I’ll be honest: my world, this car-saturated world I exist in, is something of a bubble. Even the people around me that I know don’t really care about cars do sort of care about cars a bit, or at least seem to know a decent bit about cars, perhaps via osmosis or my miserable habit of talking about the damn things all the time. Whatever is going on, I think I may have misjudged the general level of automotive knowledge of normies. I say this mostly because of a shocking wake-up call I got in the form of a clip from the popular televisor-based quiz show Jeopardy that has been making the rounds on the social mediums.
The clip is simple enough; it’s just a small bit of the show showing the three contestants attempting to answer the questions from the Cars & Trucks category. Some of the questions involve a video component; there’s the text of the question, and then an accompanying video, and I think it’s these that baffle me the most, because they all essentially just show the answer, right there. But that doesn’t seem to help.
Here, watch for yourself:
If you’d like to see a real-time reaction of mine to this puzzling clip, here you go:
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I don’t think these contestants are especially automotively-ignorant; I think I just haven’t realized how niche automotive obsessiveness may actually be! I interact so often with people who give rich, redolent damns about cars that I forget that for most happy, well-adjusted people, cars are just a way to move your body from where you are to where you’d rather be.
None of these questions even seemed particularly challenging; I suppose the Rivian one was the only one I didn’t immediately know, but even that one wasn’t hard to figure out. It has “riv” as in “river” right there in the name, after all.
Looking around for previous Jeopardy car questions, I found that not all of them have been as seemingly easy as this batch making the rounds now. For example, this one about the Corvette badge demands a bit of attention to detail:
Here’s some other samples of Jeopardy car questions –35 minutes worth, ranging from the legendary Trebek-era to whomever that current-day host is. Some of these questions are trickier, some are just as easy, but generally the contestants seemed to do fairly well. Maybe the sample floating around on social media is a bad example – most of these people did pretty well, I think? And some were genuinely tricky, like the ones where fictional characters are combined with cars. For example, while I know a decent amount about the MGB, I did not know Robert B. Parker wrote a series of books about a detective named Spencer who drove a maroon one.
So what’s my overall point here? Honestly, I’m not sure anymore. Not everyone in the world is a car geek? And, after seeing the larger clip of car questions, I’m thinking that maybe the baseline of car knowledge isn’t so bad? That recent clip aside, of course. I mean, nobody got the Stutz question, but that’s a pretty deep cut.
Here, enjoy Weird Al’s Jeopardy-focused song as a way of apologizing to all the normies out there:
https://youtu.be/BvUZijEuNDQ
I love to watch Jeopardy, but it usually just confirms how dumb I am. I find most Jeopardy contestants as a group have some obvious strengths and weaknesses. I am sometimes stunned when they all get a geography question wrong. Two very distinct categories however are the Achilles heal of Jeopardy contestants. Sports and Automobiles. I enjoy being able to answer questions that the contestants can’t. Ask me about literature or opera and you will get a blank stare, but sports or autos – I am the smartest one in the room!
I’ve been car-obsessed since I was like 6 months old according to my parents, it’s always been my bubble, but back in 2016 that bubble was popped when my new roomate asked me how much my brand new BMW cost… it was a fifteen year old 2001 E46 330ci. They were shocked when I told them how old it was.
There’s an xkcd about everything: https://xkcd.com/2501/
Perfect.
I grew up watching Wheel/Jeopardy with grandparents, then parents and now my spouse and I watch it a few times a week. I’ve had a few people I know become contestants on Jeopardy.
Sometimes, I feel like I should try out, but I am fearful I’ll be standing there like Cliff Clavin and writing down “Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?”
I’m shocked they didn’t get Tacoma. I feel like if it were asked directly about Mt. Rainier instead of Toyota, it would be a pretty typical Jeopardy question. I was impressed by the guy who got Rivian so quickly, though. I was expecting that one to be a miss.
I tried to get on college jeopardy back in the day, but apparently “Who is a Union Busting Asshole?” was not the question to He is the Governor of Wisconsin in 2011
I dunno, sounds right to me!
Hysterical!
Sometimes you kind of forget that Jeopardy contestants are just the advanced forms of the nerds we all knew in school, right up until sports or cars comes up and reminds us all.
With the exception of the contestants who know sports so well that they can tell you what first baseman had the best batting average against Satchel Paige in 1933.
