If you came of age in the 1990s
and perhaps even if you didn't you are doubtless aware of one of the most
hysterical recurring sketches on Saturday Night Live during that period.
I'm speaking of the hysterical Celebrity Jeopardy parodies in which Will
Ferrell played an Alex Trebek who couldn't even bother to hide how exhausting
it was to have Burt Reynolds, Sean Connery and anyone from Minnie Driver to
Phil Donahue to Adam Sandler proving just how incredibly dumb they were when it
came to answering the easiest Jeopardy questions imaginable.
By the 1990s I was regularly
watching Saturday Night Live and I found all of these sketches examples
of what might have been called cringe comedy. And that was because I was a Jeopardy
fan by this point and I was painfully aware then the average SNL viewer
that, if anything, the writers were being generous to how incompetent
celebrities were when they appeared on Jeopardy.
I've written about this before a
few years back but I may have left out the personal aspect of it. And I have to
tell you during this period when I was a teenager every time Celebrity
Jeopardy took place it became painful for me to watch each year. Think how
embarrassing it must be to be fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old and watching
celebrities you have seen on TV and admire immensely demonstrating over and
over and over again that they are incapable of answering questions that
you know very well.
I'll admit part of my problem was
that they didn't seem to be taking the show that seriously. Even at a young age
I took Jeopardy as almost a ritual and watching them clown around on
stage, delaying answering clues and then constantly faulting each other and
themselves on their inadequacy seemed very close to heresy. It tells you
something that in thirty plus years of watching Jeopardy it is only the
celebrity contestants who never take the show with any seriousness. I've seen
middle schoolers on Back to School Week who took the show with a greater
level of maturity then so many famous people in their fifties and sixties.
Now I'll grant you it might have
to do with the fact everyone else was playing for actual money and the
celebrities were just playing for charity.
That falls apart when one looks at the Jeopardy Masters and see James
Holzhauers and Mattea Roach's of the world knowing that they will be playing
for charitable donations as well as everything else and they take it with a
competitiveness and respect that it deserves.
More to the point there is the
fact that it was clear early on – I think by the time of 1994 at least – that
the writers realized that the average celebrity did not, to put it charitably,
know as much as the average Jeopardy contestant. That essentially meant
them bending the rules until they broke. Ed Begley or Brett Butler finish in
the negative at the end of Double Jeopardy? Give them money so they can compete
in Final Jeopardy. The questions keep getting easier and easier and with few
exceptions they keep getting them wrong. Guarantee them a $10,000 minimum if
they finish Final Jeopardy with less than that – or for that matter, no money
at all. (That happened a lot during the 1990s and beyond.)
Perhaps that's the reason I
appreciated Will Ferrell's work as Trebek during those sketches in a way I
didn't always like or enjoy much of his comedy on SNL during that
period. He wasn't even trying to imitate Trebek or his cadences but as someone
who wondered what had to be going through Alex's head during each of these
weeks I thought Ferrell might actually be saying the quiet part out loud. Alex was always a trooper no matter who the
contestants were and I've often wondered how much effort it kept for him to
keep that poker face. So I took a certain pleasure every time Ferrell would say
some of the clearly dumbed down categories like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Word That Rhymes With Star' or told Minnie Driver "Are you English or just
retarded?" As someone who watched these tournaments during this period
there are so many times I had similar thoughts.
Now I'm not saying every
celebrity who appears was a raving moron who couldn't tell the difference
between Rutgers and Princeton and thought that a great tennis player was Andrew
Agassi. There were some very intelligent Celebrity Jeopardy players who did the
stage proud. Many of them, I should mention, were former SNL alum such as Jane
Curtin or Michael McKean or sketch comedy veterans such as Cheech Marin. The
cast of Law & Order was very capable at answering questions involving
Ghastly Operatic Demises. Levar Burton and Kareen Abdul-Jabar proved their
mettle multiple times. And obviously Ike Barinholtz has become something of a
gold standard from this point forward.
But there's a reason that by the
early 2000s I'd stopped watching all celebrity tournaments on Jeopardy. It
was becoming exhausting watching some actors I admired – whether it was Steve
Harris or Camryn Manheim on The Practice, Wendie Malick or Joseph Gordon
Levitt, embarrass themselves. They say never meet your heroes; I'd say seeing
Thomas Haden Church or Lynn Redgrave play horribly on your favorite game show
counts.
I should argue this applies just
as much to many political figures. During the 1990s and up until 2016 (perhaps
for good reason) Jeopardy would invite many figures of note in the world of
cable news or even politics at a certain level to appear on Jeopardy, usually
in DC. If anything, they were more embarrassing then so many TV actors. And
this was true no matter what side of the political spectrum you were on. Chris
Matthews and Al Franken, Tucker Carlson and Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and
Bob Woodward, they all performed so ludicrously badly – often, I should add, on
historical and political questions – that they made me wonder if any of them
actually knew anything that wasn't on a teleprompter.
The polarization of today's politics pretty
much stopped these weeks from happening because Jeopardy has always been
the kind of show that doesn't actively seek out controversy. We make the
argument that the tribal nature of politics has gotten rid of rational debate;
these weeks make me wonder in hindsight if many of these people were ever
capable of it to begin with.
All of which brings me to the
title of my article as you might expect. Earlier this year around the time of
the Golden Globes Ricky Gervais reposted made a joke about how celebrities are
not authorities on anything. "You know less then Greta Thunberg."
(After awards season he added the comment: "They didn't listen."
Now I've made multiple arguments
as to why celebrities should stay in their own lane for years. It didn't occur
to me until recently that well before Hollywood felt it was their moral duty to
talk about all things political, I actually had videotape evidence of how
little they knew about anything.
