Peter Gabriel/Genesis On Jeopardy Tournament Of Champions

[BravadoNJ]

i saw a teen tournament a few years back where no one knew who Elvis Presley was.

[JKL2000]

I saw a screen grab of it. I think the clue referenced a trio.

Emerson, Lake, and Powell

But maybe it was “ in the ‘70s.”

[progmatist]

On Rock N Roll Jeopardy (a short lived mid 90's incarnation that aired on VH-1) had a clue that hinged on Boys Are Back In Town, though again, I've forgotten the exact details of how the clue was phrased or the topic title. So someone buzzes in with The Bus Boys (an early 80's R&B band who had a minor hit by that title), which was deemed incorrect. Naturally, the correct answer was Thin Lizzy.

On another episode of Rock n Roll Jeopardy, the final answer was something to the effect of, "Fittingly, they performed at Mount Rushmore" on such and such day. All 3 contestants wrote down "who are Rush?" and got the question wrong. I knew right away the correct question had to be "Who are the Presidents of the U.S.A.?" The contestants were transfixed on the name of the monument, rather than what it depicts.

BTW: Rock n Roll jeopardy was the only show I cared to watch, hosted by Jeff Probst.

[Progatron]

Rock n Roll jeopardy was the only show I cared to watch which was hosted by Jeff Probst.

It was pretty good, although there was a lot of garbage in there as well that had nothing to do with rock n roll IMO. But overall it was far more interesting for me to watch than regular Jeopardy, which is so fixated on American politics and the bible as categories that there was rarely an episode where I wasn't rolling my eyes. "This vice president blah blah blah..." Sooooo boring and meaningless to me. I guess a lot of people disagree, but it's why I couldn't watch it anymore.

[progmatist]

^^ Political trivia questions have to be limited to what contestants are likely to know. The original Weakest Link in the U.K. focused mainly on British politics. When it was exported to the U.S., the focus changed to American politics. How many people in the U.S. know anything about politics in Myanmar/Burma, even those knowledgeable enough to be Jeopardy contestants?

[Progatron]

^^ Political trivia questions have to be limited to what contestants are likely to know. The original Weakest Link in the U.K. focused mainly on British politics. When it was exported to the U.S., the focus changed to American politics. How many people in the U.S. know anything about politics in Myanmar/Burma, even those knowledgeable enough to be Jeopardy contestants?

That doesn't stop them from asking history, geography and art questions about far-off countries. However I suppose I simply find questions about politics boring, especially when they are trotted out ad nauseum. But then, I am a crankypants with trivia games because I hate mind-numbing questions about sports statistics as well. I love pretty much any other category however.

[GuitarGeek]

On another episode of Rock n Roll Jeopardy, the final answer was something to the effect of, "Fittingly, they performed at Mount Rushmore" on such and such day. All 3 contestants wrote down "who are Rush?" and got the question wrong. I knew right away the correct question had to be "Who are the Presidents of the U.S.A.?" The contestants were transfixed on the name of the monument, rather than what it depicts.

That's bizarre, given that was around the time Presidents Of The USA were actually big, wasn't it?

I sometimes have this feeling that MTV/VH-1 liked to play up the stereotypical "stupidity" of rock music fans. Cases in point:

Beavis And Butthead: Mike Judge stated at the time part of his motivation/inspiration for B&B was to make fun of heavy metal bands and their audience.

That Metal Show: would have been a great show if it had been just Eddie Trunk interviewing musicians, playing videos, maybe showing bands performing (yeah, I know they claimed they didn't have the budget, which only demonstrates that VH-1 were a bunch of cheapskates). Instead, they added these two so called stand up comedians who kinda ruined the program by playing up the "arrested adolescence" aspect of "heavy metal", and in the worst possible way, too.

The there were those cartoon shorts they had for the last couple years before VH-1 Classic morphed into MTV Classic, where they showed the three idiots going on about their "band", which didn't actually exist. They were kinda funny, but after awhile it just got stupid.

BTW: Rock n Roll jeopardy was the only show I cared to watch, hosted by Jeff Probst.

Wait. You mean Probst hosted something besides Rock & Roll Jeopardy. All seriousness aside, everything I know about Survivor, I learned from watching Letterman (who went through a phase where he'd have whoever the latest castoff on his show the following week, Paul Shaffer would usually ask if they saw any "crazy monkey sex", to Dave's apparently chagrin).

It was pretty good, although there was a lot of garbage in there as well that had nothing to do with rock n roll IMO. But overall it was far more interesting for me to watch than regular Jeopardy, which is so fixated on American politics and the bible as categories that there was rarely an episode where I wasn't rolling my eyes. "This vice president blah blah blah..." Sooooo boring and meaningless to me. I guess a lot of people disagree, but it's why I couldn't watch it anymore.

I saw an interview with Art Fleming on TV back in the 90's (probably not too long before he passed away) and he said there were three things he didn't like about the Trebek hosted version of the show:

1. The pace is too slow: on the original Jeopardy you could buzz in as soon as Art started reading the clue. People would reckon they knew a lot about a given topic, so they'd take a chance that they'd know the correct response, even before the clue had been revealed. By contrast, on the second incarnation of the show, you can't buzz in until Alex is done reading the clue, so it's much slower, and maybe not as frenetic, as a result.

2. They don't let the losers keep the money: on the original show, even you ended up with just 5 bucks at the end of Final Jeopardy and came in third place, they let you keep that five bucks (less any taxes, I imagine, of course). Art was fond of saying to the third place contestant, "So sorry, but at least you have plane fare home".

