Jeopardy! issues clarification for question touching on Russia-Ukraine “border issues”
The episode in question was recorded a month before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of this year
Aux News Jeopardy!
The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has had yet another strange knock-on effect on the media landscape this week, as Jeopardy! was moved to issue a rare disclaimer this weekend for one of its clues on a recent episode. Specifically, the long-running trivia series posted a tweet ahead of the episode that aired on Friday night, explaining that it was filmed on January 11, more than a month before the invasion began—relevant, since the question in question focused on “serious border issues” between the two countries which have now, obviously, escalated into actual war.
Jeopardy!’s position within the cultural landscape—and, specifically, its ability to transmit viewpoints through the ways it words its clues, and the topics it chooses to cover—have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. In general, that’s presumably just a byproduct of how much easier it is now for viewers to confer with each other online for a quick “Hey, that was fucked up, right?” (See the general backlash for a clue from last year, in which the show used an outmoded term for the medical condition “Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.” The show later issued an apology.) But the series also brought some of this on itself with its high-profile, often-blundering host search over the last year and change, one that included bringing criticized figures like Dr. Oz on to hop behind the podium as a presumed arbiter of facts.
To be clear, the issues surrounding the Ukraine question from this week are pretty easy to understand—TV gets made on its own schedule, and the show’s structure doesn’t really allow for an ability to cut a clue while maintaining the continuity of the game. But it does serve as an interesting reminder of the way Jeopardy!’s role as a deliverer/tester of general knowledge has to operate within a world where said “general knowledge” can often shift unpredictably. (It’s also just the latest instance of pop culture shifting itself to grapple with the Russian invasion, including recent moves to ban Russia from participating in this year’s Eurovision, the increased global interest in Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s old sitcom work, and calls by Ukrainian culture groups to ban Russian films from international distribution.)
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Ukraines don’t want to fight for the puppet government. They are fleeing to russia rather than be conscripted – snusnu, uk, United Kingdom, February 2015
these bots are hot retards
“They will greet you with flowers and fix your tanks”
Russian Command – Last Week
It was last weekend…at Biltmore!
I mean, technically they’re fixing some tanks. But at that point, they’re not “Yours” any more, but “Ours”
Ever played Battlefield Bad Company 2? If your tank gets messed up you can get out and fix it…and if you happen upon somebody fixing their tank you can shoot them, take their tank, drive it to their spawn point, and blow them up again. It’s very satisfying 🙂
The fact that Russia is leaving behind so many disabled/damaged but potentially salvageable tanks shows how poorly the logistics of this invasion were thought through.
‘But it does serve as an interesting reminder of the way Jeopardy!’s role as a deliverer/tester of general knowledge has to operate within a world where said “general knowledge” can often shift unpredictably.’I mean it’s not that interesting a reminder really.
Btw, I’m a physician, and I’ve never heard another name for POTS syndrome until I clicked on the link in this article. I didn’t even think it was well known enough to have a common name.
The same with ATM machine.
Sorry doc, I use that one every chance I get.
So does the BTK killer
Lol. I’ve never said that one out loud to realize how ridiculous it sounds.
“His name is DENNIS!”
I mean he went by “BIND.TORTURE.KILL.”, not “bind torture killer”. So “BTK killer” makes perfect sense.
At first I thought you mean the other thing ATM can stand for, and I was all, “there’s a machine for that? And it’s not your mom?”
Jeopardy likes clues where the contestant (and viewer) can arrive at the answer more than one way, so that you can do well even if you don’t have a ton of knowledge of a certain area. Here, I suspect they thought most contestants would answer the question using their knowledge of Dr. Suess, not of medicine.
Outrage culture is fun, inn’t?
Have they also issued a statement/apology for misgendering Sam Smith in a clue on that same episode? It’s particularly egregious since less than a year ago, there was a clue specifically about Smith’s preferred pronouns (From last May, in the category “Pronouns”: In 2019 singer Sam Smith announced, “I am changing my pronouns to” this genderless pair)
lol
I hope not.
Did I misread the article, or did we never learn what the question was?
“Never let facts or context get in the way of a good outrage click.” -Current AVC editor “Also remember your paid by the word so dont be afraid to dredge up old shit or something tangentially related in your story“
We also never got the term Jeopardy used for “Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.” It was Grinch syndrome, named because a person’s heart is too small. I can certainly understand why a person with the condition might find the term demeaning, but I don’t think they or anyone else needs to be protected from hearing it in an article about it.The AV Club has a strange tendency to characterize these things, rather than actually telling us what they are. It leaves us just sort of taking the author’s word for it that something is offensive or problematic, rather than evaluating it for ourselves.
“but I don’t think they or anyone else needs to be protected from hearing it in an article about it.”
But this article wasn’t about it. And the words you quoted were a hyperlink to an article that was about it.
The article was “about it” enough for the condition’s full name to be included in the article, and for the author to comment that the term was “outmoded.” I’m not sure how a more than 30 word parenthetical about the clue was worth putting in the story, but it somehow wasn’t worthwhile to include the term so readers could evaluate it for themselves.
If only some way of letting readers evaluate it for themselves had been provided, say by some sort of “hyper” “link” embedded directly in the text.For Christ’s sake I also didn’t know of that term or issue, and learned about it in less than one second merely by mousing over the link.
You mean, the answer?
What’s Hughes/Barsanti gonna do, inform you about something or just try to create RAGE
Hughes and Bersanti will fight hard to get you the money you deserve!
