The Ultimate Jeopardy Challenge

We watch a lot of Jeopardy in our house. Our DVR records two episodes at day, and we try to keep current as much as possible. If we miss watching the show for a day or two, we’ll binge watch all our recorded episodes until we’re caught up. Even though it’s a 30 minute program, if you fast forward through the commercials and contestant introductions you can watch an episode in less than 20 minutes.

A few months ago, we started yelling out potential responses as Alex Trebek introduces the round’s categories. For example if there was a category called “Animals That Start With A,” one of us might shout out “aardvark” and someone else might yell “anteater.” There’s only about a second between each category as it’s named so there’s not a lot of time to think about the answers. Sometimes the answers will come up in the category and sometimes they won’t.

Shortly after that, we began trying to guess what the response to Final Jeopardy would be based only on the category. On each episode, Alex announces the category for Final Jeopardy shortly before going to commercial. When he returns, the question (it’s really the answer, I know) is revealed and contestants have 30 seconds to write down their answer (in the form of a question, I know). Our goal is to guess the proper response during the commercial break, before the question has ever been revealed.

Over the past three months, we’ve done it four times.

Morgan was the first one to pull it off. Last November, the category for Final Jeopardy was Home & Garden. Based on only that information, Morgan guessed “Garden Gnomes.” After the commercial, the question was revealed: “In 1847 eccentric horticulturalist Sir Charles Isham popularized these when he imported terra cotta ones from Nuremburg.” The correct response was in fact “Garden Gnomes.”

Susan was the second one to pull it off, although none of us can remember what the question was.

And then I did it, although I only get partial credit. The category? “Political Phrases.” I guessed “Hitch your wagon to a star,” in reference to FDR’s “New Deal.” The question? “Speechwriter Samuel Rosenman said FDR ‘attached no importance to’ this phrase, ‘two monosyllables’ in a 1932 speech.” The correct response was of course “New Deal.” I had the right jingle, just not the right words.

Susan pulled this trick off again over the weekend, the first one to have done it twice now. Last Friday, the category for Final Jeopardy was “2-Word World Capitals”. I guessed New Delhi and Susan guessed Addis Abeba, a word I thought she had made up on the spot. Thirty seconds later, the Final Jeopardy question was revealed: “From 1936 to 1941 this city was the capital of Italian East Africa.”

The answer? Addis Abeba.

Jeopardy is consistently one of the most difficult game shows to play along with. In any given category, we are thrilled when we get one or two questions right, and there are many categories where we don’t get a single clue correct. We don’t typically keep score while playing, but anyone who is able to guess Final Jeopardy before the question is asked is the automatic winner.