Final Jeopardy: 1970s Movies (12-9-22)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (12/9/2022) in the category “1970s Movies” was:
A 1975 premiere of this comedy advertised free coconuts for the first thousand in the audience
New champ Sriram Krishnan, a consultant from Falls Church, VA, won $21,800 yesterday. In Game 2, the competitors are : Ellen LaBerge, a lawyer from Syracuse, NY; and Matthew Ott, an accountant orig. from Boston, MA.
Round 1 Categories: Places Named for People – Put in a Good Word – Table Talk – Song Title Titles – She Blinded Me – Science!
Sriram found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Put in a Good Word” under the $800 clue on the 19th pick of the round. He was in last place with $2,600, $1,000 less than Matthew’s lead. Sriram made it a true Daily Double but could not come up with a response so he was WRONG.
It’s a good name for a 350-mile-long lake or the head of a convent show
Matthew finished in the lead with $5,000. Ellen was second with $4,600 and Sriram was last with $1,000. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: History – Russian Writers – “P”otpourri – Company Name Origins – TV Final Episodes – State Postal Abbreviation Words
Matthew found the first Daily Double in “TV Final Episodes” under the $2,000 clue on the 8th pick. He was tied for the lead with Ellen at $7,800, $4,000 more than Sriram in last place. Matthew bet $3,800 and he was RIGHT.
When this show ended on April 10, 2022, one of the 2 female leads was dead. Which? Well, the show didn’t live up to its title. show
Sriram got the last Daily Double in “Company Name Origins” under the $1,200 clue on the 12th pick. In last place with $5,000, he had $5,400 less than Matthew’s lead. Sriram bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Truth be told, the first part of this telecommunications company’s name comes from the Latin word for truth or certainty show
Sriram finished in the lead with $14,200. Matthew was in second place with $11,600 and Ellen was last with $7,800. All clues were shown.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS “MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL”?
The opening scene of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is well-known for its use of coconut shells. Per IMDB trivia: “The famous depiction of galloping horses by using coconut shells (a traditional radio-show sound effect) came about from the purely practical reason that the production simply could not afford real horses.” See the script for Scene 1 here.
Monty Python troupe member Eric Idle, who played numerous roles in the film, recounted the free coconuts event at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival’s 40th anniversary showing of the film. In his 2018 memoir, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography”, Idle also wrote: “When we opened The Holy Grail at Cinema 2 in New York, Don Rugoff advertised it by paying a knight to go up and down Fifth Avenue pretending to ride a horse, followed by a squire clopping coconuts. In a newspaper ad he promised free coconuts to the first thousand people to attend the opening screening at 11:00 a.m.” The next day, the troupe was “trapped” at Cinema 2 all day, “emerging at the end of each showing to sign coconuts.”
Ellen got it right. She bet $7,000 and finished with $14,800.
Matthew got it right, too. He bet $11,597 and finished with $23,197.
Sriram came up with “Bananas”, a 1971 Woody Allen comedy. He lost $10,000 and finished with $4,200. That made Matthew Ott the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
SHE BLINDED ME ($800) One of this conniving group, Delilah alerts them that Samson is finally at their mercy; next comes some gouging
RUSSIAN WRITERS ($800) Anton Chekhov refashioned his bomb of a play “The Wood Demon” & its character Uncle George into this huge success
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “Island Nations”
What’s now this nation resisted naval sieges by the Berbers in 1429, the Ottomans in 1565 & axis WWII air assaults show
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Did anybody catch Ken’s joke on himself about not knowing H&R Block? That was the missed answer that ended his streak as a player. But speaking of being wrong, he sure mangled the pronunciation of Vladimir Nabokov’s name (maybe he’s listened to too much Sting). And while I’m at it, earlier in the week he got a little mixed up on just what a “Craftsman” is when discussing houses with a contestant during the break. The player was talking about a Sears Catalog house, and Ken ended with a comment about “lots of Craftsman houses.” That’s a common mistake: Sears makes Craftsman tools, but a Craftsman house is the architectural style popular in the early part of the 20th century.
[Full disclosure (“Slumdog Millionaire” edition): I grew up in a Craftsman bungalow and now live in a Cape Cod-style house from the Sears Catalog. And I went to Switzerland to visit Nabokov at his apartment in the Montreux Palace Hotel just before he died (a colleague at the time said that’s probably what killed him).]
Ken’s H&R Block joke was pretty funny, Otto. Your colleague’s comment about your visit with Nabokov was very funny.
Sometimes I notice when Ken mispronounces something, although I did not know the proper pronunciation for Nabokov puts the stress on the “bo” syllable until you brought it up. Mainly, I wince when Ken copies an Alex Trebek expression like when he said “hello” at Matthew’s bet in this game.
All those stumpers were tough, but someone should have known Samson’s opponents’ name.
I probably saw that Python movie decades ago, but don’t recall a thing about it. I knew it was wrong, but “Young Frankenstein” was the best I could come up with.
I agree on the Delilah clue, Howard. My my my! 🤣 The Soviet exile stumper was even more shocking to me.
Let us hope we get another streaker soon next week. Happy to see Matt winning today and congrats to ellen getting this final right
So this week we started out with a superchamp Cris Pannullo winning his 21st game. For the rest of the week we had a new champ after Cris is defeated. Will we get to see the recent trend of one day champion continue or will we have our first multi-day champ? We’ll find out next week.
It is amazing to me that the people who defeat super champs go on to lose so quickly after their upset wins. Even Emma who beat holzhauer could only win a total of 3 games. The woman who beat jennings lost the very next game. Is there a philosophical or psychology term for a thing like that? Please don’t write “sol” 😄😄😊.
I don’t know about anyone else, but imo, “beating” a superchamp does not necessarily mean “outplayed”. Despite a few bad breaks, like losing $6,600 on the 8th clue in the second round, Cris Pannullo still finished in the lead in his last game. He lost the game because he didn’t know FJ!
Then there are players who beat superchamps who win more than a few games, like Eric Ahasic. He won 6 games after beating Ryan Long. Jonathan Fisher beat Matt Amodio AND achieved superchamp status when he won 11 games.
Albert, I call it luck. If it wasn’t luck they would win the next game they play. 😊