Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Kale, Caesar!

Do you think they meant it to be funny,
or just a coincidence?
Hail, Caesar!
Sounds Like a Jeopardy! Category -- the way they love puns!

Speaking of which . . .

I have been shocked, shocked recently by the plethora of missed clues! We have follwed Jeopardy! for years, but more and more, the show seems to resemble a random fact contest rather than a challenge of cultural literacy.

Sadly, just the other day, no one knew that Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day -- didn't I just explain this (and not for the first time!) a few weeks ago? Sigh.

It's tough when the missed answer is a topic dear to your heart. My son was dismayed when no one knew that Aldous Huxley wrote The Doors of Perception. He couldn't help himself: "These fools on Jeopardy need some education. This is why society is going to sh-t."

We all happened to be watching on the infamous evening when none of the contestants could fill in the blank with the word hallowed.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, ________ be thy name."

On the same night, no one knew that

1. “Gentian” = blue

2. “Gather ye rosebuds” = a poetic metaphor for youth

3. National Velvet = a horse novel / movie starring Elizabeth Taylor

4. Big Daddy = father figure from the play / movie Cat in a Hot Tin Roof -- also starring Elizabeth Taylor, but that wasn’t part of the question. Still, it made me feel kinda bad for Elizabeth Taylor. One by one her big films are losing their currency. Even though two different titles popped up — in two different categories — no one recognized either one. Poor Liz! Alas, I've seen this has happen before to Judy Garland & Robert Redford.

A few days after "The Lord's Prayer" fiasco, we watched a 2022 re-run with another string of embarrassing non - answers. All on the same show, no one guessed

1. that Sugarloaf Mountain is in Rio de Janeiro

2. the meaning of the phrase How many angels on the head of pin

3. the color pattern of the Luna moth (visual cue)

4. the identity of Zooey Deschanel

A cartoon which pretty well captures
the typical Jeopardy! contestant's
knowledge of the Old & New Testaments:
Additional recent biblical misses:

1.
the meaning of "prodigal," as in "Prodigal Son"

2.
A: Ancient biblical manuscripts discovered in 1947.
Q:

No one guessed "The Dead Sea Scrolls" . . .
but someone guessed "The Ten Commandments."
Sigh . . .

3. (on 12 July)
A: What book of the Bible contains the quote:
"Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death."

Q: The 23rd Psalm -- right?
[Actually, "23rd" was not required;
all you had to say was "Psalms."
But no one could even do that!

Okay, so the Jeopardy contestants
havent been to Sunday School,
but don’t they even go to funerals anymore?
Maybe that’s no longer a thing . . .

*******************

P.S.
Not forgetting Weird Al:
Sometimes ya just have to sing along:
I Lost On Jeopardy!

P.P.S.
Not about Jeopardy:
For years, I have merged this
Ray Stevens / Barry Manilow
parody with Weird Al;
too many tabs open in my brain!
Maybe if I post it here, I can remember:

"We need you now Barry Manilow,
no one else can make us feel so yucky . . . "


P.P.P.S.
Not forgetting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
"Avē Imperātor / Caesar moritūrī tē salūtant"
["Hail, Emperor / Caesar,
those who are about to die salute you"]

P.P.P.P.S.
On Erik's fb page
& Such Stuff as Dreams

22 comments:

  1. June 29, 2023 ~ Victoria & Albert (Museum)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Recent Jeopardy Dismay:

    No one knew “Bridget Jones’s Diary”

    Okay, I guess I can accept that.

    But tonight, no one could name J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as writers of fantasy.

    I think this means none of them had read / watched Hobbit or Narnia.

    And a mix up between the Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX.

    Yes, there’s a connection; but really?

    ReplyDelete
  3. No one could guess what this abbreviation means in the game of bridge:
    S.H.D.C.
    I've never been much of a card player, but even I knew that!

    Also, a Double Jeopardy miss on Ayn Rand's novel "We the Living," one of my high school favorites. Would they have recognized one of her other titles? Doubtful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Where do the tourists visit St. Mark's Square?

    Venice, anyone? Uh, nope. No one knew!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I understand that perhaps not every American is aware of Gertrude Stein, but the North Star?

    The North Star = Polaris

    Gertrude Stein = "a rose is a rose is a rose"

    ReplyDelete
  6. Andrew Lloyd Webber and who?
    Tim Rice, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The question was: "To whom is God speaking?"

    The clue: "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." ~Genesis 3:14, KJV

    The answer . . .

    Okay, I have to be shocked that no one on tonight's Championship Jeopardy recognized the serpent in the Garden of Eden. So much for archetypal mythology and cultural literacy. Sigh . . .

    ReplyDelete
  8. Do I have to stop watching this show?

    Worst miss of the day:

    "The basic belief that men and women have equal rights."

    How about "What is feminism?"

    Anybody??? Nobody. OMG!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Q:
    Fill in the blank: "The Gold Bug" & "The Lottery"
    are examples of short ______________?
    A: What are STORIES!!! Duh!!!

    Q: How do mushrooms reproduce?
    A. How about "Spores"? Duh!!!

    PS. Apparently these 3 contestants didn't go to very good high schools. Sigh . . .

    ReplyDelete
  10. "Goods & chattels" ~ could be that this phrase is losing its currency

    ReplyDelete
  11. Chaucer? Coleridge? Whoosh! Whoosh! Even at the Tournament of Champions, no one could identify The Wife of Bath or the The Ancient Mariner.

    ReplyDelete
  12. No one recognized a full - length photo of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I wonder if they would have recognized one of his paintings?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Who ya gonna call . . .

    No one knew that Harry Truman lived in Independence .

    No one knew that Shirley Chisolm campaigned for President.

    No one knew about the Judgment of Paris.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sad to say on the last night of the Jeopardy Invitational Tournament, two questions about Shakespeare went unanswered:

    one from "Hamlet":

    Complete the phrase “This above all ___"

    "TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE”

    and one about "The Merry Wives of Windsor":

    Verdi’s “Falstaff” is set in this town during the reign of Henry IV

    WHAT IS WINDSOR?

    https://fikklefame.com/final-jeopardy-4-9-24/

    ReplyDelete
  15. And yet another:
    Q: Already in the form of a question . . .
    A: "Wherefore art thou Romeo."

    And a few weeks back, no one could guess
    "Ralph Waldo Emerson."

    ReplyDelete
  16. Honestly, last night, no one could identify "The Age of Anxiety" or knew that Tums contain calcium!

    Me, I've had a stomachache & a headache all my life, but apparently not these three contestants!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sadly tonight, no one on Jeopardy! could guess that the omitted words were "promised land":

    "And I've seen the ________ ____. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the ________ ____. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sad, no takers for:

    The Golden Calf

    Bonanza

    ReplyDelete
  19. "Canterbury" was in the clue . . .

    But no one could think of "Chaucer."

    ReplyDelete
  20. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Aged Parents of . . .

    John the Baptist, anyone? anyone? anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Abraham Lincoln: "With malice toward none
    with ________ for all . . . "

    No one could answer "charity"

    ReplyDelete