Brainiacs

Lightning-quick Brad Rutter takes the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions, which was almost a foregone conclusion after his breakaway performance on night two, and becomes the largest money-winner in game show history. Mormon wit and my Poor Wife's dream date Ken Jennings finished second, a day after it was announced he's inked a deal to host a game show on Comedy Central.

The Tournament was enormous fun to watch, even if Ken, the sweeps-month ratings guarantee, was given a free pass into the finals. The contestants were amazing. I'm usually pretty damned competitive night-in, night-out, though I've lost a couple of miles-per-hour on my fastball, I suck at geography, and my pop culture needs updating. But no way I'd have made it out of the semifinals, not on my best day.

I do note with some pride that nobody even buzzed in on "mutatis mutandis".

Special shout out to our sentimental favorite, boyish Bluegrass Stater Chris Miller, who made it to the semis and admitted in the panel segment that he was pulling in a lot more from Jeopardy! than he does working at Target. You're an inspiration, Chris. Comedy Central could use a man like you. Maybe you could replace Lauren Corrao, Comedy Central's head of original programming and development, who said, "I wouldn't describe Ken as one of the funniest people in America, but he's the smartest." Well, no, he ain't, but he is damned funny, a fact which probably escaped Ms Corrao because Ken doesn't do nearly as many fart jokes as South Park.