Maybe It's Because I Haven't Left the House in Three Days...
But tonight's episode of Jeopardy! was pretty amazing.
I usually tune-in to Jeopardy! from time to time as a kind of mental check-up. It's what people too lazy to actually do crossword puzzles do instead when they want to feel challenged. I view it as similar to the episode of News Radio when Dave and Lisa took the SAT again to see if their scores went up. However, watching Jeopardy! takes much less effort than taking the SAT and is far less reliable as a measure of intelligence than is being a fan of the television show News Radio.
This time, I was all set to change the channel as it became clear that this was the start of Kids Week on Jeopardy! (yeah, I'm going to keep using the exclamation point because it's technically part of the title), and I don't usually care for Kids Week. All the intellectual interest of the show is excised and replaced with some sort of "cuteness factor" that childless people are supposed to be satisfied with in its place. This is not, however, an even trade as these children are typically 10 to 12 years old, ages at which most children have long since stopped being cute. Precociousness is what you get instead, and this is not entertaining to those of us who may be insecure about our own intellectual prowess(es?). Doesn't that sentence illustrate its own meaning beautifully? Also, the questions are super easy (only slightly easier than the ones on Celebrity Jeopardy!) so it's not as fun to play ("play" in this case meaning smugly fire answers at the television and snort afterwards regardless of whether or not they were correct). If the questions do stump me, it's even less fun. I'd like to think I have more general knowledge than most pre-teens, especially since their appearances on national gameshows trump me in the life-experience category (editor's note: at least I could learn them a thing or two about humility).
In this episode, however, the announcer began introducing the children before I could change the channel, and I just had to leave the show on once I was introduced to Andrew Vogl, a young scamp who defied the cuteness cut-off considerably and hails from Yonkers,* New York. Big ups to Westchester County, my young friend. Big ups, indeed.
Andrew was a bright spot in an otherwise unremarkable half-hour of television. That said, I will now make some remarks about it.
There was a young girl on the show whose name I've forgotten, but she did come from a town in Virginia the name of which sounded a lot like "placenta." This girl got on my bad side real fast. She pronounced Metropolis with the emphasis on "polis" like the "po" in Polish (in other words, "Poe" as opposed to "Pah"). This was irksome, but I'm prepared to admit how trivial this is. In truth, what annoyed me most was her performance in the interview portion of the show. Alex Trebek asked her why she wanted to be a Supreme Court justice, and she replied in a rapid-fire, clearly rehearsed manner: "Because I could have a big impact on important issues, black is slimming, and if it doesn't work out, I'm fine being a trophy wife." I'm surprised I heard it over the hum of her batteries.
Let's all remember that this girl is 12 years old. I guess I'd be proud if I were her mother, but I'd probably be too busy thinking of other witty, incongruous things for her to say on television and in other public appearances.
Sadly, Andrew Vogl didn't win, though he did get the Final Jeopardy! question right, indicating that he is familiar with the story of Cinderella. I guess it's back to Yonkers for him, or as the locals apparently call it, "Yahnkahs." Shoutout to Nepperhan Avenue! Getty Square, can I get a "what, what?" What? WHAT? Shoutout, secondly, to my overestimation of the value of local humor! Niche, Niche!
Who did win? That precocious priss from Placenta. I think my uterus just shed it's own lining in excitement.
* LOCAL INTEREST! Yonkers, New York is only slightly less hilly than San Francisco, making it one of the most hilly cities in the country.
I usually tune-in to Jeopardy! from time to time as a kind of mental check-up. It's what people too lazy to actually do crossword puzzles do instead when they want to feel challenged. I view it as similar to the episode of News Radio when Dave and Lisa took the SAT again to see if their scores went up. However, watching Jeopardy! takes much less effort than taking the SAT and is far less reliable as a measure of intelligence than is being a fan of the television show News Radio.
This time, I was all set to change the channel as it became clear that this was the start of Kids Week on Jeopardy! (yeah, I'm going to keep using the exclamation point because it's technically part of the title), and I don't usually care for Kids Week. All the intellectual interest of the show is excised and replaced with some sort of "cuteness factor" that childless people are supposed to be satisfied with in its place. This is not, however, an even trade as these children are typically 10 to 12 years old, ages at which most children have long since stopped being cute. Precociousness is what you get instead, and this is not entertaining to those of us who may be insecure about our own intellectual prowess(es?). Doesn't that sentence illustrate its own meaning beautifully? Also, the questions are super easy (only slightly easier than the ones on Celebrity Jeopardy!) so it's not as fun to play ("play" in this case meaning smugly fire answers at the television and snort afterwards regardless of whether or not they were correct). If the questions do stump me, it's even less fun. I'd like to think I have more general knowledge than most pre-teens, especially since their appearances on national gameshows trump me in the life-experience category (editor's note: at least I could learn them a thing or two about humility).
In this episode, however, the announcer began introducing the children before I could change the channel, and I just had to leave the show on once I was introduced to Andrew Vogl, a young scamp who defied the cuteness cut-off considerably and hails from Yonkers,* New York. Big ups to Westchester County, my young friend. Big ups, indeed.
Andrew was a bright spot in an otherwise unremarkable half-hour of television. That said, I will now make some remarks about it.
There was a young girl on the show whose name I've forgotten, but she did come from a town in Virginia the name of which sounded a lot like "placenta." This girl got on my bad side real fast. She pronounced Metropolis with the emphasis on "polis" like the "po" in Polish (in other words, "Poe" as opposed to "Pah"). This was irksome, but I'm prepared to admit how trivial this is. In truth, what annoyed me most was her performance in the interview portion of the show. Alex Trebek asked her why she wanted to be a Supreme Court justice, and she replied in a rapid-fire, clearly rehearsed manner: "Because I could have a big impact on important issues, black is slimming, and if it doesn't work out, I'm fine being a trophy wife." I'm surprised I heard it over the hum of her batteries.
Let's all remember that this girl is 12 years old. I guess I'd be proud if I were her mother, but I'd probably be too busy thinking of other witty, incongruous things for her to say on television and in other public appearances.
Sadly, Andrew Vogl didn't win, though he did get the Final Jeopardy! question right, indicating that he is familiar with the story of Cinderella. I guess it's back to Yonkers for him, or as the locals apparently call it, "Yahnkahs." Shoutout to Nepperhan Avenue! Getty Square, can I get a "what, what?" What? WHAT? Shoutout, secondly, to my overestimation of the value of local humor! Niche, Niche!
Who did win? That precocious priss from Placenta. I think my uterus just shed it's own lining in excitement.
* LOCAL INTEREST! Yonkers, New York is only slightly less hilly than San Francisco, making it one of the most hilly cities in the country.
posted by K at 4:35 PM
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