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.')"

Fun fact:

[Anonymous Coward]

There are more hens & chicken that humans on earth.

movie?

[maxbang]

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.

Re:Proud?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

a man is getting respect for his intelligence, on daytime TV. Awesome

Respect. On Daytime TV?
Interesting.

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Re:He's on the wrong show.

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe he's planning that for the encore. Double his money in a single day's work!

All Hail...

[petepac]

...and bow before him for he is the Alpha-Nerd!

Comparison

[scaltagi_the_pirate]

Its like watching the lakers/bulls win over and over, now I just tune in to watch him lose

Can you imagine...

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you imagine what a Beowolf cluster of KenJens would be like?

I for one...

[digithead]

...welcome our new trivia overlords.

$828,960 won so far...

[Brain Stew]

And he'd give it all up for a kiss from a girl :(...

Re:Culture

[EriDay]

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.

Re:Jeopardy hub-bub

[sglane81]

Suck it, Trebek! - as Sean Connery on SNL Celebrity Jeopardy

Re:Jeopardy hub-bub

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll take the "Penis mightier than the sword for $400 Alex"

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Jeopardy hub-bub

[sglane81]

"Anal Bum Covers for $600, Alex"

Re:Tonari no Totoro

[D-Cypell]

Jeopardotted?

Re:All Hail...

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one hail our new Alpha-Nerd master.


If this gets modded up I'm gonna kick myself.

How long till...

[howman]

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.

Re:Proud?

[AGMW]

Nothing is not worth knowing.

For example, I know that if you are standed at the North Pole and are starving and are
a) foolish enough to try and kill a polar bear ... and
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!).

Re:Can you imagine...

[Kingpin]

Uh.. What is google?

Re:Pales?

[TwistedSquare]

All those guys (most of them)

Ah slashdot, the home of generalisations.

Re:He's on the wrong show.

[AndroidCat]

On Millionaire, who the heck would he call for his Lifeline?

Re:Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Proud?

[IdleTime]

I guess he is "Gloria" from "White men can't jump!"...

Re:He's on the wrong show.

[Solar Limb]

Imagine a beowulf cluster of KenJens.

Oh yes -- I went there.

Re:He's on the wrong show.

[cuzality]

Forget who he'd call -- this guy is the ultimate "phone a friend".

Re:Proud?

[AGMW]

Btw when you're there, don't try to survive eating penguins - but I won't tell you why :-)
Afraid of the Canadian Linux user groups/lynch mobs?

Nope, you get frostbite.

You have to take your gloves off to remove the foil.

How he finally loses

[nukeade]

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.

Occam's Razor

[AssFace]

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.

Tour de Freedom

[cimber]

Slate says the Tour de France pales

That's Tour de Freedom if you please.

Re:Proud?

[pangloss]

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.

Jeopardy addict, am I

[The I Shing]

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.

just like a towel

[emilng]

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.

Re:Jeopardy hub-bub

[sindarin2001]

I'll take "Anal bum covers" Alex.

Re:Jeopardy hub-bub

[vgaphil]

"The day is mine Trebek!"

Re:Proud?

[blacksway]

Because they spent all their time watching Jeopardy instead of working?

Re:Jeopardy hub-bub

[imranius]

Trebek: Your answer...[screen reads "Buck"]
Oh, I'm sorry...that must be your wager.
A Buck. And you answer is... [ screen reads "Futter" ] Futter.
Buck Futter, I don't get it.

Connery: Ohhhh...I think you do, Trebek. I think you do, indeed!

Trebek: Well, thanks for joining us...

Sean Connery: [ yelling ] Buck Futter!!

Re:Reminds me of "Quiz Show"

[Trailer Trash]

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.

Re:How long till...

[scotch]

Since he is a mormon, we were joking last night that if they want to get rid of him, they should do these categroies:

• Drug paraphenalia (sp?)
• Wicca
• Theory of Evolution
• Gagsta Rap
• Prostitution

Re:Wheel of Fortune Re:Jeopardy addict, am I

[cmpalmer]

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.

Re:Proud?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

An old friend in Utah...

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

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

Re:He's on the wrong show.

[Anonymous Custard]

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."

Re:Incredible

[Alsee]

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.

-

Re:Incredible (Conspiracy theory follows)

[Anonymous Coward]

I am pretty sure that is illegal, based upon my extensive knowledge of the movie Quizshow.

Re:just like a towel

[El_Smack]

Dude, if you have a towel, you don't need all that other stuff.

Re:He's on the wrong show.

[recursiv]

Congratulations. you get the joke. However, it is stupdendously unfunny to explain the punchline in such a literal way.

Re:Tour does not Pale in comparison

[Alsee]

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!

-

Re:How do they keep the audience quiet?

[GeoGreg]

You think the audience members get out of the studio alive? Where do you think Soylent Green comes from?

Re:Culture

[Alsee]

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.

-

Re:Tonari no Totoro

[GlassUser]

Naw, no dot in "Jeopardy" (see the "dot" in "slashdot"). I'd just say that the site's present existance is in jeopardy.

Re:He's on the wrong show.

[damien_kane]

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"

Re:Proud?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah! Digital recorders for developing nations now! It's the only humanly responsible thing to do!

Re:Tonari no Totoro

[daeley]

Jeopardead.

Re:Wheel of Fortune Re:Jeopardy addict, am I

[ameoba]

Here's one for you, along the same vein...

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" ...and it was right. Unfortunately, we got smoked that round.

Re: your sig

[NuclearDog]

No, no, no!

If he had taken both, he'd have no more heartburn! [purplepill.com]

ND

Re:He's on the wrong show.

[nlindstrom]

You can travel around the world and not find a better phone-a-friend than Samual Adams.

Sam Adams: always the right choice.

Re:Wheel of Fortune Re:Jeopardy addict, am I

[Ray Radlein]

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!" ...and succeed.

The story would be much more entertaining, of course, if the tune in question had been John Cage's 4'33".