Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Game Recap and Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Clue Jungry]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but the category name was Theatre, not Theater. That information alone led me to focus on British and Irish playwrights.

[Ironhorse]

I've got to say it warms my heart to see a slew of Jeopardy alumni band up to defend Lisa from naysayers on Twitter right now. It looks like they really are a close knit circle, one that I hope to have the privilege of joining one day.

I don’t do Twitter. Are people bashing her for losing so badly? She got caught between two buzzsaws, no shame in that. Of all the people that have been on the show in the last two years, only eight can say they made it as far as she did.

It seems certain sectors of the J! fanbase have serious problems with sexism. Scarlett Sims was the victim of some savage comments online, ignoring the fact that she played the game of a lifetime. Also fairly recently, the contestant who missed the NFL question a couple months ago got some pretty awful treatment. Thankfully, this board seems free of that odium.

And no kidding. Her QF win makes her a seven time champion. That's pretty damn impressive.

[alietr]

My first miss of this tournament, but I still think I'm ToC-caliber!

Oh, dream on!

Not sure where I pulled WFG from since I didn't even notice 'small' when I read the clue, so maybe it was subliminal. I'll take it, though.

[opusthepenguin]

Gotta feel for Lisa. She seemed absolutely crushed to lose this game. I thought I could make out Alex saying to her "That's OK... that's OK..." during the credits.

I think it wasn't so much crushed to lose the game as crushed to be crushed. I definitely would've been near tears in her situation.

[Woof]

Gotta feel for Lisa. She seemed absolutely crushed to lose this game. I thought I could make out Alex saying to her "That's OK... that's OK..." during the credits.

I think it wasn't so much crushed to lose the game as crushed to be crushed. I definitely would've been near tears in her situation.

Yeah, she had done so well up to then, too, it would be soul-crushing to have so little chance in the SF. I think that anyone who's participated in a competitive activity can appreciate what that feels like, and it ain't particularly nice.

[hscer]

I've got to say it warms my heart to see a slew of Jeopardy alumni band up to defend Lisa from naysayers on Twitter right now. It looks like they really are a close knit circle, one that I hope to have the privilege of joining one day.

I don’t do Twitter. Are people bashing her for losing so badly? She got caught between two buzzsaws, no shame in that. Of all the people that have been on the show in the last two years, only eight can say they made it as far as she did.

It seems certain sectors of the J! fanbase have serious problems with sexism. Scarlett Sims was the victim of some savage comments online, ignoring the fact that she played the game of a lifetime. Also fairly recently, the contestant who missed the NFL question a couple months ago got some pretty awful treatment. Thankfully, this board seems free of that odium.

And no kidding. Her QF win makes her a seven time champion. That's pretty damn impressive.

Gotta feel for Lisa. She seemed absolutely crushed to lose this game. I thought I could make out Alex saying to her "That's OK... that's OK..." during the credits.

I think it wasn't so much crushed to lose the game as crushed to be crushed. I definitely would've been near tears in her situation.

Can someone point to similar prior examples of someone expressing frustration so outwardly on Jeopardy? It definitely struck me as unusual, starting really at the beginning of DJ. The audition process would very likely tend to select away from such a disposition, which would presumably be even rarer among successful players.

All that said, it's a really long path from noticing something odd to feeling compelled to go online and rip on a person for it. Unfortunately, we live in an age where that will inevitably happen. Quarantine the jerks and move on.

[boson]

I've got to say it warms my heart to see a slew of Jeopardy alumni band up to defend Lisa from naysayers on Twitter right now. It looks like they really are a close knit circle, one that I hope to have the privilege of joining one day.

I don’t do Twitter. Are people bashing her for losing so badly? She got caught between two buzzsaws, no shame in that. Of all the people that have been on the show in the last two years, only eight can say they made it as far as she did.

It seems certain sectors of the J! fanbase have serious problems with sexism. Scarlett Sims was the victim of some savage comments online, ignoring the fact that she played the game of a lifetime. Also fairly recently, the contestant who missed the NFL question a couple months ago got some pretty awful treatment. Thankfully, this board seems free of that odium.

