the dumb ones stick even better. ;)
Last edited by RobW on Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by opusthepenguin »

This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"
It's sad because as soon as Alex read out PHENOMENA, I immediately sang doot-DOO-doo-doo-doo. So he did the setup right. And he clearly knew he was supposed to SOMETHING with the following category and not just read it straight. He just wasn't clear what.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by garypatent »

My Journey to RUSSIA or How to Lose Hard on Jeopardy

Disclaimer: This post entirely too long and indulgent. Read at your own risk!

“Russia” was a very terrible FJ answer. You know it. I know it. Alex knew it (even though he didn't know who Donna Tartt was! Kidding... I love Alex very much and am very grateful that I got to meet him before production shut down, in spite of the fact that he spit on my dead RUSSIAN corpse). I've been dreading the airing of that FJ for months, so, for the people in the back, YES IT WAS A TERRIBLE HORRIBLE ANSWER TO A VERY EASY FINAL JEOPARDY LET ME REST IN PEACE.

That second game did not go according to plan. Which… duh. By the time FJ came around, I was in a mental/emotional state, the likes of which I’d never have imagined myself experiencing during my many, many hours of practice in advance of the show.*

*Pro tip: if you’ve been selected to be Jeopardy and have the luxury of practice time, ask a spouse to throw eggs at your head or a friend to read your most embarrassing journal entries out loud as you play along. Otherwise, you, like me, may go down in a blaze of inglory (not a word) when things start and don’t stop going amiss.

My buzzer abandoned me for Sharon during my second game—and, who can blame it? Canada seems more and more appealing by the day. That didn’t throw me, per se, as I’d spent much of the first game slightly adjusting my timing, also. The issue was that, this time, nothing I tried seemed to work. The growing frustration as Sharon pulled further and further away, despite my attempts, became increasingly apparent on my face. She and I had the same number of correct answers. I had one fewer error, though it was a DD, so let’s call it even (fun fact: I managed to get the first question of the game wrong two days in a row!). The unfortunate reality for me is that Sharon beat me on the buzzer later in the game. She turned on the nitro (is that what one does with nitro?) when it counted.

Also, I was surprisingly thrown by my interview with Alex. You start a show knowing the finite number of anecdotes that might come up during your interview. They're stories you’ve recounted 1,000 times. I had some great ones! Laika, my paralyzed wheelchair dog—my grandfather having worked with L.H. Oswald at a radio factory in Minsk—my husband and I trying to get a kid (that sounds weird, but “my husband and I trying to have a kid” seemed weirder). Those are the things you’re prepared to discuss, so when Alex curveballed me with who my favorite “dramatic author” was, my brain short circuited. Also, having never heard the phrase “dramatic author,” my brain took a few seconds to catch up to my mouth as I understood what he was asking. Meanwhile I'd named a novelist and somehow managed to stump Alex, which made the entire thing weirder. It was better on TV than I remembered it being, however, at the time, I was SCREAMING inside.

I realized how toast I likely was when making my last DD wager, which was why I didn’t go all in. Doing so successfully would still have left me pretty far behind, even with the remaining clues on the board in my bank. It wouldn’t have changed the fact that my only chance of winning would have been via FJ fumbles from the other players. Had that been the scenario, being wrong on the DD and not having enough to play with in FJ didn't seem worth the risk, so I bet as little as I reasonably could without feeling as if I’d completely wasted a late-game DD.

So Russia…

Basically, I both overthought and under-thought the question. Non pop-culture FJs as apparently easy as that one are few and far between. Usually, they end up being trick questions in some way. I knew my chances of winning at that point were close to 0. I guessed the other players were probably going to write India—as it's the large, non-US nation most often associated with "democracy" in the media—in which case, I’d be guaranteed to lose. I confirmation biased myself into fixating on the “democracy” part of the question (which Russia technically is) and thus managed to give myself a huge blind spot for the actual quantity of votes. I wrote Russia in the hopes that the FJ did somehow end up being a trick question that the other players missed. For very obvious reasons it was a terrible choice, not the least of which is that it made me look like a massive buffoon who doesn’t know that Russia has nowhere near that many people; whereas I am actually a buffoon because I, apparently, don’t read good. The logic knot didn’t make any more sense at the time than it does now, but when you’re dealing with a knot that complex, you’re going to need more time to untie it than the Think! music allows.

Of course, like most people who have been on the show, a part of me will forever be irrevocably convinced that, had one of a million things been different, I would and should and could have gone a million times further than I did. Knowing multiple triple stumpers on the show that taped just after my loss, for example, felt like an exercise in not tearing my hair out—though I am in dire need of a haircut, so maybe indulging that urge would be both practical and cathartic!

