Out Of My Mind

Ever watch that show Jeopardy! Me too. Sometimes when I’m watching it I don’t know why I’m watching it because it makes me feel like an idiot. How do these contestants know some of the stuff they know? I especially feel dumb when the category is where you have to deconstruct words and add letters and while I’m still reading the question or answer if you will, sorry Mr. Jennings, someone in 2 seconds has come up with the answer. Here are some fast facts: A week’s worth of episodes are taped in a single day. Merv Griffin created the show and wrote the theme song “Think!” in the 1960s while trying to get his son Tony to fall asleep. Merv Griffin Enterprises was sold to Coca Cola in 1986 for $250 million. Merv retained the rights to the theme song which is played at the opening and during Final Jeopardy! Merv said he earned $3 million a year for 24 years off the theme. The most popular category is Before & After which as of 2020 the year Alex Trebek died had popped up 114 times. It requires the contestant to combine two responses to form one correct answer. One of those categories where I need more time but it has already been answered 5 seconds ago. Anyone who has competed on Jeopardy! is ineligible to compete on its sister show, Wheel of Fortune, and vice versa. Don’t know why this would be and I can’t imagine Jeopardy! and WoF contestants are from the same cloth. The sad part is if Ryan Seacrest makes more money than Ken Jennings, that would be an infamia. However, the chances of anyone getting on Jeopardy! are slim, only 0.4% of auditioners are accepted and yet you see that one contestant every now and then who rings in maybe 5 times during the whole game and answers incorrectly 3 out of those 5 times. I always feel bad when that person is just standing there with a blank stare with the thought cloud above their head “omg what have I done, I’m on national television and getting mopped up by these other 2 people.” Speaking of Ken Jennings, during his historic 74 show run he chose Tool Time for $200. Trebek presented him with the clue: “this term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.” Ken, a one-time volunteer missionary for the Church of Latter -Day Saints responded, “What is a hoe?” Oops. The correct answer was, “what is a rake?” And for that one little moment I didn’t feel so dumb.
Gunga, galunga
Garry