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The Man Who Knew Too Much
theodp writes "For thrilling competition, Slate says the Tour de France pales next to the 25-game reign of Jeopardy! supercontestant Ken Jennings. The 30-year-old software engineer has won a total of $788,960, beating the previous record-holder by a margin of over $600,000. Watching KenJen play is like witnessing any great athlete in top form: He's the Michael Jordan of trivia, the Seabiscuit of geekdom, and his antics have once again made Jeopardy! required viewing. (Update: 26 wins and $828,960: 'When Jennings ran the Marvel comics category during the second round, host Alex Trebek asked: Have you done anything besides read comics? It pays to be a nerd, Jennings responded.')"
There are more hens & chicken that humans on earth.
Oh lord, I hope they don't make a movie about this guy forty years from now and expose him as some kind of patsy in an elaborate scheme to sell more vitamin juice for old people.
I also reply below your current threshold.
a man is getting respect for his intelligence, on daytime TV. Awesome
Respect. On Daytime TV?
Interesting.
May the Maths Be with you!
Alex secretly envies Ken Jennings, I swear.
Two freaks, no foes. It takes absolutely nothing to make some people angry.
Maybe he's planning that for the encore. Double his money in a single day's work!
...and bow before him for he is the Alpha-Nerd!
>> Practice Safe Hex
Its like watching the lakers/bulls win over and over, now I just tune in to watch him lose
Can you imagine what a Beowolf cluster of KenJens would be like?
...welcome our new trivia overlords.
Once you lick the lollipop of mediocrity, you'll suck forever!
And he'd give it all up for a kiss from a girl :(...
"Here's a spoiler: You're will die alone."-Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
If our culture is headed down the path of having high esteem for people who appear and do successfully on game shows--boy are we screwed.
Yeah, we need to get back to the traditional values of throwing a ball and running fast.
Jeopardotted?
The producers find him to be aliability rather than someone who draws viewers... kinda boring if you know who is going to win... Every month I watch Formula 1 and know Shewie is going to win the race... boring for most...
I can just see the episode where they decide to get rid of him.
Tonight on Jepordy, our topics are, Gregorian chants, obscure bible quotes, saints you never heard of, books on the shelf in the Vatican, name that martyr and bubblegum. Challenging our 50th show winner is Cardinal Pompus Knowitall and the Pope... good luck contestants.
flinging poop since 1969
For example, I know that if you are standed at the North Pole and are starving and are ... and
a) foolish enough to try and kill a polar bear
b) lucky enough to succeed
do NOT eat the liver as it will kill you because it is loaded with Vitamin A (as discovered by some hapless explorers many years ago!).
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
Ah slashdot, the home of generalisations.
On Millionaire, who the heck would he call for his Lifeline?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
You must have seen the wrong celebrity jeopardy. You need to see the ones that aired on SNL. Those guys are awesome.... expecially Sean Connery
I guess he is "Gloria" from "White men can't jump!"...
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
Imagine a beowulf cluster of KenJens.
Oh yes -- I went there.
Forget who he'd call -- this guy is the ultimate "phone a friend".
Afraid of the Canadian Linux user groups/lynch mobs?
Nope, you get frostbite.
You have to take your gloves off to remove the foil.
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
New slashdot poll maybe?
Once the producers decide that the never losing fad gets old:
-They enter Trebek as both host and contestant.
-Jeopardy goes the way of reality television and the other contestants vote him off the show.
-Knowing that women are Kryptonite to nerds, they make an entire show with non-pornographic female-related questions.
I think the obvious answer is the simplest one:
He is a cybernetic mutant from the future that was programmed to have all of the answers to a series of game show questions so that he could be sent back in time, win the prize money, and then use said money to fund his killing spree which eventually allows the robots to rise up and take over the earth while only a handful of humans remain plotting to overthrow the robot regime and one day reign supreme again.
And hookers. He is going to blow a ton of that cash on whores.
I know I would.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Slate says the Tour de France pales
That's Tour de Freedom if you please.
For example the conclusion: "Fighting a war on two fronts is bad", could be reached either by abstract reasoning along the lines of how a two front war would divide one's resources and increase the chance of loosing the war. Or you could form an analogy to Germany loss in WWI.
The way I see it, they compliment eachother.
Abstract Reasoning: Why Analogy, what a nice dress you're wearing today!
Analogy: Abstract, where did you get that scarf? You always show such remarkable taste.
