D’oh! ‘Jeopardy!’ Makes Error With ‘The Simpsons’ Sideshow Bob Clue

Martin Holmes
9 Comments
Ken Jennings and Sideshow Bob
Jeopardy, Inc; ©20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved./courtesy Everett Collection

Jeopardy! is usually very careful and thorough when it comes to the wording of its clues, but one particular question about The Simpsons on Thursday’s (March 14) game contained a mistake.

In the third game of the Tournament of Champions finals, which saw pro-quizzer Troy Meyer battling it out wit Ben Chan and Yogesh Raut, the contestants were faced with a category titled “Real Names of Unreal People.”

Chan selected the $600 under the category, which read, “Robert Underdunk Terwilliger is the real name of this vengeful The Simpsons character.”

Meyer, who won Wednesday’s (March 13) game in dominant fashion, quickly buzzed in and correctly guessed Sideshow Bob.

However, it turned out the Jeopardy! clue writers had misspelled the name of the infamous Simpsons villain.

Jeopardy clue

Jeopardy, Inc!

After a fan on X (formerly Twitter) pointed out the name is actually “Onderdonk,” former Simpsons writer Bill Oakley jumped in to confirm that, yes, Jeopardy! made a “rare mistake.”

“Yes @Jeopardy you made a rare mistake. It’s “Onderdonk”. And @Joshstrangehill and I are certain cause we wrote that script,” Oakley wrote, tagging host Ken Jennings.

Another fan in the comments pointed out how the show’s subtitles actually spell it “Underdunk,” adding, “Maybe it’s because the line is spoken by Quimby?”

“Wow! yes that could be. Odd that the captioners never looked at the actual script!” Oakley replied.

When another commenter asked for the origin of the name “Onderdonk,” Oakley linked to the Wikipedia page of Henry Onderdonk, the second Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania. “Was a name we saw in a hymnal in high school,” the veteran writer explained.

“Next thing you know they’ll be calling Bart’s teacher “Crandall,”” replied another fan, referencing a gag from the show where Homer finds out he’s been calling Mrs Krabappel by the wrong name.

“Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder,” said another, referring to another famous line from the sitcom.

“I’m really glad you confirmed this b/c I was positive it was Onderdonk for my whole life but I looked it up a few months ago bc I was posting some joke but most of online said Underdunk and I was so lost,” said another.

While Jennings has yet to reply to Oakley’s tweet, the official Jeopardy! account did own up to the mistake, retweeting the post alongside a GIF of Sideshow Bob stepping onto a rake and smashing himself in the face.

Did you spot this mistake? Let us know in the comments below.

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  1. G

    GreenBulb

    That minor misspelling (if it is a misspelling) didn't affect the question at all. 'Robert' and 'Terwilliger' is all the contestant needs to know.

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    CyanWeights

    So what? It didn't affect the outcome. You should see the misprints in books these days.

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      OrangeScissors

      Doesn't mean it's not worth noting.

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    CyanController

    BREAKING NEWS!!!!! There was a typo in my closed captioning! Alert the media!

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    1. C

      CyanPin

      LOL!

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    PurpleTeepee

    It says underdunk on simpsonswiki. I know it's onderdonk, but it's easy to make a mistake when the source material is inaccurate. #forgive jeopardy lol

  5. G

    GoldScooter

    Quality, attention to detail and conscientiousness are disappearing. TPTB are just now realizing that there is an entire generation that can't write in cursive and it's a problem. DUH! I just watched a game show in which the contestant didn't know that Equador was on the equator. Progressives are destroying the world.

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      BluePlanet

      True. They can't even relate face to face, they're a generation of androids.

      2 2

      1. C

        CyanController

        At a 3 generation dinner last night, everyone under 30 brought their phones to the table.

        1