Comedian Dane Cook and The A.V. Club have had a contentious relationship over the years. We hate his comedy, and, well, he disingenuously invited us on a spa weekend. But, hey, that doesn’t mean we can’t acknowledge good work when it happens. He’s kinda great in Mr. Brooks, for instance, and, on Sunday, he posted…
It’s 3 p.m.! Let The A.V. Club briefly make use of the waning hours of your productivity with some pop culture ephemera pulled from the depths of YouTube.
Long-time Jeopardy! fans know that the show’s writers like to get creative with their category titles, threading in themes, rhymes, and fun little punchlines for attentive fans to catch. (An example from a recent episode: The actor-focused “Jeff Bridges” in the first round leading into the geographical “Beaux Bridges”…
Jeopardy! has had its fair share of famous players over the years, from Anderson Cooper to Willy Wonka’s Mike Teavee to Austin Rogers, who became a celebrity the moment he walked onstage. None, however, could ever hope to be as fabulous as last night’s guest presenter: RuPaul.
Jeopardy! fans are well-versed in what makes for a good anecdote during the contestant introductions, since we’ve all suffered through too many boring stories about how someone’s spouse proposed in a weird way or how they’re a teacher and they like to play Jeopardy! with the kids in their class, but one contestant on…
With 45 years on the air, there are few game shows with more institutional weight behind them than Jeopardy!, still the high bar for TV competitions where know-it-alls flash their useless trivia skills for cash. That doesn’t mean the Alex Trebek-hosted series doesn’t move with the times, though, as ably demonstrated…
On the average episode of Jeopardy!, three people with excellent memory recall compete to win large cash prizes—but also, to demonstrate to Alex Trebek their remarkable facility for retaining knowledge across a vast swath of topics and concepts. Yesterday was not one of those episodes.
Not all Jeopardy! failures are equal. While some are negligible—one’s use of “gangster” instead of “gangsta,” for example—others are positively Turd Fergusonian. Take, for example, sweet, sweet Julie’s blunder in the above clip, which finds her confusing rapper Eminem with rocker Jack White. Had the question—Which…
In a video message to Jeopardy! fans, host Alex Trebek has revealed that he recently underwent surgery for a subdural hematoma—or “blood clots on the brain,” as Variety helpfully explains—caused by a fall from October. He’s expected to make a full recovery, but he is going to be stepping out of the Jeopardy! studio…
Jeopardy! contestant Nick Spicher got a $1,400 lesson in the importance of proper pronunciation last night, courtesy of the rap-minded sticklers of the long-running trivia show’s notoriously strict judging table. Spicher was poking around one of the show’s nerdier categories—“Music & Literature Before & After,” which…
The twin juggernauts of syndicated game shows, Jeopardy! and Wheel Of Fortune are among the longest-running programs on television. More than 20 million people a week tune in to watch each show, respectively. But true nerds know that one is awesome, and the other, well—isn’t.
Welcome back to AVQ&A, where we throw out a question for discussion among the staff and readers. Consider this a prompt to compare notes on your interface with pop culture, to reveal your embarrassing tastes and experiences, and to ponder how our diverse lives all led us to convene here together. Got a question you’d…
To celebrate his 34th year at the helm of the popular quiz show Jeopardy, Alex Trebek did what any veteran game show host would do, and assured his loyal viewers that he had once gotten very high. Of course, this little tidbit was just part of a larger interview with The Daily Beast about his storied career and…
When last we wrote about Austin Rogers, Jeopardy!’s latest star, we forecasted a heel turn for the sassy brainiac, one which would find his subtle smarm curdling into overt disdain for the plebeian challengers. But, alas, this isn’t professional wrestling, and Rogers was a true gentlemen when his 12-game winning…
Here’s another cautionary tale for men who plan to be obnoxious on the internet any time soon. After a screenshot from a recent Jeopardy! episode was shared on Facebook, one foolish dude took to the comments to argue that a question about the inspiration for Indiana Jones’ outfit in Raiders Of The Lost Ark was…
Over the last several years, Jeopardy! has remained relevant by serving as a breeding ground for intellectual personalities. First, there was Ken Jennings, the charismatic brainiac who won 74 games in a row—the show’s longest winning streak—and took home more than $3 million. He’s since published a number of…
There’s always been a fair amount of wordplay in Jeopardy!’s category titles, clues, and answers—writers have to do something to spice up reframing questions about the Founding Fathers for the umpteenth time—but pop culture relevance is a more recent concern. Occasionally, this tapping into the zeitgeist produces…
The world is pretty scary these days, but at least we can still count on answers in the form of a question and the occasional hilarious misstep, because Variety is reporting that Pat Sajak and Vanna White from Wheel Of Fortune and Alex Trebek from Jeopardy! have all renewed their contracts through the 2019-2020 TV…
On Monday night, Alex Trebek wowed the world with his rip-rap-rippity rapping skills when a “Let’s Rap, Kids!” category popped up on Jeopardy! Though his flow was a bit wack, people loved it all the same.
The special Jeopardy! tournaments targeted toward younger people—whether they’re kids or college students—usually give the show a chance to let loose and throw in some fun pop culture-based categories about things kids like. Today, with the show in the middle of its collegiate tournament, Jeopardy! decided to dip into…