When I watch Jeopardy!, I childishly yell out "Triple Stumper!" whenever I know the correct response and all three of the contestants either get it wrong or don't respond, and I'll sometimes do a little dance.
And if that happens during Final Jeopardy, I yell out "Final Jeopardy Triple Stumper!" and I'll break into an extended, elaborate dance, not unlike a wide receiver dancing in the endzone after a touchdown. I get maybe one of those every three months. The evening when I performed that dance while watching Jeopardy! with my girlfriend and her parents is particularly memorable.
Then there was a friend of mine who got a "Ultimate Mega Final Jeopardy Triple Stumper," where he correctly guessed the response before the clue was even given, knowing only the category, and all three contestants got it wrong. As I recall, his head exploded. That was quite a day.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
If you're going to reliably answer a question about who happened to be president in a given year, then you pretty much have to know the entire chronology of the presidency
Just like if you had a towel then you pretty much have to be in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc.
Because they spent all their time watching Jeopardy instead of working?
Um, you apparently don't know the origin of Jeopardy. You know how they give you the answers on Jeopardy instead of a question. Think hard....
It started out as a parody of Quiz Show. But it's on the up and up, Ken's just a smart guy.
Do you have ESP?
My best Wheel of Fortune guess was:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
(person)
I walked in when this puzzle flashed on the screen and I said, "Senator Barry Goldwater" and it was. No letters at all.
Back in high school I was captain of my school's Scholar's Bowl team. In our championship game, we were really nervous and had too much caffeine before the match. The moderator started the game:
"Toss up number one: Sher..."
My finger slipped and I pressed my button. We had to answer or the other team could hear the entire question. So I said, "Robin Hood" and got it right. We won the match -- I think the other team got a bit demoralized.
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness
Hey did you notice they moved where they do the interview on Jeopardy now?
Ya it used to be right in the middle of single Jeopardy and now they do it right after single Jeopardy.
Ya, it's much better isn't it?
Oh, n-no comparison.
I think it's impossible for my Slashdot-oriented brain to process "software" and "Utah" and "domination" all in the same sentence, and have it end up positive.
Positive or Negative: Novell NetWare, version 2.x, circa 1988, almost 100% market share
Positive or Negative: Novell SuSE Linux/Ximian "dotGNU", version 10.x, circa 2008, almost 100% market share
If I was on millionaire and lost on one question, I'd totally be like "I must have put a decimal point in the wrong place or something. Shit. I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail."
$8.95/mo web hosting
his winnings for that day were only $14,000, which was his lowest in all 25 games.
Yeah, I really felt bad for the poor guy that day.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I am pretty sure that is illegal, based upon my extensive knowledge of the movie Quizshow.
Congratulations. you get the joke. However, it is stupdendously unfunny to explain the punchline in such a literal way.
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
Bah, anyone can ride a bike. But how many people know the combination to Kirk's safe in episode 25, where the crew of the Enterprise gets attacked by these spores and started acting real weird, like hippies and stuff.
I'd just like to say... GET A LIFE, will you? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just BICYCLING! I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed, pink and black SPANDEX! You've turned an enjoyable little toy, that we all played with for a few years as children, into a COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
You think the audience members get out of the studio alive? Where do you think Soylent Green comes from?
Finally someone revered on a gameshow for their mind, not their boobs or conniving
Too bad Ken Jennings doesn't have boobs. Just imagine the ratings.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Naw, no dot in "Jeopardy" (see the "dot" in "slashdot"). I'd just say that the site's present existance is in jeopardy.
funny munging
I'm glad there's someone to put Trebeck in his place
Well, there are always Norm MacDonald...
"Turd Furgusen... it's a funny name"
Yeah! Digital recorders for developing nations now! It's the only humanly responsible thing to do!
Jeopardead.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Here's one for you, along the same vein...
...and it was right. Unfortunately, we got smoked that round.
We were at the state Knowledge Bowl tourney and, somewhere in the middle of the 2nd round, we were in a 4-5 question set of "parts of speech" or somesuch. I accidentally hit the buzzer before the reader could completely get out the "what" at the start of the question. My team-mates glared at me, thinking that, for certain, I had blown the point. I said the first thing that came to mind...
"Past Participle"
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
No, no, no!
If he had taken both, he'd have no more heartburn!
ND
This statement is forty-five characters long.
Sam Adams: always the right choice.
Reminds me of the first time I ever saw someone on the old Name That Tune say, "I can name that tune in no notes!"
The story would be much more entertaining, of course, if the tune in question had been John Cage's 4'33".