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Ken Jennings Gets a New Challenge
insomniakxz writes "Producers of Jeopardy announced Tuesday a "Super Tournament," which will pit Jennings in a final match against two survivors of a competition between nearly 150 past five-time winners with a prize of $2 million. Host Alex Trebek called the tournament the "quest for Ken.""
He not only knows just about everything, but he's also remarkably good at putting together the pieces and figuring out a tough question that he didn't already know.
I remember one question "After several decades off it, works by this man seen here have returned to The New York Times bestsellers list in 2003"
He didn't recognize the picture at all, but figured it might be Tolkein given the LOTR craze (nobody else got it). That's damn quick thinking, and he answers a lot of questions that way, i.e. without knowing the answer beforehand - he works through trivia questions the way you'd work a math problem. Most jeopardy players rely solely on their memory banks, and that's how he beats them.
ken jennings was the best thing to happen to jeopardy in years. . .
:)
what a way to grab more ratings
They went with the wrong theme, clearly they should pit Ken Jennings against Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds... er.. Turd Ferguson.
"I've gotta ask you about 'the Penis Mightier'"
"No, no, no, no, no, that is 'the Pen is Mightier'"
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Ken is a Jeopardy producer's wet dream. I imagine weeks before he lost, Trebek, et al. were trying to figure out how to wring more rating from the lowly Mormon kid.
They might as well just write him the check and have him dress up in a monkey outfit and dance around on stage for a couple of hours.
Maybe they could rip off Ben Stein and create a pilot for "Win Ken Jenning's Money". Oh, and make it for more than $3K a show.
I'm just wondering, does anyone think another contestant has a chance?
Ken went for so many days because he's smart... after he's played for over a month of shows he has such a big advantage. Other players might have been on 10 shows at most (tournaments), but they didn't have the exposure Ken did.
Someone would have to be a lot better to beat Ken, but I haven't seen other contestants play.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Ken Jennings was not available for comment, as he was busy sorting his money by the years in which the individual bills were printed. He then went about adding another 1000 movies to his list of favorite movies.
I know TV networks are always desperate for ratings, but isn't this going a bit far?
Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that matters only to them
Host Alex Trebek called the tournament the "quest for Ken."
But in the year 2020, people will look back upon the event and remember it as "the day of ownage by that young Mormon dude."
I'm fairly convinced the man is a cyborg with a constant uplink to google. One good way to test is to ask about french military victories, which would make Ken say "What is 'French military defeats.'" If you don't get that joke... It's not a hit on the french, just look it up.
"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." -Mahatma Gandhi
...than "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Finally, we'll see people winning millions by answering... "answers" like "These particles are either baryonic or fermionic" rather than bullshit questions like "What is the capital of California? A) Los Angeles B) San Diego C) Sacremento D) Dollywood"
I can't understand people who are "getting sick" of Ken Jennings. Why should he automatically be limited to the standard 15 minutes? He's reportedly the new spokesman for Encarta. Tell me why he shouldn't be a bona fide celeb after what he did for all those weeks.
And now, for a sig that's a complete copout.
Getting a female to talk to him without looking at his wallet.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Ken Jennings, software engineer, went on an unprecedented 75-show tear without losing on JEOPARDY! He won $2.5 million. He became a hero to nerds everywhere, making this /. newsworthy.
And now, for a sig that's a complete copout.
Ah, nothing quite like mocking the question and then spelling the correct answer... incorrectly.
Will the Quest for Ken be anything at all like the Quest for Fire? Will there be more dialog?
"An Album Cover"
Anal bum cover
And of course:
Alex Trebek: And finally, Sean Connery's also here let's move on to Double Jeopardy where the categories -
Sean Connery: Not so fast Trebek.
Alex Trebek: I really thought that was going to work.
Sean Connery: Well, you were wrong, you mountebank. I pose a conundrum to ya, I riddle if you will
Alex Trebek: I don't want to hear it.
Sean Connery: What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold? One's a sick duck and I can't remember how it ends, but your mother's a whore.
Or does he ever miss? I've only heard about this guy through a friend.
Video clip of one of Ken's funnier misses.
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I was watching a WWTBAM episode back when that was happening. It was a celebrity show that night. I remember they asked a Fastest Finger question where they screwed up the answer. Basically it was 'put these movie titles in chronological order based on the day of the week mentioned in their title.' One of the choices was "Any Given Sunday". I don't recall the rest. When the answers were tallied that movie however was listed last in the answer (ie, they said the week started on Monday instead of Sunday). A "week" is defined in the Gregorian calendar system as "a period of seven consecutive days starting on Sunday." And of course the Gregorian calendar is used throughout most of the modern world. Opps. A small mistake on their part. I'm actually quite surprised that simple of a mistake got through their editors and research dept. I've never seen a mistake quite so simple on Jeopardy before. They probably put out a lot more effort than WWTBAM did.
"He can click the buzzer faster than any human mind could comprehend. He wins becuase no one else gets a chance to answer."
Maybe they should ask him 'How do you manage to beat your opponents?' as a quiz question.
- "They misunderestimated me."
Ken Jennings would be the man.
The first capital of California is "C".
rewriting history since 2109
"The quest for Ken" is a bit of a word-play. According to the online Merriam Webster dictionary, ken is "the range of perception, understanding, or knowledge."
Ha ha ha! Alex Trebek kills me!
--The Programming goddess from Gorflaz
What is news about Ken Jennings doing on a "News for Nerds" site?!?!?
And our last category "Genius's at Jeapourdy"
Ken: I'll take Genius's at Jeapourdy for 2,000 Alec.
Alec: This man will win today.
*buzzzz*
Ken: Who am i?
--First unix command to enter jeapourdy.
That's not how Jeopardy is played. A half second after Alex finishes reading the question, a light goes on. If you buzz in before the light goes on, you're locked out for a little while.
The trick is to be the first person to buzz in after the light goes on. If you're waiting for the light to go on, you'll not get in. You have to get into Alex's reading tempo and the speed of the guy running the light, so that you anticipate the light going on and not wait for your reflexes to react to the light.