Boing Boing on Jeopardy!

Boing Boing was a clue on Jeopardy! tonight. "Who was Steve Jobs?"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://twitter.com/winkytwit Neil Winkelmann

Congrats on this endorsement of-a-sort.

I’ve never understood the whole Jeopardy backwards answer-then-question thing though. Take any of the so-called questions and ask them…”Who was Steve Jobs?”. The natural answer is not the statement “Tech blog Boing Boing….” etc. Why do they do it? What is wrong with simply asking questions?
- SoItBegins
  
  Wikipedia sez:
  
  “According to Merv Griffin, the idea for Jeopardy! began when he and his wife Julann were on a plane trip:
  
  ‘I was mulling over game show ideas, when she noted that there had not been a successful “question and answer” game on the air since the quiz show scandals. Why not do a switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question? She fired a couple of answers to me: “5,280″ – and the question of course was “How many feet in a mile?”. Another was “79 Wistful Vista”; that was Fibber and Mollie McGee’s address. I loved the idea, went straight to NBC with the idea, and they bought it without even looking at a pilot show.’”
  - http://twitter.com/winkytwit Neil Winkelmann
    
    I see that it can work for some situations where the answers are very distinctive and point to a single question; but it really doesn’t work for most QA setups.
    - Ambiguity
      
      but it really doesn’t work for most QA setups.
      
      ???
      
      Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say. Seeing how Jeopardy! has been on the air since 1964, I’d say it works pretty well!
- mtdna
  
  This obnoxious imaginary creature lives under a bridge.
  - taras
    
    Who is mtdna?
Antinous / Moderator

We’re a tech blog?
- http://borborygmist.influxofdust.com/ Wayne Dyer
  
  Neurozine would be a clue just for the old-timers.
- http://twitter.com/winkytwit Neil Winkelmann
  
  Good point. Boing Boing is a bit “techie” but is much more than that, too. My favourite spot on the interwebs.
  - David Pescovitz
    
    Wow, thanks! And Wayne, not just neurozine but “World’s Greatest Neurozine!,” according to the t-shirt. Thanks for sticking with us.
- penguinchris
  
  Of course we find that moniker strange, but then I’m not sure what widely-understood descriptor they could have used instead – and just “blog” is too non-descriptive.
  
  “Neurozine” is a great description, but to use something like that in a Jeopardy clue would be a bit much. As it is the entire Boing Boing reference in the clue is irrelevant – if you don’t get the answer just from “late Apple visionary” you shouldn’t be on Jeopardy :)
  - dagfooyo
    
    I suppose “Directory of Wonderful Things” would have been too verbose.
- Jake0748
  
  That was going to be my question as well.
- Cowicide
  
  We’re a tech blog?
  
  Can you sue Jeopardy for defamation of character or something?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  Came in here to say exactly this. who knew?
http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

TREBEK!
CpnCodpiece

On a somewhat related note, why is the site suddenly hideous?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  You must have the ‘naughty’ cookie.
  - CpnCodpiece
    
    Oh yes, I see that notscripts was blocking typekit.com, sorry – delete if you wish.
    - http://repeaterband.com skeletoncityrepeater
      
      Hey, this is totally unrelated, but I love your nickname. My best buddy and I have affectionately called Mick Mars of Motley Crue ‘Cap’n Codpiece’ for years.
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

Don’t get too excited; they could have said, “This late Apple visionary was a late Apple visionary,” and it would have elicited the same response.

:D
- allium
  
  The “Tautologies” category is strictly reserved for Celebrity Jeopardy.
David Miller

While this is awesome, it makes me wonder… Who sits around filming Jeopardy on their television sets?
- David Pescovitz
  
  Well, my sister on the East Coast texted me when she saw it, so I grabbed a phonecam video of that little bit for quick uploading to YouTube. I’m sure there’s a better way to do it but, as you can probably see, I don’t have a particularly state-of-the-art television rig.
http://repeaterband.com skeletoncityrepeater

Congratulations on the mainstream shout-out, Boing Boing! My favorite website despite the steady increase in popularity!
- lesbianjesus
  
  At least you can say you were here before it was cool ! Right ?
  - http://repeaterband.com skeletoncityrepeater
    
    It’s still not cool. Not at all.
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

That seems like a ridiculously easy question for Jeopardy, and by that I mean that even I know the answer.
- dagfooyo
  
  It must’ve been for $100. A shame, there are so many awesomely neat facts and bits of trivia surrounding BoingBoing they could’ve made the contestants guess.
  - allium
    
    $400 in a College Jeopardy tournament – so yeah, $100.
dagfooyo

Damn, I misread the headline as “BoingBoing IN Jeopardy” and got all freaked out for a moment. ”BoingBoing ON Jeopardy” is way more awesome and less scary.
Bob Knetzger

I had also read that switching the format to showing the ‘answer’ saved lots of room on the orignally hand lettered cards, making the type larger and more readable on the set. No wasting precious space on the cards with pointlessly repetitive words like: “Who was…?” “When was…?” “Where was…” etc.
Bangorian

What struck me was that if Trebeck had said the phrase “Tech blog Boing Boing” in the 1980′ (which is the last time I tuned in for an episode of Jeopardy), nobody would have had any idea, or even concept, of what he was talking about.
Christhegirl

Wasn’t this a repeat? I think I’ve seen this before, and I haven’t been watching Jeopardy lately. Even if it’s irrelevant in the end, it’s a nice shout-out.
- millie fink
  
  Proly not, since that Apple visionary didn’t die all that long ago.
jackbird

It makes me wonder when/what the first appearance of the word ‘blog’ in a Jeapordy question was.
- http://twitter.com/lucyrickyalex Chris Schumacher
  
  The Double Jeopardy round of the October 1, 2004 episode had a category called “Blogs”.
  
  http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=20
  
  Please note that I am not related to any contestants in this episode. I think.
David Weintraub

The point of a good Jeopardy “Answer” is to give an obscure fact (Tech Blog Boing Boing), but then give a good general clue (Look like a old Mac to commemorate this person). In the end, the whole “Tech Blog Boing Boing” part of the clue really doesn’t matter. You think “Who is important enough in mass culture to be commemorated by making a site look like an old Mac screen?” The answer is, of course Steve Jobs.

This makes the “answer” look harder than it actually is. The answer/question format is just part of that whole “brainiac show” style that has made Jeopardy so popular. People love watching these geniuses slug it out with each other.

In reality, the questions are not that difficult. I can answer about 70% to 80% of the questions fairly quickly, and I’m no Jeopardy material since I do terrible with names and title categories. Any fairly knowledgable, intelligent person will know most of the answers.

Jeopardy really comes down to buzzer speed. You have to be the first to press the buzzer, but you can’t press it before the host finishes asking the question. Otherwise, you’re out of the running for answering that question. You read the question and figure out the answer before the host finishes reading the question. Then, you have to anticipate the end of the question for the race to the buzzer. Press too quickly, and you’re out. Press it too late, and you’ve lost the buzzer race.

An excellent book on Jeopardy is “Prisoner of Trebekistan” by Bob Harris, a five time champion.
obeyken

Boing Boing, you’ve been Jeopardied