Racing is a sport.
I have actually been on a televised game show (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?), and lemme tell you, I feel for these people.
It is super easy to wonder how these people don’t know what seems obvious, but it’s a whole ‘nother world when you’re under the lights and on camera.
But are you a millionaire?
I am not. I ended up winning $8k, which, after taxes and paying for the trip, I netted maybe $3k.
Guess you needed a better friend to “phone”.
Nah, the friend I phoned came in clutch and gave me the right answer I needed. She was an editor/writer for a trivia magazine I subscribed to (Mental Floss), so she was definitely a ringer.
Lucky for you! I was poking fun at the “phone” part though, where where they made it seem like they were really just calling people out of the blue hoping to catch them home and available to talk. It’s been so long since I watched them as a teenager though; maybe my recollection is bad and everyone knew the person was sitting in a controlled environment waiting for the “call”.
They are on standby. You give them, like, 3 or 4 people, and they call all of them when you start taping to be sure they’re available. Then, when you get the question you need help on, you tell them who you want to call. Maybe you need your sports person, your movie expert, whatever.
It’s always easy to armchair quarterback everything in life. You watch shows like that, or dashboard cams, or any other video and think, “man, I could do much better than that.”
Then you become that person and realize, nope, you can’t.
Sounds like living room guitarists.
Public speaking by itself is hard for most people.
There are film actors that find a live camera difficult.
I’m more of a Trivial Pursuit guy, myself.
Have another piece of the pie
At the 7 minute mark, that lady which guessed “cars” when the answer was the “Model T” got robbed. That’s a terrible question and she somehow figured out it was about automobiles.
But not all cars were priced the same. They gave a price so the contestant have to know which specific car model sold at that price adjusted for inflation.
Not a good question. I realize Jeopardy is not your typical easy “trivia” show so the questions tend to be tough, but it was a terrible question, backed up by the fact that 2 of the contestants were completely way off and the one that was close didn’t quite get it. They usually add a few hints within the question to narrow it down and this time they really didn’t.
Its a bad question for sure, with possibly more than one answer. If someone’s answer was some niche product like a watch or a piece of furniture or something, I doubt Jeopardy would be able to fact check that right away.
My wife and I watch every night for the most part. She got a kick out of me reacting to some of the terrible car answers that they gave the other night (and in the past). That said, Caleb is incredibly knowledgeable about almost everything else.
I sometimes wonder about people that know about some other subject as much as car nerds know about cars. Their lives must be fascinating.
Im at corner 12 Road America
Just had a brief chat about Mazda roteries.
I knew about the 12A, of course the 13B and the Cosmos getting at one point a 3 rotor.
Apparently the Rennesis 2 rotor in the rx8 was technically still a 13B motor
Insert “the more you know” meme here…
I used to work with someone who literally had never heard of Julius Caesar, Mussolini, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, pretty much any name I could bring up except two: Jesus Christ and Hitler. Go figure.
Did they just go to sleep on their desk in history class from like, grade 6 forward?
Homeschooled. Very conservative religious homeschooling.
Wouldn’t Ceasar have come up in that, at least? There are numerous references to Roman emperors in the Bible using the title Ceasar, at least a few dozen. I feel like any teachings on the Christian scriptures would have to include at least some background info on where the name came from to provide context. They didn’t even do what they were trying to do right
One would expect so but I didn’t press the issue. This was a workplace after all and this person had been hired on nepotism rather than merit so I just dropped the matter. The job didn’t require much thinking anyway and certainly none with historical context.
Ah, sweet delicious
homeschoolingDiet Child Abuse!I was at an event once where a backpack got left behind by one of the students. One of the books inside was called “Defeating Darwinism”. I knew immediately it was not left by one of the public school kids.
Available on Amazon!:
https://www.amazon.com/Defeating-Darwinism-by-Opening-Minds/dp/B082WJJGYT/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0
(Although you can probably read it at your local library for free…if that’s your thing)
I’m curious, does this guy like red hats?
Pretty sure they had never heard of Linux either. But this was the mid 1980’s so I’ll give them a pass on that one.
I worked with a guy like that.
He drove an Oldsmobile Aurora – and told everyone within earshot repeatedly how it was THE BEST CAR EVER.
The Aurora was a damn good car.
1st Gen was
For the time that description may not have been so far off. I think the Aurora is underrated and I still consider it a very fine looking car.
