‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Speaks Out After Show Has Another ‘Hoe’ Moment

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As many Jeopardy! fans know, “Hoe” is never the answer, and it wasn’t this time either. A contestant gave the iconic response on July 15 after she didn’t know the answer.

Marisa Rizzuti, from Centerport, New York, played against multi-day champion Caleb Groen and Armando Marin on Wednesday. Groen was so far ahead for most of the game and ended with $60,067 after getting the final clue right.

On clue four, Rizzuti, a director of planned giving, was already in the negatives. Groen, a law and policy student, had the lead, so Rizzuti decided to have some fun.

The clue in “Gardening” was “This 10-letter gardening tool is great for loosening weeds & soil in a garden.” Rizzuti buzzed in and answered, “What is a hoe?” which made the audience laugh.

“No, never correct out here,” host Ken Jennings said. “Nobody should try ‘What is a hoe?'” The correct response was a cultivator.

The garden tool became an iconic answer in Jeopardy! history during Jennings’ run as a contestant in 2004. The $200 clue in “Tool Time” was “This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.”

With $14,800 in his bank, Jennings answered, “What’s a hoe?” Then-host Alex Trebek told him “no” and then backtracked when he realized what he said.

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“Whoa! They teach you that in school in Utah, huh?” Trebek said. His opponent, Al, correctly answered with “rake.”

The joke was revisited in 2025 when Micah Fritz gave the same response. On the first clue, which was, “A tool with an angled blade to get unwanted plants out at the root is called a Cape Cod type of this,” Fritz answered, “What is a hoe?”

Since the correct answer was “weeder,” Jennings let silence fill the air and then said, “It seems like ‘What is a hoe?’ is never correct out here.”

Now, it was revisited again, and Rizzuti explained why she said it. After talking about the game and Groen on Reddit, Rizzuti shared, “To address the hoe in the room: I knew that was not the answer. At that point in the game, I did not feel confident that I could overtake Caleb or Armando (but I never stopped trying!). When neither of them buzzed in, I made a split-second decision to go for the laugh. No regrets!”

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