This thing where you get charged taxes based on the thing being worth 700% of what it's actually worth seems like... I don't know what it seems like. Is there some corrupt S&P-style organization that for a fee will assess the taxable value of all the world's physical objects or fabulous tourism packages?
I wanted to see what game show Ono might be on, but it isn't even on his wikipedia page.
Never mind. I see it now. I guess it doesn't deserve a section heading.
Jeopardy is the one true game show; all others are just pretenders. Except maybe Let's Make a Deal. And You Bet Your Life, if you wanna go old school. And I guess Win Ben Stein's Money was pretty good, too. And To Tell the Truth was kinda okay sometimes.
One day there will be a Jeopardy tournament where all the contestants are Unfogged commenters. And then the singularity will come. And we'll all win five dollars.
I heard that Trebek finally admitted there was an episode where somebody answered, "In the ass."
I think it's A Minute To Win It.
I almost got on Win Ben Stein's Money but you had to pay for your own travel to LA for a weekday taping and it didn't seem worth it at all.
To be fair, the game was called Win Ben Stein's Money, not Fly to LA on Ben Stein's Money.
So maybe all those people who ended up with Dusty Bin were the real winners.
Ben Stein is a horrible, horrible man.
But his money works as well as any.
A horrible man with an inexplicable career in show business.
12: true. Which is why it would be better for me to have that money. Also this was before the intensity of his horribleness was quite so clear.
Jeopardy is the one true game show; all others are just pretenders.
This is incorrect. Match Game was the greatest thing ever on television.
Also, Paul Lynde on Hollywood Squares, but that wasn't so much a game show as performance art.
Bob Eubanks?
Yes.
(Anyway, if it had been on Jeopardy, it would have been, "What is 'in the ass'?")
I have a lot to say about game shows, it seems.
14: Never underestimate the power of a monotone!
He's actually a very odd case -- did you know he supported Ralph Nader in 2008, and has spoken in favor of increasing taxes on the wealthy?
I didn't until I read it on wikipedia today!
No love for Password or The 25,000 Pyramid?
21; There should probably be a dollar sign somewhere in there.
From the link:
And the producer said, "Well, did you love right now yesterday?" and I said, "Of course I loved yesterday right now." I'm not sure how it came out, but it was kind of clever.
I... what?
Yeah, for all those years we just thought Ben Stein was a Republican because he was a rich guy, successful lawyer and friends with Gerald Ford. Turns out he's part of the low-information base!
24: I always thought it had something to do with his relationship with his father. That while his dad could be fairly sane about the possibility that Nixon was an anti-semite, Ben Stein was so outraged at the suggestion that his dad might have misjudged a person, that he hated anyone who said a bad word about Nixon and placed Nixon on a pedestal even above his father.
I tried to get on the Jeopardy teen tournament, which several other kids from my high school went on, but they didn't like me. I think I was too boring. They care a lot about people having amusing anecdotes to talk about in the break.
It seems like every time I happen to see an episode of Jeopardy, someone I'm vaguely acquainted with is on it. It's pretty weird. (And there was that time that one guy I knew from quizbowl won a million dollars on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and I felt bad that I mostly knew him as 'that guy who tucks his sweatshirts into his jeans'.)
It took about six months for Jeopardy! to get around to making arrangements to give me my consolation prize. That was annoying, though not as annoying as Trebek himself. I did manage to sell the prize on, though, so even with the travel costs and the taxes I came out marginally ahead.
One transportation-geek friend (possibly known to essear?) won a ride in a blimp, which I think he valued beyond rubies.
Ha to 28.
Most surprising Jeopardy!-related occurrence: being recognized by Ken Jennings at a different geekfest. Apparently we'd competed in quizbowl?
I feel mostly bad that there is a guy who tucks his sweatshirts into his jeans.
30 is impressive.
Also, obligatory, "I Lost On Jeopardy"
(Did you know that Apollo Ono is now the host of a game show?)
No, and I'm far more upset by this than I should be.
I lost on Jeopardy. But a friend of mine -- who actually helped me prepare by watching me play eight Tivoed episodes in a row and giving me notes -- brok $90k in 5 days.
(And there was that time that one guy I knew from quizbowl dated won a million dollars got an early, easy question wrong on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and I felt bad vindicated that I mostly knew him as 'that guy who tucks his sweatshirts into his jeans' I broke up with because he wasn't smart enough.)
|| People at this conference keep talking about how great the beignets here are and I keep wanting to make a joke about slambeignets. |>
I broke up with because he wasn't smart enough.
Please, this terminology is offensive. I believe you mean he lacked mental whateverness.
When Dr. Skull was in LA trying to be a starving screenwriter (well, succeeding at being a starving screenwriting) he won $4700 on a very low-rent game show -- Dick Clark's Challengers.
It did indeed end up causing us tax problems, literally one week after I married him.
Still, it's a really cool line on the CV. (The game show, not the grief from the IRS.)
My mother was on Match Game in like 1963, when it was a different show from its bawdy '70s heyday. She won the most you could win, which was maybe $300.
When I was fairly young there was an extremely cheapskate quiz program "Quicksilver" in Ireland which featured prizes of 50p and £1. I think it did rise to the dizzying heights of £50 but hardly anyone got that far. It did spawn a catchphrase, "Stop the lights".
We got all the British program where I lived and I used to enjoy watching Blockbusters when I got home from secondary school ("Can I have a P, please, Bob"). Countdown would usually be over by that time. I was bemused when I visited France to realise that the equivalent of the latter was a big prime time show.