And no kidding. Her QF win makes her a seven time champion. That's pretty damn impressive.

It used to be that this board (and the Sony board before) was the only place for current and previous champs to discuss Jeopardy. With the rise of social media (Facebook/Twitter/Reddit) we aren't the only game in town. I have heard from some that our critical comments of contestants have driven many away from this board.... I know we (collectively) aren't always as nice as we should be, but come on! Avoiding us to go to the friendly supportive atmosphere of Facebook and Twitter?

[zerobandwidth]

Can someone point to similar prior examples of someone expressing frustration so outwardly on Jeopardy? It definitely struck me as unusual, starting really at the beginning of DJ. The audition process would very likely tend to select away from such a disposition, which would presumably be even rarer among successful players.

What seemed most unusual to me in this instance is that it seemed to happen during the break between J! and DJ!, like a "I'm cool / NOT COOL MAN" switch flipping. That's what led me to write it off as an unfortunately-timed adrenaline crash, and not anything related to Lisa's character or ability. As has already been stated, Being There For Real can be incredibly stressful, and stress does weird things to people. Even having played a regular-season game, I almost can't imagine the level of stress Lisa was under, having less than 24 hours before played the game of her life — arguably one of the best games we've seen all season — against two other ToC-caliber players, at least one of whom was favored to beat her, and then having to face two more opponents who were each widely favored to win the whole thing. I don't think this had anything to do with her, and everything to do with the truly extraordinary circumstances under which that game was played. Had the semifinal draws worked out differently, this matchup could easily have been the finals.

I feel like there have been several, and much more profound, instances of late-game crash-and-burn performances, exhibiting either frustration and/or panic. Christy Gibson's record-setting descent comes to mind. And I hate to mention it, because she's such a wonderful person and has already caught more than enough flak for it, but you could tell that Anupama Srirangan could feel the universe unravelling around her in DJ!. Heck, I was doing at least OK in my game and still panicked on both of my important wagers. And then of course there was the uncaught Teen Tournament F-bomb.

[WooWho?]

Can someone point to similar prior examples of someone expressing frustration so outwardly on Jeopardy?

The first game of my taping session saw Mariah Black in a distant third against Aaron Sauter and Jake Logan. She was visibly crying during the post-game chat (I seem to remember her clinging to Alex before her parents arrived onstage), and still had tears when she returned to the audience to watch the rest of the games. I suppose my brief attempt at consoling her between shows did little.

[squarekara]

I've got to say it warms my heart to see a slew of Jeopardy alumni band up to defend Lisa from naysayers on Twitter right now. It looks like they really are a close knit circle, one that I hope to have the privilege of joining one day.

I don’t do Twitter. Are people bashing her for losing so badly? She got caught between two buzzsaws, no shame in that. Of all the people that have been on the show in the last two years, only eight can say they made it as far as she did.

It seems certain sectors of the J! fanbase have serious problems with sexism. Scarlett Sims was the victim of some savage comments online, ignoring the fact that she played the game of a lifetime. Also fairly recently, the contestant who missed the NFL question a couple months ago got some pretty awful treatment. Thankfully, this board seems free of that odium.

And no kidding. Her QF win makes her a seven time champion. That's pretty damn impressive.

I'm not on Twitter either, so I haven't seen the comments, but I think the true J! fans know that one ten-minute funk does not erase the excellent record that got Lisa to the ToC semis. She deserves nothing but admiration. Let the online haters inhabit their circle of hell, and let us avert our eyes. (I was disgusted with the NFL idiocy, and I'm shocked to hear that people were down on Scarlett. WTF?!) Thank you, JBoard, for keeping that toxic element out of the discourse.