All of that said, it was an absolutely out-of-this-world experience. I grew up playing the Jeopardy game on floppy disk. Being on the show has been a life-long dream. Winning was beyond my wildest imaginings. I’m grateful to be part of the J community and for every single moment of the experience, even the ones that made me look like a hapless dolt on national television.

Thanks for reading this entirely too long post. Don’t be salty. Or do. I find the trolling very, very funny.
Last edited by garypatent on Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:17 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by morbeedo »

Wide Sargasso Sea is one of those things I only know from watching Jeopardy!

I negged at home with Mariana Deep, but would have stayed clam on stage
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Linear Gnome »

RobW wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:44 pm Pretty dumb, but sometimes the dumb ones stick even better. ;)
To this day, I remember that Funafuti is the capital of Tuvalu by singing it to Für Elise (you have to leave out the pickup notes and start on the downbeat).
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"
If I hadn't fast forwarded through the category titles, I might (or might not) have noticed this. Do you think putting the quotation marks around the second "DEE" would have helped?
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by davey »

AFRET CMS wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:23 pm
MarkBarrett wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am Thanks for the earworm, writers, with that combo of PHENOMENA & "DEE" DEE DEE-DEE-DEE
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"
When the "Dee" category popped up, I have to admit to a bit of disappointment that Alec didn't attempt a little melody, and didn't even get a little rhythm going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCJMFXHalo
This is the second time this week I've admitted cluelessness, but can somebody tell me what you all are talking about here? The link didn't help...A song called Phenomena??
Donna Tartt was last a correct response in January, so of course Alex has heard of her...don't sweat it, Gary... :)
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by talkingaway »

davey wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:15 pm
AFRET CMS wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:23 pm
MarkBarrett wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am Thanks for the earworm, writers, with that combo of PHENOMENA & "DEE" DEE DEE-DEE-DEE
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"
When the "Dee" category popped up, I have to admit to a bit of disappointment that Alec didn't attempt a little melody, and didn't even get a little rhythm going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCJMFXHalo
This is the second time this week I've admitted cluelessness, but can somebody tell me what you all are talking about here? The link didn't help...A song called Phenomena??
Donna Tartt was last a correct response in January, so of course Alex has heard of her...don't sweat it, Gary... :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ytei6bu7kQ
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by MitchO »

The title of the song and phrase is spelled incorrectly in that link. :p
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah_N%C3%A0_Mah_N%C3%A0
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by davey »

talkingaway wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:19 pm
davey wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 8:15 pm
AFRET CMS wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:23 pm
MarkBarrett wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am Thanks for the earworm, writers, with that combo of PHENOMENA & "DEE" DEE DEE-DEE-DEE
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:20 am Doesn't seem like either Alex or any of the contestants 'got' that "DEE" DEE, DEE-DEE-DEE was meant to be an add on to PHENOMENA. I'm sure the writer who came up with that was going "no, that's not how you say it!"
When the "Dee" category popped up, I have to admit to a bit of disappointment that Alec didn't attempt a little melody, and didn't even get a little rhythm going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCJMFXHalo
This is the second time this week I've admitted cluelessness, but can somebody tell me what you all are talking about here? The link didn't help...A song called Phenomena??
Donna Tartt was last a correct response in January, so of course Alex has heard of her...don't sweat it, Gary... :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ytei6bu7kQ
Thanks! So Manamana-Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo becomes Phenomena-Dee Dee Dee Dee Dee. I can't blame Alex for passing that one by...
FJ could have added at least a modicum of difficulty by asking who became Prime Minister from that election...a pretty famous name by now...
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by bluejaylink »

garypatent wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:55 pm Thanks for reading this entirely too long post. Don’t be salty. Or do. I find the trolling very, very funny.
Don't worry about it. You proved yourself much more than you embarrassed yourself by the little "Donna Tartt" answer. And I honestly wondered if you had chosen Russia in case of some trick question. In such a case when the answer seems so obvious and given your third place position, it was a very reasonable play.

Your reaction after winning on Tuesday was great to see and an obvious display of a dream come true.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by alietr »

garypatent wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:55 pm Also, I was surprisingly thrown by my interview with Alex. You start a show knowing the finite number of anecdotes that might come up during your interview. They're stories you’ve recounted 1,000 times. I had some great ones! Laika, my paralyzed wheelchair dog—my grandfather having worked with L.H. Oswald at a radio factory in Minsk—my husband and I trying to get a kid (that sounds weird, but “my husband and I trying to have a kid” seemed weirder).
How the heck did he pass up the Oswald story?