I kind of like the Aurora.
Julius Caesar? Isn’t he the one who invented Caesar salad?
Mussolini? Isn’t he the one who invented hair mousse?
Genghis Khan? Isn’t he the one who invented cons? What a con man!
Napoleon Bonaparte? Don’t you mean Napoleon Dynamite?
Ha ha
I see you were home schooled too.
:p
Ha ha…I knew you’d say that too. I was actually public school but was just trying to make you laugh, ha ha. I’m also a…cheap bastard!
Oh dear. I’ll be honest that Rivian’s brand name origin eluded me. I got 80% right for a whopping $2,000, if I timed my signaling device button push right. And as a resident of Tacoma, I’m slightly offended.
I got a good laugh out of that – Torch, don’t ever stop being you!!
I stopped watching TV about 15 years ago. I have no idea who that current guy is either.
It’s funny in context. Here’s Torch coming unglued about people not knowing some basic car trivia, and he’s not aware Ken Jennings currently hosts Jeopardy, despite Ken being pretty well known even outside of hardcore Jeopardy watchers.
I didn’t know his name, probably because I haven’t watched Jeopardy since 1987 or so.
He was all over the news in the early 2000s for dominating Jeopardy for months. I’ve never watched Jeopardy and know who he is and that he was hosting after Trebek died.
I also don’t watch the news, and struggle to remember the names of people I meet face to face; no way a rando like this is gonna stick.
So he actually has justification for a slight “what are you, an idiot?” affect when people are wrong? Because he probably does actually know the answer without the cue cards.
Yes, he won 74 games straight – which is more difficult that expected if you know how they tape episodes.
Jeopardy tapes 5 shows a day with a short break between each. Players are required to bring multiple sets of clothes and the winner has to change between games to carry on the illusion. Someone that wins all “week” and makes it to Friday’s show has been up there all day facing off against fresh faces and then gets to do it again the next day.
My God, that sounds exhausting. Props to the champions who go on serious runs since they’re on a serious disadvantage.
You have to wonder after weeks of that if he just said “I’ve won millions, I’ll throw this last game.”
My first thought was oh yeah that guy that won all those Jeopardy shows is now the host… if I thought longer I probably would have come up with Ken Jennings
Ohhhh yeah that guy! I’ve heard of him! I think I get him confused with Ken Bone, that red sweater guy who was famous for 4 minutes years ago.
I forgot about Ken Bone!
Yeah, well here I am over here much preferring to watch “Wheel of Fish” from UHF.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh…RED SNAPPER!”
Ha ha
I also stopped watching TV 15ish years ago, but I still somehow know who he is despite not watching Jeopardy since my grandfather died in 2003.
Same. Most of the channels I had liked, even the cable ones went to s#it, especially The History Channel. Alien autopsies?? Really?
However some years ago to catch a “special broadcast event” I didn’t want to pay for so I built a homemade HDTV antenna out of Al foil and posterboard. The antenna worked great but to make sure it worked consistently without dropouts I watched about 45 minutes of daytime network TV.
O.M.G. It. was. PAINFUL! Even as background noise. What a waste of airwaves!
The “special broadcast event” was over hyped, over promised and disappointing. I was so glad I hadn’t spent money to watch it, or even signed up for a trial service I’d have to cancel. I ripped out that antenna the very next day and haven’t been back to network since.
Great antenna! Matches your username. I would have done the same thing.
The irony is I still paid too much.
Trebek is hosting Jeopardy
Bob Barker is hosting the Price is Right
and Pat Sajac is hosting Wheel of Fortune
Anything else is a psyop that I refuse to believe.
Whoa, Pat retired? Oh, it’s Ryan Seacrest now…
How does one fall into a career like Ryan Seacrest? I could be a game show host!
While I’m far from alone in this, I’m convinced Seacrest uses some Skeleton Key voodoo on aging TV hosts.
Seacrest seems to be sharing a plastic surgeon with Vanna White. (Who is somehow 69 years old but frozen in time)
Yeah, I’m betting Vanna is no longer biodegradable…
If you aren’t familiar (and it was a 20 year old movie reference) Skeleton Key was a Kate Hudson movie involving a voodoo spell. Anything more would be a pretty big spoiler and, as I recall, it was a decent movie if you catch it on streaming.
