FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

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SHAKESPEARE COMEDIES FJ (See first post for text of clue)

I was correct with The Taming of the Shrew
8
15%
I guessed All's Well That Ends Well
4
8%
I guessed As You Like It
5
10%
I guessed The Comedy of Errors
2
4%
I guessed Love's Labour's Lost
6
12%
I guessed The Merchant of Venice
1
2%
I guessed A Midsummer Night's Dream
10
19%
I guessed Much Ado About Nothing
6
12%
I guessed Twelfth Night
3
6%
I guessed Measure for Measure
0
No votes
I guessed a different Shakespeare comedy (either The Merry Wives of Windsor or The Two Gentlemen of Verona)
2
4%
I screwed up by guessing a Shakespeare play that's not a comedy or a non-Shakespeare play or a garbled version of one of the above, etc.
3
6%
I guessed nothing
3
6%
This FJ was tough but fair
16
31%
This FJ should have been saved for a TOC
23
44%
This FJ should not have been used anywhere
8
15%
 
Total votes: 52

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opusthepenguin
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FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by opusthepenguin »

SHAKESPEARE COMEDIES
At the end of this play: "Why are our bodies soft & weak...but that our...hearts should well agree with our external parts?"

NOTE: If you omitted "A" or "The" or substituted one for the other at the beginning of a title that is otherwise correct, please feel free to check the corresponding box. E.g. if you said A Comedy of Errors. (If you did this in the middle of the title, e.g. with The Taming of a Shrew, no credit for you! Check the "I screwed up..." box.)

Looking back at this clue, I was curious which incorrect responses were most popular and if any might even outpoll the correct response. I was also curious to know whether people thought this clue was too tough for a regular game or even too tough for Jeopardy! period.

Clarifications and nuances are welcome in your posts. In particular:

- Why did you make your particular guess?
- What other possibilities did you consider?
- Did you consider The Taming of the Shrew and reject it?
- Would you have switched your response to The Taming of the Shrew if you'd thought of it?
- If you guessed either The Merry Wives of Windsor or The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which one?
- If you screwed up, tell us how. Come on. We're all friends here. We just want to point and laugh.
- If you guessed nothing, why? (Possible correct responses are "I couldn't think of a single Shakespeare comedy" or "I ran out of time without being able to settle on a guess". Incorrect responses include "Because no matter what response I chose, there was no way in a hundred billion years it would be right."
- If you checked the final box, "This FJ should not have been used anywhere", is that because you think the clue is just too hard or because you consider it flawed in some way. If flawed, how so?
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by opusthepenguin »

I got this FJ right but I agree it's a toughie. So I checked the box saying the clue was tough but fair and the box saying it should have been reserved for a TOC.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by MarkBarrett »

All's Well That Ends Well

Shrew was part of my precalls off the category. I do not remember all of my precalls and I'm sure I did not think of all of the comedies in the list. Whichever ones I brainstormed were at least in the comedy column.

When I saw the clue it played to me as a pick a comedy and I picked one since I was not able to get a sense of any specific play from the words. TOC or All-Stars seems a better place for the clue than regular play, yet Rebecca got it right.

Shakespeare always has been and always will be more of a weakness than a strength for me no matter how many times I've looked through that section in my beat-up/well-loved (once mint ) copy of the Forrest/Lowenthal book over the past 25+ years.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by twelvefootboy »

Since you asked:

Here's a singleton: Romeo and Juliet. Two possible reasons:

1) The category was Shakespeare Comedies. I thought it was funny when that girl died and then that guy killed himself and then that girl wasn't dead and then killed herself. or,

2) Amygdala of brain saw the word Shakespeare in the category and locked up. From soft body parts, gotta be a girl. Juliet is a girl. Ipso, Facto, QED. Don't go back and look at category.
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IF the category was "Comedies of Shakespeare", THEN my Venn diagram goes to "As you like it", and "The Taming of the Shrew". I WOULD HAVE ruled out Midsummer Night's Dream as unknown genre - maybe fantasy? From the two choices I would have gone with the Shrew, having no idea if there are females in AYLI.

I have to rely on boardies results as to the degree of difficulty. It was 50/50 from my position of ignorance, but only if I pay attention to the category.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by AFRET CMS »

"Taming of the Shrew" and "Much Ado About Nothing" were my top two choices. Went with "Much Ado" since much of the play consists of musing soliloquys by the leads, and lines quoted fall into that pattern, along with fitting into the theme of being in love but either not recognizing it or not admitting it.

Have seen both in various stage productions and on film (the Taylor/Burton version of "Shrew," the Branagh version of "Ado") along with several stage productions of "Kiss Me Kate" and the Howard Keel/Kathryn Grayson film.

Unfortunately, nothing led to recognizing/remembering the closing lines quoted.

Voted for "TOC-level clue." I think there's too little TOM for a regular game.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by nserven »

The line quoted from the play (“bodies soft & weak...but that our...hearts should well agree with our external parts?)" made me think of wild desires needing to be tamed, I guess. It was the first answer I thought of and none of the options presented anything that fit better than that.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by cf1140 »

I said Love's Labour's Lost and thought it had a good chance at being correct. I know little about the plot, but isn't it about men trying to avoid women for awhile but eventually they can't...to me that fits the line.

