Thursday, December 17, 2020 Game Recap and Discussion (SPOILERS)

[opusthepenguin]

Can’t say I have ever heard that $2,000 tude word.

Put it down to hebetude.

[Plactus]

Welp. I knew the clue was pointing at someone's nose, but I had no idea where to go from there. Said Tycho Brahe to have something (I mean, it's not inconceivable they made a play about him...).

[rockyboy34]

Tough FJ!, but this honestly was Brayden’s best showing so far. My dad got as close as the pirate w/ the long nose.

8/10

[Robert K S]

For Final, did better than the contestants in at least figuring out exactly what character they were looking for. But for the life of me, could not pull the name. Would have written down "Who is, you know, that guy Steve Martin played?"

[Volante]

Apparently I've been putting the Nazca Lines in the Atacama this whole time. In my defense, there -are- geoglyphs there too, but that's a weird mistake to have made for so long...

Welp. I knew the clue was pointing at someone's nose, but I had no idea where to go from there. Said Tycho Brahe to have something (I mean, it's not inconceivable they made a play about him...).

More so, he'd be the sort to challenge someone to a duel if they mocked him.

Thought process went like this for final: Visage, face, center, nose, joke, Steve Martin, Roxanne, Cyrano de Bergerac. So bit of a meander, but made it with enough time.

[seaborgium]

Julia (Child) & (Phil) Collins
Matt (Damon) & (Andrew) Jackson
David (Copperfield) & (John) Madden

This misses the point—Julia, Matt, and David alone would be insufficient for clues seeking those people.

[davey]

There's no doubt Cyrano is acceptable for the title character (if not the title). Adaptations have gone with that name, dropping the surname. (Including a not-so-well-received musical last year that starred Peter Dinklage with no prosthetic nose - apparently slated to come to the movies some day.) I don't think I've ever heard the character referred to as de Bergerac...(Except in the text...)
I don't think that a 120-year-old perennial in the theater canon suddenly loses its currency in the last couple of decades, any more than Shakespeare does. It's been on Broadway twice in the last 15 years...It also helps for this clue to know that one of the most famous things in the play is Cyrano's long monologue coming up with creative insults to his nose his enemy should have used...) I chalk the misses up to the general cluelessness of J! contestants when it comes to the theater.
I agree with TPH! Welcome to Night Vale is great, sometimes creepy, sometimes hilarious fun...Well worth a poll spot. I'd think so even if it was a top box clue... It was more or less my introduction to podcasts, before they started running out of everybody's ears, so to speak...

[CasualJeopardyFan19]

This Brayden guy is absolutely CRUSHING it! And the fact that he's another dude from Vegas like me gets him bonus points from me too! I hope he wins the rest of the Trebek era games.

[Woof]

Brayden certainly looks impressive, though his conservative wagering has probably cost him 30-40,000 in earnings. His misses on Gravity’s Rainbow (with one of the most memorable opening lines in fiction) and on FJ do point to chinks in the armor, though. I was worried about the categories in the first board but Streaming Services and Authors Pets proved much friendlier than expected.

When I saw FJ, I predicted a triple get. Color me shocked at the TS. Maybe it’s because I’m old enough to also know who Herb Caen was.

[This Is Kirk!]

I got that FJ, but never realized it was a play.

I would have negged on "Tude" for $200 because I thought the word was versimilitude (omitting the first "I").

[davey]

I got that FJ, but never realized it was a play.

I would have negged on "Tude" for $200 because I thought the word was versimilitude (omitting the first "I").

I think you would have gotten away with that.

[seaborgium]

I got that FJ, but never realized it was a play.

I would have negged on "Tude" for $200 because I thought the word was versimilitude (omitting the first "I").

I think you would have gotten away with that.

Depends. If the er was pronounced the same way ("vairsimilitude") it could slide under the radar. But if he said it the way my dad did ("verse-similitude"), probably not.

[davey]

I got that FJ, but never realized it was a play.

I would have negged on "Tude" for $200 because I thought the word was versimilitude (omitting the first "I").

I think you would have gotten away with that.

Depends. If the er was pronounced the same way ("vairsimilitude") it could slide under the radar. But if he said it the way my dad did ("verse-similitude"), probably not.

Why did your father put a hyphen in it?

[seaborgium]

I got that FJ, but never realized it was a play.