Bordering Russia, for $800. “The Kerch Strait — along with serious border issues — separates Russia from this country on the Black Sea.”
What is, There really isn’t anything controversial about that, it’s just a topical coincidence, Ken?
That’s what I said. Where’s the answer and the question? What was it all about? Friday’s episode is still on my DVR. I guess I’ll have to watch it tonight.
yeah, waste of my time
Host Ken Jennings read the $800 clue in the category “Bordering Russia”: ”The Kerch Strait — along with serious border issues — separates Russia from this country on the Black Sea.”
I’d say an invasion qualifies as a “serious border issue.”
While I don’t claim to know a ton about how TV editing works, it seems like in between its taping and its airing, it would not have been too much of a challenge to splice out that portion and substitute it with a placard along the lines of…“Due to recent events, Jeopardy! producers felt it would be irresponsible to show the following clue. [Contestant] got it correct for [amount] and remains in charge of the board.”… and then cut right back to game play for the next clue. It seems easier than airing it and going through different channels to apologize for it, and viewers at home don’t miss anything more while watching than they would have had, for example, the person next to them had a coughing fit.
I’m not really sure why they’re apologizing for it. Just saying it’s pre-taped didn’t even feel necessary.
I definitely laughed when they had the disclaimer at the top of the screen during that clue/answer.I know, and you know, and a lot of people here know that Jeopardy is pretaped, sometimes far in advance (though I didn’t know how far in advance. I chuckled a bit – and wondered exactly when the show was actually recorded – several days before when the Final Jeopardy category was ‘Modern Wars’).But maybe there’s a lot of people who think that the show is recorded the day of airing.
I lurk in the subreddit. There are people who love the show enough to post there but don’t understand how far ahead it’s recorded.
Yes, with modern editing techniques, it’s possible to do many things to make an episode of TV worse.
“Are you ready?”. . . . . .
. . .“Yes.”
If the person beside me has a coughing fit, we bloody well rewind. If they have a heart attack, we save the episode for after the ambulance leaves. No Jeopardy will be missed!
“(See the general backlash for a clue from last year, in which the show used an outmoded term for the medical condition “Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.” The show later issued an apology.)“That’s a ridiculous controversy. Also, a person quoted in the linked article states the word is misogynistic, which I do not see. I always assumed the Grinch was male.
It’s also white supremacist, I’m sure.
I suspect the charge of misogyny comes somehow from the fact that women actually do have smaller hearts than men, but a certain contingent of contemporary society wants to insist that no one ever allude to biological differences between men and women.
It’s apparently misogynistic due to the condition mostly affecting women.Which really makes the condition misogynistic, but it’s hard to #cancel a medical condition.
So is sickle cell racist for disproportionately affecting the black community?It is hard to cancel a medical condition when idiots refuse to get a vaccine.
Tay-Sach’s disease must also be antisemitic.Hemophilia also must really have something against inbred royals.
No? Even in that person’s mind, it wasn’t POTS itself that was misogynistic, only the nickname. So for your sickle cell analogy it would be racist if there was an alternate name of it that invoked something racial.
Y’know, the comedy of Kat Williams is like sickle cell…
I think the idea is that it’s misogynistic (and apparently not even what the condition is?) to suggest that a disease that primarily affects women causes them to have small hearts…and act like Grinches. It’s not a great association.
I thought Grinch syndrome made your heart triple in size, not be smaller.
I think the idea is that it’s misogynistic (and apparently not even what the condition is?) to suggest that a disease that primarily affects women causes them to have small hearts…and act like Grinches. It’s not a great association.
Mrs. Bitch and I watch Jeopardy a lot. My biggest gripe with the show and its writers is the overwhelming lean towards Christianity. It shows up very often. Pick any two shows at random and there will be one category on “Characters from the Bible” or “Books of the Bible” or “Quotes from the Bible” or “Christian Parables”.Questions about the Bible or Christianity outweigh anything about Islam or the Bhagavad Gita by 200-to-1.
The only other time I remember a pre-taped disclaimer is when they had a clue about Phil Hartman not too long after the murder. I remember reading the clue, turning to my mom, and saying, “Um…I’m pretty sure that’s Phil Hartman.”
Two things – as I waacthed the show there was a message in the top left corner when thry aired it which should’ve been sufficient. I notice the writer’s of this article did not know this. Also, as they sent thet tweet at 5:06 PM, that missed the people that se the show earlier in ths day . There’s a number of places where it airs in the morning.
Two things – as I watched the show there was a message in the top left corner when they aired the clue which should’ve been sufficient. I notice the writers of this article did not know this. Also, as Jeopardy! sent the tweet at 5:06 PM, that missed the people that see the show earlier in ths day. There’s a number of places where it airs in the morning.It’s a shame that more people saw the tweet to complain about this than actually watched the show.
Two things – as I watched the show there was a message in the top left corner when they aired the clue which should’ve been sufficient. I notice the writers of this article did not know this. Also, as Jeopardy! sent the tweet at 5:06 PM, that missed the people that see the show earlier in ths day. There’s a number of places where it airs in the morning.It’s a shame that more people saw the tweet to complain about this than actually watched the show.
Well this was a waste of time.
Since the article omitted it: the answer was “The Kerch Strait – along with serious border issues – separates Russia from this country on the Black Sea,” and the question, of course, was “What is Ukraine?”.
Jeopardy! is the “arbiter of facts”?
Say’s a bit about where we are eh?