And one win is a lot more than most people get, so don't sweat it.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by LucarioSnooperVixey »

58 R (Ozzy Osbourne's nickname was unfamiliar to me.)
DD: 3/3
FJ: :mrgreen:
LT: (1930's), Side Dishes, Superstore, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Good Place, Wide Sargasso Sea, Tailors, Frogs, Petersen, Balladeer, Challenger Deep, Auger, Tim Russert
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by Bamaman »

alietr wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:41 pm
garypatent wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:55 pm Also, I was surprisingly thrown by my interview with Alex. You start a show knowing the finite number of anecdotes that might come up during your interview. They're stories you’ve recounted 1,000 times. I had some great ones! Laika, my paralyzed wheelchair dog—my grandfather having worked with L.H. Oswald at a radio factory in Minsk—my husband and I trying to get a kid (that sounds weird, but “my husband and I trying to have a kid” seemed weirder).
How the heck did he pass up the Oswald story?

And one win is a lot more than most people get, so don't sweat it.
Those stories were for real? Given the joking in other parts of his post I thought he might be joking here. The Oswald story really sounds interesting.

Congratulations on doing much better than most of us on the show. Good luck in getting your kid, however you are going about it.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by This Is Kirk! »

garypatent wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:55 pm That second game did not go according to plan. Which… duh. By the time FJ came around, I was in a mental/emotional state, the likes of which I’d never have imagined myself experiencing during my many, many hours of practice in advance of the show.*

*Pro tip: if you’ve been selected to be Jeopardy and have the luxury of practice time, ask a spouse to throw eggs at your head or a friend to read your most embarrassing journal entries out loud as you play along. Otherwise, you, like me, may go down in a blaze of inglory (not a word) when things start and don’t stop going amiss.
Totally agree. I did my best to study some common categories that I'm not real strong in before my taping, but I found in the heat of the moment I was sort of on autopilot and none of the newly learned stuff really stuck.
Thanks for reading this entirely too long post. Don’t be salty. Or do. I find the trolling very, very funny.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Just keep in mind that millions of people who laughed at your Final Jeopardy response couldn't have answered most of the clues you did answer correctly and they certainly never won a game on Jeopardy!
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by garypatent »

Bamaman wrote: Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:03 am
alietr wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 9:41 pm
garypatent wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:55 pm Also, I was surprisingly thrown by my interview with Alex. You start a show knowing the finite number of anecdotes that might come up during your interview. They're stories you’ve recounted 1,000 times. I had some great ones! Laika, my paralyzed wheelchair dog—my grandfather having worked with L.H. Oswald at a radio factory in Minsk—my husband and I trying to get a kid (that sounds weird, but “my husband and I trying to have a kid” seemed weirder).
How the heck did he pass up the Oswald story?

And one win is a lot more than most people get, so don't sweat it.
Those stories were for real? Given the joking in other parts of his post I thought he might be joking here. The Oswald story really sounds interesting.

Congratulations on doing much better than most of us on the show. Good luck in getting your kid, however you are going about it.
True stories, all.

My grandfather worked at a radio equipment factory in Minsk with Oswald and Stanislav Shushkevich, who would go on to become the first leader of Belarus, following its secession from the USSR. My grandpa is still alive, so since I was planning on telling this story at my in-person audition, I asked what he remembered about them.

He said that they all though Oswald was nuts for defecting from America and that Shushkevich was aggressively mediocre.
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Re: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

Post by A Wray »

garypatent wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:55 pm Those are the things you’re prepared to discuss, so when Alex curveballed me with who my favorite “dramatic author” was, my brain short circuited. Also, having never heard the phrase “dramatic author,” my brain took a few seconds to catch up to my mouth as I understood what he was asking. Meanwhile I'd named a novelist and somehow managed to stump Alex, which made the entire thing weirder. It was better on TV than I remembered it being, however, at the time, I was SCREAMING inside.
I didn't know what Alex meant by that either, so I understood and shared your confusion as I was watching. What the heck is a "dramatic author," anyway?

As others have said, I greatly appreciate your sharing your experiences here. You were a very good contestant and your logic behind choosing a "non-obvious" answer when you need your opponents to miss, which has been mooted on this board before, has some merit. However, I do have to push back on this:
garypatent wrote: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:55 pm I confirmation biased myself into fixating on the “democracy” part of the question (which Russia technically is) and thus managed to give myself a huge blind spot for the actual quantity of votes.
In what sense is Russia "technically" a democracy? Because it has elections? Almost every country in the world has elections of some kind. And nearly as many call themselves "democratic." China's constitution calls it a "democratic dictatorship." One of the most repressive countries in the world calls itself the "Democratic Republic of the Congo." Neither the Democracy Index, nor the Democracy-Dictatorship Index, nor the Freedom in the World survey list Russia as a democracy. I submit that if the Jeopardy! writers would refer to Russia as "democratic," then the qualifier is meaningless.
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