Al on Jeopardy

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weird_el
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by weird_el »

Al was the correct question for Final Jeopardy today. Two contestants answered "Yankovich" and were not counted wrong. They should have been. Rule is misspelling is OK unless it changes the pronunciation.
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Abbeybunny
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by Abbeybunny »

Is there a link to a video on YouTube so I can watch it? :3
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weird_el
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by weird_el »

It may not have aired where you are yet. It comes on at different times all over the country. Check your listings.
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remmy
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by remmy »

Yeah I was totally shaking my fist at those people. I was glad Trebek at least sassed them about the spelling.
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anthontherun
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by anthontherun »

weird_el wrote:Al was the correct question for Final Jeopardy today. Two contestants answered "Yankovich" and were not counted wrong. They should have been. Rule is misspelling is OK unless it changes the pronunciation.
I agree, but Alex actually pronounced it "Yankovich" too so I knew it wouldn't be considered an issue, although if I were the guy who spelled it correctly, I'd protest. They should bring him back. It's a little disappointing because I just read an excellent interview with the Jeopardy! head writer on AV Club and he talks about the importance of research and figuring out acceptable alternate answers and this defies all that.

I mean, wouldn't that have been a terrific lesson for the world if Alex were like, "It's a common misconception that it's pronounced Yankovich, but unfortunately, we have to penalize you"?
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remmy
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by remmy »

anthontherun wrote:
weird_el wrote:Al was the correct question for Final Jeopardy today. Two contestants answered "Yankovich" and were not counted wrong. They should have been. Rule is misspelling is OK unless it changes the pronunciation.
I agree, but Alex actually pronounced it "Yankovich" too so I knew it wouldn't be considered an issue, although if I were the guy who spelled it correctly, I'd protest. They should bring him back. It's a little disappointing because I just read an excellent interview with the Jeopardy! head writer on AV Club and he talks about the importance of research and figuring out acceptable alternate answers and this defies all that.

I mean, wouldn't that have been a terrific lesson for the world if Alex were like, "It's a common misconception that it's pronounced Yankovich, but unfortunately, we have to penalize you"?
The devil's advocate in me says that one could probably argue that a spelling of Yankovich wouldn't necessarily change the pronunciation, since "ch" can sometimes be spoken as a hard "k" sound. But the Al fan in me says PENALIZE EM ANYWAY.
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anthontherun
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by anthontherun »

You're right--although I'm ashamed to admit that the first example that comes to mind is "Third Reich." Uh...Lichtenstein! Yeah, Lichtenstein, that's the ticket. If Alex had pronounced it correctly and gave that reasoning, I'd accept the -ch responses. But the fact that he mispronounced it brings everything into question.

Oh man what if I were in the audience when they were shooting that episode and at the end I stood up and screamed "You made a mistake Alex" and then the judges decide the -ch responses are incorrect and the guy who wins thanks me and promises that he'll give me half his Jeopardy winnings because he'd have lost if it weren't for me and then he ends up going on a Ken Jennings-like streak and I win over a million dollars all because I know how to pronounce Yankovic and I become a hero and Al writes a song about me that parodies "Band on the Run" but also samples "I Lost on Jeopardy" as a little inside joke and Al gives me a portion of the royalties and it becomes his biggest hit ever so I become a billionaire philanthropist and I give an interview with Entertainment Weekly where they ask me who my celebrity crush is and I say Anna Kendrick and she reads it and is like "I think you're cute too" so we get married and Al is my best man and everything seems awesome at the wedding but when they ask if anyone objects to the union the Jeopardy guy stands up and is like "Why does he get to be your best man none of this would have happened if it weren't for me" and I'm like "Dude I didn't invite you how did you get in" and he pulls out a gun and says "This is how I got in" and he intends to sound menacing but he was a little dorky on the show so he can't pull it off but he fires the gun anyway and I leap out and the bullet strikes me in the leg and as I'm laying there bleeding Anna is like "You saved my life" and the guy is like "Well I was aiming for him anyway so no he didn't" and then he puts the gun right up to my forehead and says "It's time for final jeopardy" which even I have to admit is a pretty good line given the circumstances and right as he's about to pull the trigger all of a sudden he gets shot in the back and collapses and we all look over and Al is holding a smoking gun and says "Bet you didn't wager on that" which was awesome and then we go to the hospital and after seven months of physical therapy my leg is good as new and even better news Anna is pregnant and nine months after that she gives birth and we're celebrating and we decide to make Al the godfather and when we're filling out the forms we realize "Oh crap we never actually got married because we got distracted by all the gunfire" so the kid is a bastard but we love him just the same?
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by eleventhirtyfour »

Smart move making that whole thing in the form of a question as well. Bravo.
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by Scott »

Having the correct number of syllables in an incorrectly spelled answer in Final Jeopardy seems to be what the judges look for. This is a quote from Alex Trebek regarding a controversy surrounding a contestant's answer in 2013:
“The rules are very simple. Normally we don’t penalize anybody for misspelling. I mean if he had spelled emancipation, p-a-y-s-h-u-n, we probably would have accepted it. But if you add a syllable through your spelling mistake, or delete a syllable, then the judges will rule against you.”
Because adding an 'h' at the end of the name doesn't add or delete a syllable, it was deemed correct.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/09 ... y-20130809" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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mellow weasel
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Re: Al on Jeopardy

Post by mellow weasel »

Scott wrote: Because adding an 'h' at the end of the name doesn't add or delete a syllable, it was deemed correct.
But adding "t" in "emancipation" doesn't add a syllable either :unsure: . In my opinion, both mistakes are equal in that both add one letter which in result changes a pronunciation.
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