I did try to come up with some of Shakespeare's comedies ahead of time but did not think of The Taming of the Shrew.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by Volante »

My first thought was Much Ado...but my first thought is always Much Ado, and quickly ruled it out in favor of the correct response
opusthepenguin wrote: Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:11 pm I got this FJ right but I agree it's a toughie. So I checked the box saying the clue was tough but fair and the box saying it should have been reserved for a TOC.
I only went with the tough but fair box. I tackled it as if I was a writer: not a gimme, but it's one of the more common comedies (especially with Kiss Me, Kate); seeing how the clue -played- I would say it would have been better to save it for the TOC, but can't change the past.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by Rackme32 »

I checked the As You Like it box, but not sure if that's what I guessed while watching or not. My guessing stragedy for Shakecrap is "Guess a random Shakescrap play".

I also checked the "shouldn't have been used anywhere" box, because... well, it's Shakescrap.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by xxaaaxx »

Got it right with a complete WAG. Stuck with it because the quote didn't ring any bells, so one guess was as good as any other. 14% get rate in the weekly poll? TOC sounds about right.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by Lefty »

I had guessed Much Ado, and I voted now for "tough but fair", as I don't see anything unfair about it, but I wouldn't call it a ToC-level clue because I think it's too hard for ToC. I don't want to say it shouldn't be asked anywhere, because it might be right for a Shakespeare scholars' tourney, and who am I to say what tournaments they should hold?

I think sometimes they feel it's ok to ask about something with a narrow universe of possibilities, even though there is little way to narrow down that universe with any confidence. This UToC one is another example.
Last edited by Lefty on Mon Feb 18, 2019 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by opusthepenguin »

Lefty wrote: Mon Feb 18, 2019 5:29 pm I had guessed Much Ado, and I voted now for "tough but fair", as I don't see anything unfair about it, but I wouldn't call it a ToC-level clue because I think it's too hard for ToC. I don't want to say it shouldn't be asked anywhere, because it might be right for a Shakespeare scholars' tourney, and who am I to say what tournaments they should hold?

I think sometimes they feel it's ok to ask about something with a narrow universe of possibilities, even though there is little way to narrow down that universe with any confidence. This UToC one is another example.
Link don't work. Looks like if you don't provide the http:// or https:// then JBoard's software assumes your URL is a local link and adds a https://jboard.tv/ in front. Interesting. Here's the URL I think you mean (complete with a snazzy suffix that takes us straight to the FJ):

http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?g ... ardy_round

I like the idea of a Shakespeare Jeopardy! Watching that might make us feel like regular people watching regular Jeopardy! Or worse. Get one. Feel smart. Miss 10 in a row. Feel really stupid. Get one. Etc.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by Plactus »

On Wheel of Fortune or The Price Is Right, sometimes it looks like the wheel is going to stop on the perfect space, but it has just enough spin left to get over one more peg. That was me, naming as many Shakespeare comedies as I could and deciding to go on to the next; Taming of the Shrew was my penultimate guess, and it felt right, but I kept thinking and convinced myself to switch to Merchant of Venice at the last moment.

I don't know how I'd categorize this one. There doesn't seem to be a TOM that I can see even now, so it comes down to "guess a Shakespeare comedy and hope for the best."
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by Lefty »

opusthepenguin wrote: Mon Feb 18, 2019 6:26 pm

Link don't work. Looks like if you don't provide the http:// or https:// then JBoard's software assumes your URL is a local link and adds a https://jboard.tv/ in front. Interesting. Here's the URL I think you mean (complete with a snazzy suffix that takes us straight to the FJ):

http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?g ... ardy_round
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by Leander »

Plactus wrote: Mon Feb 18, 2019 6:36 pm
I don't know how I'd categorize this one. There doesn't seem to be a TOM that I can see even now, so it comes down to "guess a Shakespeare comedy and hope for the best."
Which is how I ended up guessing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, my default J! answer for a Shakespeare comedy.
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by econgator »

As I mentioned on the original thread, "Heart --> love --> Love's Labour's Lost".
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by DBear »

For some reason, Taming of the Shrew does not click for me when 'comedy plays' are mentioned. Comedies are my weak spot in Shakespeare anyway, the only one I know reasonably well being Twelfth Night since I read it in Brit Lit. :|
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Re: FJ Poll for 2/8/2019

Post by davey »

As I said in the daily thread, I was in a production of Shrew years ago, but these lines didn't spark any specific memory. I had enough trouble making sense of my own character Gremio without studying the other actors' speeches, I guess ... Not that I'd recognize his lines today, either! I notice now that the lines in the clue aren't either the beginning or the end of Katherine's speech. There are other lines, like "I am ashamed that women are so simple," or "place your hands below your husband's foot" that would have been more in line with the average difficulty of the clues this season...(Probably not "Come, come, you froward and unable worms!") I wouldn't say a clue about a common work that a contestant got is unfair, though...
I wrote Midsummer only because it's such a common J! response, but I shouldn't have since I actually know the final speech of that one - this doesn't sound like something Puck would say...

I remembered later (spoiler for another recent FJ)
Spoiler
that I was once in a production of Old Possum's Book...(a staged reading, really) a couple years before Lloyd Webber made it a hit, and yet those names triggered nothing for me, either... :roll:
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