Oh no, he didn't know how to spell Emancipation

How about I coddle your FACE?!

 

My problem with this is that the rule regarding misspelling is applied willy-nilly. I've watched a LOT of Jeopardy! over the years. I even saw a case during Teacher's Week (saw this episode just a few days ago, actually) where someone's Final Jeopardy! answer was disqualified due to a spelling error but the winner had left out "is" in his response, so his "question" actually read "What (response)?"

They need to make this rule clear to the participants beforehand, and they need to apply it evenly.

 

You mean like Ptolemy? Pterodactyl? Except? Perception? Because if you remove one of those letters, well it's not the same word. It's a nonsense word.

 

A decent nonsense word usually lacks more sense. This is more about arbitrary game show rules than semantics.

 

If you add or remove a letter from a word, it's not the same word.

You say it's a typo. I call it a mistake and not the right word.

So is Tolemy still Ptolemy? or how about perception still percepion? is perception still percepttion?

 

I'm talking about sense.

Apparently, an errant T is wrong, but foehnetiklie iz phyne.

In Jeopardy! perhaps fish = ghoti, but emanciptation is wrong because who in hell knows what the fuck that means? I mean, if the kid wrote ymansipayshun, would he have been correct?

Again, this more about arbitrary rules on a trivia show.

Also, I believe I considered it like a typo (he wrote this out, right?). When most typos appear in print, it's not like readers get hung up on a book or article and have to call the editor to know what the the word means before being able to finish what they're reading.

"OMG! What could emanciptation ever mean?! God! Someone TELL ME!!! Give me a hint! Anything!"

 

Like you said, trivia game shows are trivial.

Aren't all rules arbitrary?

 

Exactly. This is why at its core, I don't really care much about this story. I just have a tragic interest in language and words.

I thought the show was about knowing trivia. The spelling thing seems silly. It's like they told the kid he didn't know the answer. I have a strong suspicion that he knew the answer. Others may disagree.

Of course not.

It might not be the case that the applicable rules in Jeopardy! are arbitrary, they just seem that way, i.e., some misspellings are okay, but others aren't. I'd have to see the rules to be sure.

 

If there are judges, umpires, referees, who interpret rules, isn't that why they are arbitrary? Isn't this why people hoot and holler at bad calls during sports games?

 

It depends on whether you get a good judge, ump, or ref. Sure, there are arbitrary calls, but this doesn't mean the rules themselves are arbitrary.

 

so then isn't this the same thing? he said, the judges ruled against him.

 

1. It's Jeopardy (a word I misspell often) - they pride themselves on knowledge and trivia...it has to be correct.
2. I've seen Alex and the judge rule against many others for getting the small stuff wrong, not putting in the form of a question, etc... Why should the kid be different??
3. You go on a knowledge contest, then be prepared to be perfect. That's the contest.

I don't mind it if Alex calls them out...just don't be condescending about it. (which I've seen him do)

Now if he was right, 100%...and they got it wrong, then he's got a case...but spelling, etc. counts.
A reason I don't go onto Jeopardy, as you've all seen my spelling on the board. (Well that and all the brainfarts I have on a daily basis... )

 

From what it sounds like regarding the rules (I'm still not certain), it was a good call by the judges. But it seems to me that the rules are arbitrary, not the judges. Misspelling being wrong only sometimes seems arbitrary to me.
--- merged: Aug 13, 2013 at 4:27 PM ---

You're spelling it wrong, dude. It's Jeopardy! You're leaving out the exclamation mark. What next? Adding an apostrophe to Tim Hortons?

 

wait Tim Hortons doesn't own ALL the coffee?

 

Are you talking about Tim Hortons or Tim Horton?