[Peter the accountant]

I can't begin to imagine Lisa's feelings during that game. Perhaps frustration with the buzzer, knowing the right responses to many questions but not being able to answer because her timing was off. Missing the buzzer once is part of the game. Miss 3 or 4 in a row and you start questioning the timing you've learned over the last several games. Then you start trying to adjust but nothing works and you can't fix it. In the mean time, the other players are running away from you. You see that in professional athletes all the time. Good players have an off day. Unfortunately for Lisa, this game was her off day.

She should still hold her head high, as she is, without doubt, one of the best Jeopardy! players of the last couple of years. If she wasn't, she wouldn't be in the tournament at all.

[badgerfellow]

Can someone point to similar prior examples of someone expressing frustration so outwardly on Jeopardy? It definitely struck me as unusual, starting really at the beginning of DJ. The audition process would very likely tend to select away from such a disposition, which would presumably be even rarer among successful players.

Imagine you're a senior on a Division 1 basketball team. Your team has made the Final Four. All the grueling work that you put into the game you love, something you've only dreamed to do and didn't think would be possible. Now you go and upset the overall 1 seed in the tournament in the semifinals. You've made the championship. You're stoked to an unhealthy level. Two days later, you have to play the overall 2 seed. By that point, you are tired and nowhere the level of play you had been in the semifinals.

Now turn that scenario into a Jeopardy TOC. That's what Lisa faced, except she had less time to recover. I don't blame her for breaking down. Unfortunately, it happened on national television. If seniors in college can have their crying moments played over and over on TV, I think we can give Lisa can too.

What the audition process will do is weed out anyone who doesn't show a passion for the game. That, to me, was bottled emotions letting loose.

[davey]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but the category name was Theatre, not Theater. That information alone led me to focus on British and Irish playwrights.

Whatever works, but it's not a generally useful theory-

#4968, aired 2006-03-29 20th CENTURY THEATER: This play ends with 1 character asking, "Well? Shall we go?"; the other replies, "Yes, let's go", but they do not move
#7570, aired 2017-07-07 THEATER $400: In "Pygmalion" she eventually says she'll marry Freddy Hill, not Henry Higgins
#7532, aired 2017-05-16 THEATRE $2000: In "Six Degrees of Separation", a young black man named Paul claims to be this actor's son

#7222, aired 2016-01-26 IRISH PLAYWRIGHTS $1200: Martin McDonagh moved from theater to film, using this Irish actor as his alter ego in "Seven Psychopaths"

[alietr]

Re: DD hunting. I'll bet comments about failing to find the last DD have been made only by people who haven't been contestants. Until you're actually on, you really have no idea just how fast everything moves. Yes, there are contestants who can maintain enough awareness to recognize every aspect of the game at the time, but criticizing them for failing to find that last DD just isn't reasonable.

[morbeedo]

I can't begin to imagine Lisa's feelings during that game. Perhaps frustration with the buzzer, knowing the right responses to many questions but not being able to answer because her timing was off. Missing the buzzer once is part of the game. Miss 3 or 4 in a row and you start questioning the timing you've learned over the last several games. Then you start trying to adjust but nothing works and you can't fix it. In the mean time, the other players are running away from you.

The same thing happened to Jon Eisenman in his QF - he only got to ring in once or twice in the entire DJ round. His frustration was less visible, but I noticed a few eye rolls and head tilts. It's hard to watch that happen to good players

[John Boy]

Near-instaget FJ for me. I misread the clue as saying the original 1952 play was French (although maybe the writers were trying to subtly imply that), which led me very quickly to Beckett's classic.

Beckett was an Irish playwright who wrote in French. I believe the play was first published in French as "En Attendant Godot" - adding that fact to small cast (4 or less?) also got me to Godot in a few seconds

I'm frankly shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you!) that several people have said this FJ was an Instaget. I don't know how, unless you happen to know the year of WFG's writing, which I certainly did not. I was also misled by the "French" reference. I know that Beckett was Irish but did not know he wrote this in French (damned tricky factoid, that!)

