Dymitri Harszewski
Blog 1660

Nov. 20, 2022

Jeopardy Schmepardy

In my earlier post about Jeopardy ("A Jeopardy Nazi? Ach Nein!" Feb. 2022), I came down pretty hard on multi-time winner Matt Amodio for some of his habits (like answering every single question, without exception, in the "What is..." form, plurals and people's names be damned, e.g. "What is Jesus' Apostles?") and his overall bearing, which I felt was unworthy of a Jeopardy champion. In that same post, I applauded Amy Schneider as a great example of a super champ. I'm sure both were deeply affected by a random prisoner's hand-scribble blog post. =) Anyway, since then, the world got to see all of last season's big winners compete in the Jeopardy Tournament of champions, and I'm happy to report (months after the fact, no doubt, by the time this goes online): Ms. Schneider got the job done! She beat out every other multi-day champion for the crown of Greatest Jeopardy Player for 2021/2022! A little less happily, because I genuinely dislike rooting against anyone, Mr. Amadio proved he couldn't quite keep up with the best of the best, as I'd suspected during his streak. I can't deny some mean little satisfaction in watching him get walloped and removed from a pedestal I felt he didn't belong on, but at the same time it just never feels right to celebrate anyone's failure, with the occasional exception of cop- and prosecutor-types who manage to slither into some national competition. And even then I always get a bit queasy from wishing someone ill... I mean, even pigs can be redeemed, and behind the badges they are (in theory) still just people, no matter how hard they work to distance themselves from their basic humanity. Poor old Matt Amodio though... he's no pig, just a bit of a ding-dong in my fundamentally worthless opinion, and at the end of the day, after all the crap I've talked about him (none so harsh, I think), I still have to admit I wouldn't want to go head to head with that guy in a trivia contest. He really does know lots of stuffs, after all. =)

Anyway, congratulations Amy-- Hard fought and well won, and truly against some of the very best. Now, as I write, a new super champ is in the making: Chris Parullo. He looks to be in for a helluva run, and from my impoverished perspective, he seems to deserve every bit of success he's had. Are we witnessing the making of the best of '22/'23?

PS. This should be my last post talking about Jeopardy, lol! Sometimes it's just fun to switch gears a little though, eh? Adieu!