Jeopardy!

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flyonthewall2983
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Jeopardy!

#1 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:45 pm

Conn. boy: I was cheated over Jeopardy! spelling

I caught the end of the show Friday, didn't see much else but boy that family looked pissed.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Mon Aug 05, 2013 1:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

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mfunk9786
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Re: TV of 2013

#2 Post by mfunk9786 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:48 pm

The kid wasn't in range to win, even with a correct answer. I don't know why this is even a question.

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Re: TV of 2013

#3 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:49 pm

Yeah, I also watched a little before the final question and the kid who won was slaying the competition even before.

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mfunk9786
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Re: TV of 2013

#4 Post by mfunk9786 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:51 pm

I don't know why the parents would even comment on this. The poor kid isn't going to benefit from some lawsuit or protracted whining.

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Re: TV of 2013

#5 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:54 pm

I'm guessing it's an attention-grabbing stunt, with little chance of any lawsuit. It was taped in February and they're only complaining about it now.

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domino harvey
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Re: TV of 2013

#6 Post by domino harvey » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:58 pm

This is Jeopardy's thing, it's just that Trebek went about it in a not kid gloves fashion. I've never forgotten this ending line to an Entertainment Weekly review from probably twenty years ago, when the TV critic was comparing some Wink Martindale Lifetime game show unfavorably to Jeoaprdy-- "In a recent episode, Trebek ruled a contestants answer of "DW Griffiths" incorrect due to the addition of an 's'-- Martindale would probably have accepted 'Melanie Griffiths'"

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Murdoch
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Re: Jeopardy

#7 Post by Murdoch » Mon Aug 05, 2013 12:23 am

Trebek can be abrasive at times, but it does lead to some unintentional hilarity.

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domino harvey
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Re: Jeopardy

#8 Post by domino harvey » Mon Aug 05, 2013 12:26 am

Murdoch wrote:Trebek can be abrasive at times, but it does lead to some unintentional hilarity.
Classic Trebek, I'm laughing to tears over here

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Black Hat
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Re: Jeopardy!

#9 Post by Black Hat » Tue Aug 06, 2013 1:16 am

That clip Murdoch posted was great, thank you!

I find it outrageous that this little schmuck is whining about losing Final Jeopardy. A quiz show that actually requires someone to spell properly? How dare they.

There is nothing I detest more in our culture than the disease of entitlement that over the last fifteen or so years has turned into a plague throughout society. So many parents are afraid to tell their kids they're wrong or hold them accountable for anything and as a result you have a bunch of turds running around thinking fucking up 'isn't a big deal'. Get lost.

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Zinoviev
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Re: Jeopardy!

#10 Post by Zinoviev » Tue Aug 06, 2013 1:38 am

I generally don't feel too sorry for little kids with a Roman numeral after their name; scions of self-impressed New England families seldom go hungry. At first, when the story broke, I thought, Well, shit, why not let the little kid have it. But now that he and his entire family have turned on the waterworks, I agree with others who've already chimed in. The answer (question) was wrong. So the little dauphin loses. End of story. Just because your report cards are mailed to a tragic zip code doesn't mean you can spell things wrong and still get full credit. Welcome to the real world.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Jeopardy!

#11 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Aug 06, 2013 2:43 am

Jeopardy's policy here seems vaguely anal and dickish, but if it's applied consistently than it's part of the game- games have every right to be arbitrary. Complaining about it's the equivalent of complaining about a word not being in the Scrabble dictionary, knowing the arbitrary rules is part of the game. Plus, not only would the kid have lost anyway, he still wound up in second place and got $2000- that's more than Jeopardy ever gave me, and I know how to spell 'emancipation'.

That said, I don't think this is some signifier of a deep social illness- I'd be pissed and whiny if I was the kid too, since it is 100% clear that he knew the correct answer and demonstrated that knowledge, and his parents seem more to be supportive than out trying to argue failure into success- they commented because someone asked them about it, which seems perfectly reasonable. If you read the original story, the kid seems pretty reasonable about it too- he just feels hurt that he lost points in a bullshitty way. I have no idea of why this got picked up beyond the local newspaper, where it makes sense, but it's not the kid's fault, nor is it his family's, and shitting on him seems uncalled for.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Jeopardy!

#12 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Aug 06, 2013 8:15 am

There's nothing arbitrary about enforcing spelling. It's cut and dried.

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domino harvey
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Re: Jeopardy!

#13 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 06, 2013 10:40 am

But spelling isn't enforced, pronunciation is-- if the kid has written "emansipashun" it'd been correct, but he added a "t" in a way which altered its pronunciation

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Zinoviev
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Re: Jeopardy!

