Friday, March 19, 2010

Buzzer Kill.

This was a news story:
Anderson Cooper may be a respected newsperson, but the CNN anchor didn't display his extensive knowledge of trivia on Thursday night's "Celebrity Jeopardy!" In a competition with actress Aisha Tyler and comedian Cheech Marin, Cooper tied for second (or, depending on how you look at it, last) place with Tyler, after Marin beat them both.
With a final score that totaled $0, Cooper missed questions about world leaders, geography and literature, among other topics.
By the time "Final Jeopardy" came around, he was so stumped by a question about the author of "The Wizard of Oz" that his screen displayed simply the word "Who."
Who indeed. Like, "Who is on an overrated game show that is supposed to be a test of ones knowledge, when it is actually just a stupid game show?" The answer is: Jeopardy contestants.
It is long removed from the days when Art Fleming hosted what was billed as a test of knowledge. From what I've read, contestants are asked their fields of expertise and the questions (sorry, answers) are catered to their favorite topics. Typical TV nonsense. I guess Cooper missed the pre-interview.
Meanwhile, it's a dopey concept that has lasted over three generations. Answer with a question. OK, the answer is, "This overpaid talking head gets more credit for being intelligent than he deserves merely because he hosts his own nightly news program." The question is, "Who is just about every news anchor on television."
We are supposed to believe that Anderson Cooper is smarter than Cheech Marin because Cooper hosts a news show and Marin portrays a stoner. That's faulty logic on several levels. I would include Aisha Tyler in the discussion, but I don't know who she is. According to TV, she's smarter than Anderson Cooper.
Like a lot of things over the past four years, I found that I have mentioned Jeopardy at least once before.
I wonder, when a contestant finishes with minus dollars, does he owe the show money? There's a program I would watch.
The question is: Who is L. Frank Baum.

1 comment:

susan said...

Umm. Jeopardy. For what's it's worth, I took the test and passed it when I lived in LA and was invited to be on the show. I chickened out at the last minute, I just got scared of the idea of being on live TV.

You can draw your own conclusions.