Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Ken Jennings, Record-Winning Jeopardy Champ, Says Alex Trebek Is NOT a Robot

Jeopardy! Host Alex Trebek
Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek: Not a Robot

Did you know that Ken Jennings, Jeopardy ace (with a 74-game winning streak, and winnings totalling $2.5 million), has a blog?

I didn't either, until I read the AP story on CNN.com: " 'Jeopardy' champ Jennings jabs show" (link via Fark) [Update: The story is currently running on the AOL Welcome Screen; also, AOL Entertainment News is featuring it, and also check out The Cooler Blog's take.]

Apparently, he started it in June -- he doesn't take comments, though he does have message boards (which are currently hosed due to all the linkage).

As I've opined before, I feel that a blog that doesn't take comments is "bloggy", but it's not really a blog.

Other than that, it turns out that Mr. Ken Jennings is a pretty funny guy.

Which is kind of why it's odd that the AP story plays it pretty straight, as if he was actually being serious in his blog entry about how to freshen up Jeopardy, where he:
  • Suggests adding teenage sidekicks
  • Advocates for adding physical challenges
  • Says that Alex Trebek is a robot... though to his credit, in a followup entry, he posts a correction:
    "...we regret the insinuation that Mr. Alex Trebek is a robot, and has been since 2004. Mr. Trebek's robotic frame does still contain some organic parts, many harvested from patriotic Canadian schoolchildren, so this technically makes him a 'cyborg,' not a 'robot.' Ken-Jennings.com regrets the error."
I don't really have anything more to add on this, except it's easy to make mistakes when it comes to distinguishing cyborgs from robots (really now, who hasn't?), especially when you get into the gray area of biomechanical parts that don't necessarily come from animals.

Also, I wish my snarky blog entries would get picked up by the AP.

Thanks -- Joe


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry but I found it to be boring! I am with you a blog should accept comments or it is just an article to me.

Anonymous said...

Some people seriously miss the point, don't they?  To treat Jennings' comments as anything other than satirical is just strange.  I read it when Scalzi blogged about it, and I just don't see how people can see it as anything other than an attempt to be funny.  

-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/

Anonymous said...

I was going to comment here, but, as usual, my comment was long enough to be a journal entry, so I did that instead. I'm with csandhollow--Ken needs to allow comments in order for his blog to be more than a series of articles.

Jess
http://journals.aol.com/aurielalata/CIWTheOtherInvisible#Entry892

Anonymous said...

"Also, I wish my snarky blog entries would get picked up by the AP."

One day Joe, one day!  It will happen.  Have faith!

Kathy

Anonymous said...

KEN JENNINGS/ALEX TREBEK SECRET:  JENNINGS IS A VERY RARE MAN...

HE HAS A TRUE PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY. HE DOESNT REMEMBER SO MUCH AS TAKE MENTAL PICTURES OF WHAT HE READS JUST LIKE A COMPUTER AND THEN ACCESSES IT.

HE MAY BE ABOVE AVERAGE IN NATIVE INTGELLIGENCE.  PEOPLE LIKE HIM ARE VERY UNUSUAL. TOSCANINNI COULD READ A WHOLE SYMPHONY SCORE IN A HOUR AND REMEMBER EVERY NOTE WHEN HE DIRECTED. AND REMEMBER 10 YEARS LATER.

PUTTING KEN JENNINGS UP AGAINST THE HIGHEST IQ ON JEOPARDY IS LIKE RUNNING SECRETARIAT AGAINST A MULE. JENNUINGS KNEW IT AND SO DID TREBEK AND ALL THE JEOPARDY PRODUCERS. BUT NOT THE AUDIENCE WHO WATCHED.

SCRIPTO