I would have negged on "Tude" for $200 because I thought the word was versimilitude (omitting the first "I").

I think you would have gotten away with that.

Depends. If the er was pronounced the same way ("vairsimilitude") it could slide under the radar. But if he said it the way my dad did ("verse-similitude"), probably not.

Why did your father put a hyphen in it?

He didn't. He said it without writing it.

[This Is Kirk!]

I got that FJ, but never realized it was a play.

I would have negged on "Tude" for $200 because I thought the word was versimilitude (omitting the first "I").

I think you would have gotten away with that.

Depends. If the er was pronounced the same way ("vairsimilitude") it could slide under the radar. But if he said it the way my dad did ("verse-similitude"), probably not.

Yes, definitely more like your dad's.

[talkingaway]

Well, at least I matched Brayden for FJ!...sort of. I think my answer of simply "Don Quixote" fit the clue a little better, since it was asking for a title character. "Man of La Mancha" would refer to the musical, while the full title translation is "The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha", which is shortened to "Don Quixote" frequently...at least it was in my college epic class.

I completely ignored the "visage" and "center" part of the clue, and focused on the steel. I presume we were both thinking of tilting at windmills - at least I was. As soon as I saw Alex point to his nose, I groaned. I had all the info, but failed to synthesize it. The hallmark of an excellent FJ!, in my opinion.

I also thought that "13 cards in a suit" was -WAY- overvalued at 800. I'm all for softball clues - not to get cheesy, but J! is a family show, so it's nice to have a clue that an 8 year-old should get. But keep them on the top shelf. (Wait, that doesn't sound right - the kids can't reach them there!) Also, "Who wrote Of Mice and Men" as a bottom row DD was overvalued - although I think Brayden's DDs have been harder than average.

One interesting quirk in this game - 14 clues before the break. I know it's not a hard-and-fast rule, even in the modern era of J!, to go through 15 clues, but it seemed a little odd.

Another quirk that I like about J!: the game show within a game show in categories like COMMON BONDS. You switch from knowledge-based trivia to lateral thinking. This game was almost like the final round Pyramid - Elmooooo....merlot wine.....communists...THINGS THAT ARE RED!

I love Brayden's DD hunting. It's paying off, literally. First game, he hits every DD the first time he gets control of the board. Next game, 4 misses, he loses control of the board on some buzzer beaters, and gets DD1 on his next pick. And although his work in DJ! in the second game is a little suspect, since he went back to the category of DD2 while he was searching for DD3, he did find it. Take note, future contestants: He's not finding them by accident. I'm not sure I'd go crazy over a 0.5% advantage based on memorizing left-right, but knowing the top-down odds, and the kinds of categories that tend to not have DDs (ie must-play video/promotional categories, I think) can help you at the very least keep opponents from getting the DD.

[davey]

I got that FJ, but never realized it was a play.

I would have negged on "Tude" for $200 because I thought the word was versimilitude (omitting the first "I").

I think you would have gotten away with that.

Depends. If the er was pronounced the same way ("vairsimilitude") it could slide under the radar. But if he said it the way my dad did ("verse-similitude"), probably not.

Why did your father put a hyphen in it?

He didn't. He said it without writing it.

I don't notice much difference between vairsimilitude and versimilitude as far as detecting the number of syllables. It's likely most listeners would assume you're just slurring over the missing sound. I don't know about your dad or Kirk, but many J! players are imprecise in their diction. Brayden, for one.

[yclept]

It is only three games, but this kid is impressive. My guess is that he probably listened to a Roger Craig lecture on Daily Double hunting, though his wagering isn’t quite as aggressive (to be fair, he is building up nice leads. I would like to see how he handles it if he hits DD-3 in a close game).

Regardless, he is crushing it on the buzzer and seemingly is confident that he can get to the answer quickly even if he doesn’t know it right away when he rings in. I will be greedy: I would love for Ken Jennings to be greeted by a super champion on his first day.....

[SBurrus]

I swept the Prime category...and you can chalk me up as someone misled on the FJ clue and started rifling through Shakespearean characters, but nothing really came to mind...although I will admit that as the music ended, I said out loud that the quote didn't seem like something Shakespeare would have written.

[Picked Off]

The good: nailed Cyrano.

The bad (?): Fleabag for roach motel.