Final Jeopardy: Literary Allusions (6-25-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (6/25/2025) in the category “Literary Allusions” was:
One of the first chatbots was named for this language-learning character from a 1913 play and 1956 musical
New champ Micah Fritz, a teacher from Milwaukee, WI, won $14,200 yesterday. In Game 2, he takes on these 2 players: Kiley Campbell, a teacher from Salt Lake City, UT; and Greg Harris, an attorney from Washington, D.C.
Round 1 Categories: A Dog of a Story – On the Map – All Alone – This is Not a Drill – I Love You, Man – Figures of Speech
Kiley found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “On the Map” under the $800 clue with 9 clues left after it. She was in a tie for the lead with Micah. They both had $4,400. Greg had negative $800. Kiley bet $2,400 and she was RIGHT.
Geologically a microcontinent, this island separated from Africa about 160 million years ago show
Kiley finished in the lead with $7,800. Micah was second with $5,800 and Greg was last with negative $200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Musical Geography With Johnny Gilbert – Welcome to Your Microbiome – 3-Letter Responses – Big in Feudal Japan – World Leaders – Xs & Os
Greg found the first Daily Double in “Welcome to Your Microbiome” under the $1,200 clue on the 5th pick of the round. He was in last place with $1,000, $6,800 less than Kiley’s lead. Greg bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Looking to up your helpful bacteria? Pucker up, buttercup & have some kefir, sauerkraut or kimchi, which undergo this process show
Micah got the last Daily Double in “Big in Feudal Japan” under the $1,600 clue on the 20th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $13,400, $1,200 more than Kiley in second place. Micah bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Samurai are associated with the katana or sword, but also had to master the yumi, this weapon, even on horseback show
Micah finished in the lead with $15,800. Kiley was second with $14,200 and Greg was last with $6,200. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS ELIZA DOOLITTLE?
The Berkeley Research Group (BRG) has an interesting article about Joseph Weizenbaum’s chatbot ELIZA, with insight into both the man and his invention. Weizenbaum was invited to join the Mass. Institute of Technology faculty due to his proficiency in computer science. “There he developed ELIZA, named for the heroine of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion [1913], who also used language to masquerade as someone or something else.”
The heroine of “Pygmalion” is, of course, Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, famously portrayed by Belgian-born Audrey Hepburn in the musical “My Fair Lady” (1956).
Greg had no response. He bet and lost his whole $6,200.
Kiley got it right and added $10,001 to finished with $24,201.
Micah didn’t have a response either. He lost $5,000 and landed in second place with $10,800. That made Kiley Campbell the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
FIGURES OF SPEECH ($800) 2/5 of a ton appears in this phrase for a company powerful enough to dominate an industry; meeting one in Africa is no picnic either
WORLD LEADERS ($1600) Khaleda Zia, the first female prime minister of this country, was later sent to prison for corruption & embezzlement
2 years ago: ALL of the players got this FJ in “THE MEDICAL WORLD”
He created a chest drain valve that aided breathing in wounded soldiers in Vietnam but is better known for a lifesaving measure show
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To me, the Final Jeopardy clue was misleading. Eliza Doolittle lived in London and thus knew English. She didn’t need to learn the language, but she did need to learn the pronunciations used by members of the upper class. Asking about a language learner would have a different answer.
MIcah started out like a house afire, but Kiley and Greg rallied well, and made it a game. Technically Kiley should have wagered $1601, which would have totally locked out Greg. She had to hope Micah missed Final, which he did. And his $5K wager was a total mystery to me. A right answer still would have lost the game. He must have banked on Kiley going low. Bad career move, but ultimately moot.
First two DDs were pretty easy. Micah nailed the 3rd before I had a chance to think about it. “1913” and “1956” led me directly to Pygmalion/My Fair Lady/Eliza Doolittle. I have the original cast album of the musical, one of my favorite scores. Just loverly.
A few of the stumpers weren’t too horrible. It took Kiley 3 tries in the song category to determine that they wanted the title, not the location. I knew the Vegas machine; the Boulevards song; the hairy-handed gent song; the deposed dictator; and the 1912 governor (the category gave it away). The 3-letter clues were all easy.
My favorite song from that musical is Just You Wait, ‘enry ‘iggins. Eliza’s father is terrific too!
Which makes you responsible for getting him to the church on time.
“On the Street Where You Live” is my favorite.
“On the Street” is a good one, too, Howard. And I would get Alfred Doolittle to the church on time “with a little bit of luck” 🤣🤣🤣
3/3 on DD, but just couldn’t come up with DJ. I knew it was Pygmalion, but just zoned.
VJ, the pancreas has two different ways of excreting. One is the same as that clue – that’s like a highway, through ducts. The other way is the endocrine pathway. That “drifts” out; imagine kids running through backyards, across various home sites. The alpha, beta, gamma, and delta cells make up the endocrine pancreas. People think “pancreas = diabetes”, but, 90% of it’s job is making digestive enzymes!
Thanks, Jason. Hopefully, I’ll remember that if endocrine comes up 😆
Hey, you never know!
It was another competitive game, and with plenty of gettable clues to boot. As for me, I did well above average, but was stumped in FJ.
That was a decent game, even if the one-day champ spell wasn’t broken. There were 11 stumpers — only one more than the 10 or less I wished for. That’s a big improvement all the same!
Of those 11, I got 8: the 2 songs, the 2 figures of speech, the Darcy actor, the Tikrit world leader & the x&o state.
@Jason, I wouldn’t ordinarily be able to differentiate between the 2 types of ‘e’ glands but that x&o category made it a cinch.