in memo Alex Trebek

[calimac]

the long-suffering (it seemed to me, from the shenanigans the contestants and the category listings put him through) host of Jeopardy!

Has anybody ever explained why they insist that answers be put in the form of questions? It's irritatingly artificial.

I am going to commit an open copyright violation here, because this is too good to leave out. The great Christine Lavin wrote words to the Jeopardy theme song:

Back in high school you were a square
Carried books and slide rules everywhere
You got straight A's year after year
They called you geek, they called you queer

For every one who laughed in your face
Now's your chance to put them in their place
Because you're on a TV show
Where your big brain
Earns
Big
Dough

Comments

[petrea_mitchell]

Has anybody ever explained why they insist that answers be put in the form of questions? It's irritatingly artificial.

According to a number of Trebek's obituaries, it was a gimmick created in reaction to the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. For instance, from the NYT:

Merv Griffin, the talk show host and media mogul who created the show, recounted in “The ‘Jeopardy!’ Book” (1990) that he had been talking to his wife in 1963 about how much he missed the old quiz shows. But, he said, he recognized that the format had lost all credibility after revelations that contestants on some programs had been secretly fed the answers.

Well, then, his wife, Julann, had said, Why not give contestants the answers to start with and make them come up with the questions?

Sources differ on what the first answer/question example was.

[calimac]

Well, I'd like to know what the early ones were like, and maybe that info exists online somewhere. Because the "answers" they give now are not remotely like anything any sane person would say if somebody genuinely asked them the "question." That's what makes the format irritatingly artificial.

[ex_inklessej388]

It is artificial in the sense that it is not how we speak English to one another but it is not grammatically incorrect by any stretch and I am sure the producers would point out that it has become an iconic part of the show. I think buzzwords and phrases were more sought after in gameshows of the past (gameshows are not even as popular as they are now, so really during the golden age of gameshows). Think about Wheel of Fortune's "I'd like to solve the puzzle" or the "come on down" from the Price is Right. How do you make a catch phrase or do some unique and repetitively so that it becomes catchy for a quiz show, reverse how the query is put to the person is one easy way.

[calimac]

I said that it was artificial, not that it was ungrammatical. Nor was I complaining about it being a catchphrase or buzzword. Those usually serve some purpose; this one serves no purpose, or Alex wouldn't have to continually remind contestants to use it.