#14 Post by Zinoviev » Tue Aug 06, 2013 10:54 am

From the NewsTimes.com story that Matrix linked:
The studio and viewing audience saw that, despite the scrawl of an extra "t'' in Emancipation, the 12-year-old had the correct answer.
Really? Scrawling an extra "t" clearly made it an incorrect answer.
"I was pretty upset that I was cheated out of the final `Jeopardy!' question. It was just a spelling error,'' said the Newtown Middle School student, who won $2,000 as the second runner-up.
Probably no need to overanalyze the kid's use of passive voice here, but what he's saying is very different from "I misspelled the word in a way that's recognizably close to the correct spelling, but Trebek didn't count it." The kid misspelled the word. Nobody cheated him out of anything.
"It's just upsetting to have lost that way. I don't know why it would have counted as the wrong answer."
And he still doesn't get it. The self-righteous indignation and entitlement will continue to grow, his family and friends will assure him that he's more sinned against than sinning, and six years from now, he'll be arguing with the TA who graded his calculus midterm about why he lost points for a misplaced decimal.

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Brian C
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Re: Jeopardy!

#15 Post by Brian C » Tue Aug 06, 2013 11:32 am

Zinoviev wrote:And he still doesn't get it. The self-righteous indignation and entitlement will continue to grow, his family and friends will assure him that he's more sinned against than sinning, and six years from now, he'll be arguing with the TA who graded his calculus midterm about why he lost points for a misplaced decimal.
But we get it - you want us to know how morally superior you are to this eighth grader. Message received. Enough already, you can quit picking on the kid.

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domino harvey
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Re: Jeopardy!

#16 Post by domino harvey » Tue Aug 06, 2013 11:35 am

He's obviously not picking on the kid but what the kid represents

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Jeopardy!

#17 Post by matrixschmatrix » Tue Aug 06, 2013 12:16 pm

I think I know the archetype being referred to here- I grew up with shockingly shitty rich kids, and I know more than enough teachers to be familiar with the 'change my kid's grade or I'll get you fired!" style of parenting- I just don't think it's fair to lump this kid in with them based on what we have here. He's upset about a ruling that, though fair inasmuch as it is consistent, is certainly something that would sting and feel unfair, and his parents are supporting him in feeling upset. I don't see any crazy lawsuits being filed or helicopter parenting or anything here, just a tiny little local news story (which probably would have run regardless just on 'local kid appears on Jeopardy!') that inexplicably made the wire services.

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Zinoviev
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Re: Jeopardy!

#18 Post by Zinoviev » Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:39 pm

domino harvey wrote:He's obviously not picking on the kid but what the kid represents
I guess not obviously enough for some. But I've got no dog in this fight, tis too starved a subject for my sword, blah blah blah. I'm sure the kid will go far and leave it at that.


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Moe Dickstein
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Re: Jeopardy!

#20 Post by Moe Dickstein » Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:15 pm

There was a guy last year who played that way, starting at the third clue and hunting around for the doubles, but he wasn't at all dickish about it and didn't speak over Alex or anything. I'm catching up a bunch of these and I actually started watching the Decades Tourney first so I'll see this guy's games soon.

I remember in the first season you were allowed to buzz in anytime and it actually made the game quite a bit harder to watch, and so they did institute a rule (or I thought they had) about waiting for Alex to finish before your buzzer was active.

Otherwise, if you can put in a bit of game theory and strategy, then I love it - makes the game more interesting and in the end it's all about winning.

Any Jeopardy! fans who have the time, I highly recommend Bob Harris' book "Escape from Trebekistan" about his experiences on the show. Really cool guy and good read.

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Polybius
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Re: Jeopardy!

#21 Post by Polybius » Tue Feb 11, 2014 3:28 am

It's a little jarring when somebody plays like that and, all in all, I would prefer to take the clues more or less in order to work up the difficulty scale but it's not that big a deal. Contestants aren't there to maximize our viewing pleasure. They're trying to get paid and sometimes that's the best way to do it.

Didn't he subsequently ring in and answer a more difficult (or at least more lucrative) question in that Halls of Fame category where he bet $5 earlier?

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jbeall
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Re: Jeopardy!

#22 Post by jbeall » Tue Feb 11, 2014 8:10 pm

Hunting for Daily Doubles is apparently a much better strategy, though Chu's not the first to try it.

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Andre Jurieu
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Re: Jeopardy!

#23 Post by Andre Jurieu » Mon Feb 24, 2014 6:40 pm

Not sure if anyone cares about this story anymore, but Chu was recently interviewed by AV Club, and he comes off much better than his TV screen presence (which he kind of acknowledges during the interview).

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Moe Dickstein
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Re: Jeopardy!

#24 Post by Moe Dickstein » Mon Feb 24, 2014 6:56 pm

We get back to his games tonight. I gotta say having watched his shows that he didn't really come off that dickish to me. If anything it was his skill at the game theory that kept him going rather than his level of knowledge.

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Moe Dickstein
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Re: Jeopardy!

#25 Post by Moe Dickstein » Tue Feb 25, 2014 5:59 am

Really loved this game. Seemed like Chu was faltering in single, but then just blew past the pack to have something like 4x second place for one of the most lopsided runaways ever. Plus there's no better feeling than knowing the Final answer when the three of them all miss it.

Can't wait for tomorrow :)

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