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How to Make a Couple Thousand Bucks by Slandering Liberals
Take it from a one-time Jeopardy! champion (read: … and one-time Jeopardy! loser): it’s not easy being up under those lights, especially if you’re possessed of the type of – ahem – disposition that tends to characterize most of the show’s contestants. If you’ve made it onto the Jeopardy! stage, you’ve probably got a bit of an ego about your smarts, which adds a huge liability to the game: no one will ever remember any of your correct answers, because they’re expected of you. But if you go all facepalm on national television – no matter how brilliant you may otherwise be – it will live with you for the rest of your life.
I experienced a little bit of this when I lost on the show by whiffing on a Final Jeopardy question that involved the GM bankruptcy, a process that I witnessed the genesis of from within the Bush White House. It was not my finest hour. That’s why I envy Becky Sullivan, who also came up short on Final Jeopardy last week, but did so in the most awesome fashion imaginable:
Now, Sullivan subsequently claimed that she wasn’t throwing shade – “pansy” was just the only flower name she was aware of that could also be used as an epithet. And I believe her … because she’s an NPR producer. I’m guessing if you start dropping “pansy” in the hallways of America’s leading outlet for broadcasting done under the influence of Unisom, you end answering to HR pretty quickly.
Don’t feel too bad for Ms. Sullivan though. She seems to be taking this whole thing in good humor. Moreover, it’s Jeopardy!, which means she walked away with $2,000 for a second-place finish, despite the fact that she ended the game at $0 – which sounds suspiciously like a policy put in place by some liberal pansy.
Published in Entertainment, Humor
In other news how often do you see the returning champion’s poduim empty in final Jeopardy?
That would be a bleeding heart liberal pansy, Troy.
I’m surprised that she didn’t guess the correct answer given the fact that she had a picture to reference. I guess that’s what happens when you live in a concrete garden- you don’t know the names of flowers.
I was raised in the country by a serious gardener. I can’t imagine not knowing that was a bleeding heart on sight. Even if she just looked at the shape and had half a clue of the culture of the other side of the political spectrum, she could have figured it out.
I must admit I am the son of a serious gardener and I didn’t know the flower…..I am a failure.
That is one ugly flower.
I’d never heard of a bleeding heart, either. Forced to guess, I would have said “pinko.”
Or rather, “what is a pinko?”
That was a flower?
Let’s be honest: calling them pansies is hardly slanderous.
Slightly amusing? Yes. But if I were mathematically eliminated from winning Jeopardy and thrown a softball like this, I hope I would have the wherewithal to drop a real bomb.
Ah, but it was HER side of the political spectrum. Can’t see things clearly when they’re up close (especially at my age.)
“What is a ‘[redacted]?”
“What is a ‘braindead communist wannabe’?”
Who’s this new guy?
I can think of plenty worse (and fitting) insults for liberals than any flower’s name.
My brother told me about this to see how I would answer, and pansy was my answer, too. I’d never heard of a bleeding heart flower.
Troy, how is it that Trebeck seems to anticipate her insult? Can he see the scrawled answers before the reveal to the audience?
I thought that was interesting too. But it makes perfect sense if you think about it. They have to be able to see the answer before Alex announces it, lest they get into Sean Connery territory.
The guy got it – the girl didn’t? Not that women should know flowers, but look at the shape and color, and the clue was a no brainer – Troy – would love to see your you tube video as a guest, or even a picture – that is exciting – the things we don’t know ! The Sean Connery skits still crack me up!
A most enjoyable read, Troy. Thanks.
Wow, the famous Wheel of Fortune scene in South Park actually came to life.
I point some blame at Jeopardy. Final Jeopardy is designed to be so difficult that at least one contestant will get it wrong. Framing a question (uhh…answer) in the form of “a pejorative used to describe group X” makes it highly likely that someone will take a guess which ends up being offensive or controversial.
In other words, the entire premise of this question was just begging for trouble.
Woo hoo!!! I got redacted!!!! I made the Big Leagues!
What about ‘snotweed’?
I know both kinds of flowers: the ones that are roses, and the ones that ain’t.
In my book, the ultimate epithet would be, “What is a Democrat?”
Nice.
I think she got hosed. You can’t prove she was wrong.
To be fair…bleeding hearts (the flowers) are a bit old-fashioned. My mom and my grandmother both had them in their gardens. I’m not sure people really use them that much these days.
But, her answer was awesomely hilarious!!
Troy,
I did not even hit the hot link and knew what you were referencing…. We are a sorry bunch
I’ll send you the club t-shirt
I saw Kevin O’Leary, aka “Wr. Wonderful”, from “Shark Tank” on Jeopardy recently.
There’s no doubt as to Mr. Wonderful’s intelligence, but he was the worst Jeopardy player I ever saw. He ended up with a huge negative score.