For small cast, possibly French and mid-century I had no clue whatsoever, and ended up WAGging No Exit. At least I knew that author was French, and the era was right (1944, it turns out), and had a small cast (although I have never seen it and imagine it probably contains male and female).

All in all I thought this clue was just brutal, as was most of the game. Props to Buzzy for his sole get, and I hope he comes around some day to tell us how he did so.

[John Boy]

On COLORFUL AMERICAN CITIES I precalled Baton Rouge. I think that would have been a TOC-worthy twist.

I did too. Disappointed when it did not appear.

[This Is Kirk!]

I didn't have any issue with Lisa's emotion coming through. These are human beings, not robots.

[hscer]

Can someone point to similar prior examples of someone expressing frustration so outwardly on Jeopardy? It definitely struck me as unusual, starting really at the beginning of DJ. The audition process would very likely tend to select away from such a disposition, which would presumably be even rarer among successful players.

Imagine you're a senior on a Division 1 basketball team. Your team has made the Final Four. All the grueling work that you put into the game you love, something you've only dreamed to do and didn't think would be possible. Now you go and upset the overall 1 seed in the tournament in the semifinals. You've made the championship. You're stoked to an unhealthy level. Two days later, you have to play the overall 2 seed. By that point, you are tired and nowhere the level of play you had been in the semifinals.

Now turn that scenario into a Jeopardy TOC. That's what Lisa faced, except she had less time to recover. I don't blame her for breaking down. Unfortunately, it happened on national television. If seniors in college can have their crying moments played over and over on TV, I think we can give Lisa can too.

What the audition process will do is weed out anyone who doesn't show a passion for the game. That, to me, was bottled emotions letting loose.

My point is not about "blame." I don't blame Lisa any more than I blame Darius Washington (that's clearly not an exact parallel, on multiple levels, but since you bring up D1 basketball). But it wasn't something you see visibly on the show every day, so it will draw comment. People have shared other examples (I probably didn't need to ask for any, which is my mistake), but it's still relatively rare.

I try not to frequent the circles where I encounter jerks acting like jerks, so I don't know what exactly was being said, but I saw a lot of the Twitter push-back from the aforementioned "Jeopardy alumni" that seemed to imply that nothing unusual had happened, and that only a Jeopardy champion could have anything to say about it anyway. Both of which felt off to me as someone who definitely noticed something even though I've never even gotten as far as the audition.

But I would also never think to comment about it without some impetus such as this sense I'm describing--and even then I'm only commenting at a meta level. So I wasn't the intended audience of alumni push-back, but I received it nonetheless, and that's why I'm part of this particular conversation now.

Anyway, you can tell off the jerks acting like jerks and publicly support your fellow alum without casting judgment on the mere mortals who have only gotten as far as the couch or the online test.

My reference to the audition is just that someone could have just as much nerves at that level as someone else will at a much higher level. If someone finds even the audition too difficult, they're unlikely to be selected for their "passion" or anything else. It's like the idea that "clutch" in baseball is selected for prior to the Major League level.

Anyway, all of this obviously detracts nothing from Lisa, her ability as a player, or what she accomplished on the show.

[davey]

Near-instaget FJ for me. I misread the clue as saying the original 1952 play was French (although maybe the writers were trying to subtly imply that), which led me very quickly to Beckett's classic.

Beckett was an Irish playwright who wrote in French. I believe the play was first published in French as "En Attendant Godot" - adding that fact to small cast (4 or less?) also got me to Godot in a few seconds

I'm frankly shocked (SHOCKED, I tell you!) that several people have said this FJ was an Instaget. I don't know how, unless you happen to know the year of WFG's writing, which I certainly did not. I was also misled by the "French" reference. I know that Beckett was Irish but did not know he wrote this in French (damned tricky factoid, that!)

In fact those who memorized a year for Godot might have been confused, since the date of its first production, 1953, is often attached to it. 1952 is the year it was first published.
Knowing the year or its original composition in French are not nearly as useful for solving this FJ as knowing it has an all-male - and small - cast.