Am I saying that all of the
celebrities who make dumb comments today were incapable of answering trivia
questions on Jeopardy? Well the first year I saw it Rosie O'Donnell and
Ed Begley, Jr two of the most left wing celebrities then or now played. Begley
finished at -$1100 and O'Donnell finished in the lead with $2000. Along with
Robert Gulliame they combined for 33 correct answers and 18 incorrect ones. 17
clues were left uncovered in both rounds. That night I missed the first three
minutes. I still cleaned their clocks. I was thirteen.
Throughout my teenage years I
regular defeated in combat Larry King, Kelsey Grammer, Dean Cain, Elayne
Boosler, Sandra Bernhard, Eartha Kitt, Buzz Aldrin, Keith Olberman (he was with
ESPN then) and Meredith Viera. To be fair I didn't do as well as Kareen-Abdul
Jabbar, Jon Stewart or Cheech Marin and Alicia Witt got Final Jeopardy right on
me once.
You'll notice that quite a few of
these celebrities are still loud voices and some of them, such as Cain, Grammer
and Rob Schneider are fairly regular on conservative talk shows these days. As
a teenager I could beat them at Jeopardy. I'm not saying I could do it today
but their track record on certain subjects makes me question why I should
listen to any of them when they claim to talk with authority about the Middle
East, economic inequality, racism in America or really anything that doesn't
have to do with Hollywood. And since some of them can't seem to answer
questions that directly refer to them and their field I'm not sure how much we
can trust them on anything. (Bob Woodward missed a clue on Jeopardy that had to
do with the film All The President's Men. All I'm saying.)
There may be those who argue that
how an actor performs on a quiz show shouldn't be the sole measure of their
intellect. I'd argue what measure do you want me to use that would be fair?
Speaking as someone who has the greatest respect not only for Jeopardy but
for all of the great players, super-champions or five day ones, who have walked
on the Alex Trebek stage for the past four decades and continue to dazzle
millions of viewers with their breadth of knowledge to this day. Are you
telling me an actor should be held to a different standard then teachers,
attorneys, students, accountants, bartenders, journalists and the average
person Hollywood claims they either speak for or know better then?
In 1999 Eddie Timanus a man who
was totally blind won five games on Jeopardy and his total of $69,700 was the
most of any player in the 2000 Tournament of Champions. He was a semi-finalist
in the 2000 Tournament of Champions and has been invited back three times to
compete in Jeopardy 'Postseason tournaments before there was a postseason. The
only thing accommodation he ever needed in his original run was that at the
start of every round they handed him a card with the categories in Braille. The
rest was up to him and he was pretty good at it.
In every single game in the
Celebrity Jeopardy tournament that followed a few months later with the
exception of Andy Richter played with a far better score then anything of them.
For the record Rosie O'Donnell was invited back that year; she finished in a
distant third and actually did worse then the previous invitation six years
earlier. Eddie was, needless to say, answering questions much more difficult
then any of the celebrities invited for that year's tournament.
I'm not saying that de facto
makes Eddie smarter more than O'Donnell or more accomplished. I am saying
that should Eddie Timanus choose to say something about the state of the
country (which as far I know, he has not) I'd be more inclined to treat his
opinion with respect and admiration then I have anything O'Donnell has ever
said.
That brings me to a related
point. After his incredible run on Jeopardy concluded a few weeks back
Jamie Ding has been in the national spotlight the way that many Jeopardy
champions tend to be when they do well for an extended period. He's spoken how
important he considers his job as a state employee and how significant his
accomplishments mean as a child of immigrants and a person of color.
I'd argue that Jamie Ding has
earned his right to speak on certain subjects in a way that no one in Hollywood
has. Because unlike them he is an average American who has had the spotlight
thrust upon him. So much of our society
is built on so many people claiming to be speaking to the average
citizen but we rarely do and most of them will never get a platform to talk
about what they think. That is worth paying attention to in a way that all of
the actors and athletes and celebrities really don't.
So if Amy Schneider or Mattea
Roach were to talk about the issues that members of the LGBTQ+ community face
(and both have) I'm fine with it in a way that I chafe when Asia Kate Dillon
talks about how important gender neutral awards are. And if Jamie wants to talk
of what it means to be a person of color in America he's earned it in a way
that John Leguizamo's demands for representation in his industry don't land
with me. They're less insulated from
what happens in this country then the bubble that surrounds Hollywood and I
think we should hear their opinion.
As my writing has indicated I
have a respect for Jeopardy champions in a way I hold for very few other
people. I admire what they have accomplished in a way that's more relatable for
me in a way that for all my respect for the craft of Hollywood and TV I don't
think most people can. As someone who still wants to be on Jeopardy some
day (I keep meaning to take the anytime test but never get around to it) I
genuinely admire their intelligence, grace under pressure and humor in a way
that I frequently find lacking in so many actors especially now. They are the
average person who has to earn their fame in a way that the majority of those
in Hollywood have long forgotten. When I talk about the Masters or the
Invitational as 'the real Celebrity Jeopardy' for me there's a real truth to it
that I think every fan of the show has.
Maybe the only way I could
respect a celebrity would be if they were to appear on regular Jeopardy.
I felt that way for Ike Barinholtz and even though they didn't do nearly as
well, I respected the efforts of Lisa Ann Walter and Kamau Bell. If you're
willing to be onstage with the average Jeopardy champion and risk a certain
humiliation that does make you more human in a real way to me. I'm not saying
that for me to take the Mark Ruffalo's or Hannah Einbinder's more seriously
they'd have to appear on Jeopardy against the Jamie Dings and Harrison
Whitaker's of the world, but it would earn my respect in a way their loud
pronouncements from social media just don't. Most of you will go on SNL. You're
halfway there already.
No comments:
Post a Comment