So there's this guy who used to frequent a Jeopardy! fan forum.
First, a little backstory: The Sony website used to have a dedicated forum for all of its shows, including Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. I'm a game show buff, so I frequented both forums until they were hacked in 2011. The fandoms of both shows quickly migrated to new fan forums, where they are to this day.
One user who carried over from the old Jeopardy! forum to the new one was mbclev.
He frequently complained about a clue a few years back asking people to name Edith Head, the woman who holds the record for the most Academy Award wins. His complaint was that "nobody outside the academy knows" who she is. And when someone corrected him on the wording of the clue, he told them that they were wrong about the wording, even after they linked him to the episode.
He's still hung up on a 1995 Tournament of Champions game where a contestant forgot to phrase an early clue in the form of a question, and lost the tournament by the value of the clue. This makes no sense for many reasons: the clue was early in the tournament, and there's no way that
everything else would've played out the same had he gotten the clue right.
Another game that bothers him is a 1998 Tournament of Champions where two of the contestants made self-deprecating quips when they got clues wrong. Never mind that one of the contestants happened to be a comedian by trade; all mbclev can think is that he (the comedian contestant) and the other one were "being jerks" and "not taking the game seriously". Because God forbid anyone have
fun on a game show.
Another time, he argued that a Final Jeopardy! asking for the total value of all of the dollar bills with Presidential faces on them was "impossible" because "
I thought then (and still do) that it was a despicable thing for the show to do, because I'm sure those contestants that day had never seen a $2 bill in their lives." Yes, Final Jeopardy! is supposed to be tricky. It's supposed to make you think: do bills larger than $100 still circulate? Who's on each bill? Does the $2 still circulate? I actually knew all of this, but I still got the clue wrong because I made a math error. (Correct response: what is 78? [1+2+5+20+50]). And for further context, one of the regular posters on this forum is a six-day champion and Tournament of Champions semifinalist who was once faced with a
very byzantine clue about Liederkranz cheese, which is still a fandom gold standard for clue obscurity.
His last tactic was to post a clip of some Australian Rules Football commentator screaming every time someone made a wager that he disagreed with.
Finally, he's also noted repeatedly that anyone who makes a mistake on national television should be haunted by it for the rest of their lives.
Quote time!
In general
and if any of you try to further argue against my views on this, I will rebut those arguments until I turn blue in the virtual face (and maybe even beyond that).
Well, I try, at least, to make the complex simple, like Rush Limbaugh does on his radio show.
I refuse to understand because quite simply, it is WRONG.
Yes, I do have the right to do [call a Jeopardy! champion an idiot]. This is the United States of America, and people do have the right to call other people "idiots" if they do something stupid.
I put myself in that player's shoes, if you will, and if I did such a horrible thing such as making a stupid DD or FJ wager, or God forbid, forgetting to phrase a correct DJ or DD response in the form of a question (and losing the game because of it), I would be upset about it for the rest of my life. Keep in mind that I have played J! computer games for a lot of years starting in 1997.
I will not compromise my views to suit your whims. They are mine, and no one will ever change them, as long as I live, and if you do try to change them, I will recommend the same type of action that you are threatening me with.
Regarding the 1995 Tournament of Champions
That time was a bad time in my life with a negative family issue and the specter of the original Cleveland Browns planning to move, which they unfortunately did. That mistake is the basis for all of my subsequent rants about such mistakes.
It is what I thought when I initially watched those shows in 1995, long before boards like this one came into existence, and it has been implicitly backed up by sports commentators, especially the Australian rules football commentator who mentioned Collingwood's kick that should have been called a 1-point behind rather than a 6-point goal. (He said that if Collingwood were to have won the match by six points or less, that mistake would have cost Collingwood's opponent, Geelong, the match. That has essentially been my viewpoint on J! matters like this, and none of you will ever move me from that viewpoint, and if you try to do so, I will rebut those arguments vehemently.
No, there is more than one person that it is painful for. Do you not think that Siegel's [the contestant who lost] family has had to live with this pain for all these years? (I am sure other people besides me has reminded Siegel of this, either in jest or maliciously, through the years.) Plus I'm sure a lot of other Clevelanders besides myself have had to live with this pain, too.
No, but thoughts about my previous traumatic mistakes still enter my mind from time to time, and that is the basis for what I think David must be thinking.
Regarding a 2012 contestant who made a spelling error that caused them to be ruled wrong
What will she think if her mistake costs her a wild card spot? Will she not dwell on it then, and for the rest of her life?
Diana, are you happy with your mistake now, because that mistake cost you a spot in the semi-finals, and you're going to have to live with it FOR THE REST OF YOUR [BLEEP]IN' LIFE! People will remind you of it until then!
her mistake cost her a spot in that tournament's semi-finals, and I reckon that Diana's inner circle of friends and acquaintances will still remind her about it for the rest of her life, like I basically said in 2012. (That mistake was sort of like what our Cleveland sports teams have done in regards to post-season appearances, because they sometimes make these kinds of self-inflicted mistakes, so we Clevelanders perceive any kind of competition as sort of like life or death because of this, and we have long memories about it as well. In fact, there will be an upcoming ESPN "30 for 30" documentary about it in the not-too-distant future.)
Regarding the 1998 game where two of the contestants kept making quips
If I ever see this type of shenanigans again, I will write to the J! staff and suggest that the tournament winnings of those who pull such a stupid stunt be revoked.
Maybe there might even be a congressional investigation into whether or not those who pull such a stunt intended to rig the game.
====
Also, one of the posters on the site posted a link to an episode where a clue was "It's why you can't take a picture of a man with a wooden leg", to which no one correctly rang in with "because wooden legs can't take photographs". His response?
I remember seeing that clue, and when Alex gave the correct response, I was very upset, because that is a terrible joke about someone else's personal physical problems. My father essentially told me when I was young that jokes like that are bad jokes which should not be told. I wrote the J! staff after that show and I said in that letter that that clue "is insulting to people who have wooden legs due to many reasons, and to have a clue like that is dehumanizing to these people. THIS MUST STOP!!!!!!" The J! staff essentially responded that they would be more careful about such clues (that riddle came from an old joke book, probably published long before people were aware about being more sensitive to handicapped people).
the stand-alone joke brings the personal problem of a person possibly losing a leg in a painful accident or a battle in war, or to diabetes, and it reminds them of the pain they had to go through, and they do not want to be reminded of it. (I think the late baseball player Ron Santo would not have liked that joke, because he lost his legs to diabetes a long time ago, and if you told him that joke when he was still alive, he probably would have been upset at that.)
====
And finally, when someone asked him why he continues to harp on mistakes contestants made years ago:
Because I am still experiencing the consequences of such a mistake I made more than 24 years ago, but because it is a personal family matter, I will not comment on it in a public forum like this one, and I would ask that you not speculate on what that mistake is. I am sure other people are still experiencing the consequences of similar mistakes made long ago.
tl;dr: Jeopardy! is srs bzns, anyone who makes a mistake should be haunted by it for the rest of their lives, don't make jokes about wooden legs.