3. The questions are too easy. Art said there was one where the correct response was Quebec, in a topic of "Things that start with Q". He said he cornered one of the producers at a trade show later and said "Name ay besides Quebec that starts with Q", and the guy couldn't do it. I also remember there being things that hinged on what "SCUBA" stands for. Really? I knew that when I was like 5 years old.

^^ Political trivia questions have to be limited to what contestants are likely to know. The original Weakest Link in the U.K. focused mainly on British politics. When it was exported to the U.S., the focus changed to American politics. How many people in the U.S. know anything about politics in Myanmar/Burma, even those knowledgeable enough to be Jeopardy contestants?

Yes you're right, which made demonstrates how stupid Americans are. In 2006, I rode on a train from Amsterdam to Paris. While on the train I started talking to two Dutch women, and we started talking about who the candidates in the coming US Presidential election. One of them said she thought it would be great if it was Hilary Clinton vs Condoleeza Rice! I couldn't believe I was talking to a Dutch woman, in Holland (in English!), who knew who Condoleeza Rice was!

I don't even remember what position Condoleeza Rice held in the Bush Jr cabinet, but I defy you to find me an American who could tell me her counterpart in any other country's government! Hell, most Americans (me included) probably can't even tell you who the Canadian PM is. Well, I know there was a guy back in the 70's named Pierre Trudeau, but that's largely because there was a rumor back in the day that hinged on Mick Jagger fooling around with PM Trudeau's wife (also, it's easy to remember because Doonesbury is written/drawn by the apparently unrelated Gary Trudeau).

Most of the world leaders Americans can name are people like Momar Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khomenini, Kim Jong Un, etc, i.e. the guys who names get mentioned every night on the evening news (and yes, I'm aware of the fact one of the guys I named died back in the 80's, two of the others are, in the words of Rip Torn in Canadian Bacon, "ALSO DEAD!", that's not my point, my point is that if Qaddaffi, Hussein, and Khomenini hadn't repeatedly made headline news during the respective reigns of terror, most Americans wouldn't even know who they were).

But ask them who the PM of Japan or England or the Chancellor of Germany is. OK, I know the current Chancellor of Germany is Angela Merkel, but I couldn't tell you any of her predecessors were. I mean besides Hitler, dummy! And I'll bet you dollars to donuts a lot of Americans couldn't even give you Hitler!

(I'm not making that last point up, I saw a documentary back in the 80's where they asking high schools questions like "Who was the first American President?" or "Who did we fight in WWII" or "Who won WWII". I can assure you, a lot of them drew blanks on those questions)

[GuitarGeek]

At least he didn't say Toxeth O'Grady.

Stickiest bogey. Everyone knows that. Must've been from all the marshmallows.

I think it was Wikipedia where I read there was a University Challenge where someone, stuck for an answer, actually did give "Toxeth O'Grady, USA" as an answer, some years after that Young Ones episode aired.

It might’ve been “a minor hit” but I believe the song was featured in the movie “Beverly Hills Cop.” The band might’ve even been shown playing it?

Your point being what? Just because it was in some movie, even an iconic Eddie Murphy movie (and Halmyre is right, it was in 48 Hours) doesn't change the fact it wasn't the song they were thinking of in that episode of Rock & Roll Jeopardy. As I recall, the clue was phrased in such a fashion that only Thin Lizzy could have been the right answer.

Another one I remember from regular Jeopardy. The clue was something to the effect of "Lionel Ritchie went to number one, while dancing here" (I think the topic was hits of whichever year), and the first buzzed in with "Stuck On You". Huh?! Yeah, Stuck On you was Lionel's first solo hit, but the actual answer, and the only one that would have made sense was, of course, Dancing On The Ceiling. The way the guy gave the answer, I think he just had a brain fart, he knew what the right answer was, but somehow his mouth didn't get memo.

I also remember one where one of the topics was "Genesis", and whoever got to select the first topic says "I assume that's the book of the Bible, and not the band?".

I also remember Arthur Brown's Fire being used in an Audio Daily Double. The Clue was something like "This was the only US hit for which artist". And at the time, I couldn't remember the name either.

[Halmyre]

I'll have Anal Bum Cover for $100.

I've never seen a single episode of Jeopardy but I reckon I've seen every Celebrity Jeopardy skit.

[Frankh]

I'll have Anal Bum Cover for $100.

I've never seen a single episode of Jeopardy but I reckon I've seen every Celebrity Jeopardy skit.

Big hat. It's funny.

No it's not, Burt.

Yeah, it is. Big hat. Funny.

Turd Ferguson

[Scott Bails]

2. They don't let the losers keep the money: on the original show, even you ended up with just 5 bucks at the end of Final Jeopardy and came in third place, they let you keep that five bucks (less any taxes, I imagine, of course). Art was fond of saying to the third place contestant, "So sorry, but at least you have plane fare home".

Trebek has explained that. They don't want the contestants to play to win money. They want them to play to win the game. This affects strategy and how much they're willing to wager on the final question.

3. The questions are too easy. Art said there was one where the correct response was Quebec, in a topic of "Things that start with Q". He said he cornered one of the producers at a trade show later and said "Name ay besides Quebec that starts with Q", and the guy couldn't do it. I also remember there being things that hinged on what "SCUBA" stands for. Really? I knew that when I was like 5 years old.

Part of the show's appeal is for those watching at home to be able to play. If the questions are too hard, people will lose interest ("It's not getting any smarter out there" - Frank Zappa)

[miamiscot]

This thread was in danger of becoming an "I hate Survivor" thing...

Don't go there.