Thursday, May 26

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.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:41 PM EDT

    I watched a couple of these, and it's always slightly thrilling and yet somehow frustrating when you know the answer and nobody in the game does.

    I thought everybody knew that Studabaker used to make wagons in the old west.

    I also totally got the final Jeopardy question "Who are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?" I just made an educated guess, so I was surprised only one other guy got it.

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  2. Anonymous9:32 PM EDT

    Ken Jennings (along with Alex Trebek) is funny to only a few select people - those who think a joke that most people won't get is hilarious, even if it's not. They're both condescending jackasses and I'm glad Brad beat Ken's brains out. I hope he has the good sense to decline any idiotic Allstate ads he might be offered.

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  3. Very nice blog...I am impressed.

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  4. I don't watch television. It's evil. I only use it as a monitor for my dvd and vcr players.

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  5. Anonymous11:24 AM EDT

    iirc, ken jenning's a little sensitive to polygamy jokes.

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