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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.')"
If Jennings were on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, he could already have more money by now (and it wouldn't take him a month to do it).
I'm actually really impressed that this man is getting so much respect (and money!) for how much he knows. Most of it is useless trivia, but to most people, that comes across as intelligence...a man is getting respect for his intelligence, on daytime TV. Awesome.
People being celebrated for their intelligence and wit, and not their looks or physical attributes. Are we still in America? What happened here?
:D
Anyone remember the episode of Sliders where Quinn (sp) was on the game show of extremely high level math and science questions (while throwing a ball). The perfect world for geeks
Wow, this article is lacking something... content maybe? Someone who has seen the show maybe?
Note his systematic habit of moving down the categories vertically, one by one, rather than skipping around the board.
Everyone does this.
His nearly preternatural ability to land on the hidden Daily Doubles.
The odds are much more in your favor for hitting the DD if you answer the most questions.
Sounds like Dana Stevens watched one episode and thought she understood. 2/3rds of the article isn't even about Jeopardy! or Ken. It's really amazing these kinds of journalists can get a job.
This is the Internet. You can say "fuck" here. - AC
This is not high esteem for a man who does well on a game show.
This is high esteem for a man who does well on a game show by showing of his gargantuan brain. This is high esteem for a man who has probably forgotten more trivia than most of us currently know. This is high esteem for a geek pressing his advantage in an arena suited to his forte.
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
"Tour de France pales next to the 25-game reign of Jeopardy!"
I'm sorry, but a 23 day 2235 mile, (3600 KM), race at full speed PALES?
Yesterday was the time trials, and the US Postal team finished first with an average speed of 33 MPH, 53 KPH.
That's amazing... and they'll keep doing it. With other racers such as Ullrich, Hamilton, Julich, etc, this is going to be a great year to watch the race.
Sure this fella on Jepoardy is smart, but we don't know if the show is trumping it up, now do we?
I mean... we can get one smart guy, and keep getting dumb challengers, and hey... look... wow.. he DEFINATELY looks smart, and won't loose.
Can anyone say, "ratings"... I mean, on a bad channel, and a bad time... they need something right?
At least the tour isn't fake, and everyone is at the same level, going for the same goal.
I'll take the Tour over any WB show anyday.
www.slightlycrewed.com - Because aren't we all?
"If his winning streak continues, Jennings could become the most celebrated software engineer in America." :)
Engineers can put probes on Mars and take pictures of Jupiter, but if you want to be celebrated, you must go on TV
Underholdning.info
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.
This isn't an outback-jack-who-wants-to-marry-a-midget-bachelor type of televised retardation that the reality shows are. You can't fake Jeopardy; either you know it and you're fast enough on the buzzer or you're dead in the water.
Finally someone revered on a gameshow for their mind, not their boobs or conniving.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
"There's not too many chances in life to rack up that kind of cash that quickly. He should and probably will take full advantage of it."
Even ignoring the fact that he's making so much money, I bet he's *enjoying* it. Who wouldn't want to have that much fun and then get paid for it?
What's astonishing to me is that *nobody* mentions that the only reason he's so far ahead of previous records is that in all previous seasons you were booted after 5 wins. Of *course* someone doing very well is going to beat records by a lot - anyone who did this well on any previous season would have left the show three weeks ago with a paltry 150K or so.
Sure, the guy's good. But there's no way to tell how much better he is than previous 5-day winners, because those previous winners never got the chance to show what they could do.