‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Put An End To One of Show’s Great Mysteries

Darian Lusk October 11, 2024, 3:31 pm

Jeopardy! viewers would have to be asleep on the sofa to not know the quiz show’s cardinal rule and central premise: all answers must be phrased in the form of a question.

But what’s the protocol when a correct response is already phrased that way (as in, the answer begins with “who is,” “what is” or “what’s” in Matt Amodio’s case)?

Say the clue is seeking “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?”. Does a contestant have to start with “What Is: Who’s”? Sounds questionable.

This situation isn’t regularly addressed on-air by host Ken Jennings as it’s an irregular occurrence. On Friday (October 11), a fan began a thread in the Jeopardy! Subreddit wondering just that.

“Let’s say the board says ‘This book series features a hidden stripped protagonist’, and someone just says ‘Where’s Waldo’ and not ‘What is Where’s Waldo’, would they accept it?” they wrote. “Since it’s in the form of a question?” What are the rules?”

“Your Waldo books were obviously more adult than mine,” the top, albeit unhelpful, comment read, referring to a typo in the post.

However, other fans did come to the rescue, explaining once and for all if a response is already phrased as a question, show phrasing isn’t needed for it to be correct.

“As long as your answer is in the form of a question, it is acceptable,” explained one fan. “For example, if the correct answer was the movie, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’, you would not need to add anything to the title of the movie when you answered since it is already a question.”

Another fan disagreed: “I don’t think that’s correct? You’d have to say ‘What is ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’?’. The ‘what’ ‘who’ etc are not part of the solution. If you use this example, you’re saying the movie is called ‘Framed Roger Rabbit.'” (this got 23 downvotes.)

As a third explained: “Somewhat surprisingly, they really do only require the response to be in the form of a question, so ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ alone would be acceptable, though of course there is nothing wrong with adding ‘What is’ to the beginning of that either.”

“I’ve seen them accept answers that way… if the answer itself is a question and that’s all you give I’ve seen it accepted,” echoed a fourth.

“There have been entire categories where all the answers were in the form of a question,” pointed out a fifth. “Contestants usually don’t get the hint and still add ‘what is’ to the front.”

Citing an example of a full category that didn’t need double phrasing, they added: “During Masters last year they had the category ‘Questionable Music Choices’ and James got three of them right by responding simply ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain?’, ‘What’s New Pussycat?’, and “How Do You Sleep?'”

Jeopardy! also explained as much in a 2021 blog post, but it’s rather buried on their website (coincidentally during Amodio’s run as fans were bothered by his “What’s” style). The post was shadily titled…

Other fans recalled instances of the question-answer format being manipulated by contestants to funny yet still technically acceptable degrees.

“I have a vague memory of a contestant back in the 90s that would answer with the question at the end, so something like: ‘Gene Simmons, who’s that?’ ‘The Pythagorean theorem, what’s that?’ I found it hilarious at the time,” wrote a sixth.

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Another remarked: “Ken himself also used ‘what be?’ and ‘¿qué es?’ for clues in his 74-game run.”

“I too have heard, ‘Is it…?’, and Ken accepted it by saying, ‘It is.’ But I only recall it once in recent history. I have a sense that it is most likely frowned upon,” wrote one more.

A last fan shared how, yes, players can even put their own twist on the format but producers don’t like it. “I believe some former contestants have said the producers will stop the game and ask you to stop.”

Jeopardy!, Weekdays, check local listings