License to print money!
Shoot, I’m old enough to remember Wheel of Fortune was originally hosted by Chuck Woolery
Art Fleming has entered the chat
This is really driven home when you point out that’s a tire not a wheel and everyone exclaims, “okay, car nerd!” They have no clue.
My partner is like that. She said something about the wheel rubbing the curb and I went to look for damage. Then she told me it was the rubber part of the wheel.
The car equivalent of people referring to their monitor as “the computer”.
What are torque ratios?
It’s pronounced “tor-kay rat-e-ohs”. Just in case you have to clear it up with the normies who have no idea.
To bad they didn’t have the Altima as one of the questions!
A common car that often times has the following features: different colored front and/or rear bumper covers (typically primer black), donut spare in use, dark tint, plasti-dip black wheels and previously known to rock Maryland temp tags for years.
The original usage of the term Bae was an abbreviation of a deriding phrase often used to describe rude drivers that included the name of this vehicle
finally, the crossover event we’ve needed, but dared not hope for.
What’s a ‘crossover’?
a crossover…two worlds colliding; a favorite seinfeld character making an appearance in curb your enthusiasm or something. also, a popular vehicle category?
Um, that’s Spenser with an “s” like the dude who wrote the Faerie Queene and the maroon MGB was his girlfriend’s – Susan Silverman- car.
I only ever watched the TV show, Spenser: For Hire, in which he drove a revolving cast of Mustangs… and a Probe?!?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spenser:_For_Hire#Spenser
Yep, that was his TV ride and he went through a few. In the books he started with a red, beat-to-shit ‘68 Impala convertible. After that it was, I think, a red ‘68 Mustang convertible with a white top. Later, books had him in a couple different Subarus, and finally a black Jeep Cherokee that stuck around for a long time. He also drove a ton of Hertz rentals when otherwise carless.
I totally confused Spenser with Vega$. I would have answered Corvette. Damn your proclivity for playing PIs on TV, Bob Urich!
He drove a ‘57 T-Bird in Vega$.
Ah yes, that’s right! Stupid Gemini said it was ’63 Vette. I thought that wasn’t right, but was too lazy confirm.
There was a mid 80s show called Sting Ray starring Nick Mancuso about a kind of Equalizer character who went around doing good deeds. He drove a black ‘65 Sting Ray which was a central part of the show. I’ve never seen it because I was out of the country during the years it aired and I’ve never seen it listed in syndication on any of the channels that relentlessly air old shows. Supposedly it had big fan base but that didn’t save it from cancellation. It ran concurrently with Spenser for Hire, though only for two seasons to Spenser’s three.
It’s on Freevee, Prime Video, Peacock.
It was hers to begin with, but he bought it from her and drove it for a few books.
Thanks, I didn’t recall that.
Would I have gotten more money for answering Maverick Lobo?
Jeopardy is one of the few songs where I like the original better than the Weird Al version. Little known fact.
Pop Quiz!
Jeopardy was a song by:
A.) Greg Kihn
B.) Eddie Money
C.) Dave Edmunds
Who is Greg Kihn, Alex? (Trebek forever!)
“Weird Al”
Not Jeopardy, but as far as Wheel of Fortune goes, I much prefer “Wheel of Fish” from UHF.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh…RED SNAPPER!”
Ha ha
My wife and I are regular Jeopardy watchers and just watched the one with Rivian question and yeah, we were both struck a bit that they missed these.
Sports is another category that has stumped some players in the past.
But when they get to categories like Shakespeare, the Bible, or anagrams I become a rock.
We used to give a quarterly national current events test to our students – the biggest nerds would get everything right except the sports questions – “who won the super bowl?” was too much for them to handle.
Well, if you asked me who was in the super bowl this year, I wouldn’t know.
Exactly. We got Tay Tay and Kelce’s wedding, that’s the ultimate pop royalty of the Gen X to Millennial era. It makes the random Superbowl weirdly forgettable.
And Taylor has had a pretty nice fleet: 458 Italia, 911 Turbo, R8, G-wagen, and very Autopian worthy choices in her garage that also includes a SC430, a Sequoia, and a Chevy Silverado. I’d say she likes to drive.
Kelce on the other hand has a F150, G-wagen, his oddity of a GMC Terrain from ’14, Vanquish, RR Ghost, LR RR, ’70 Chevelle SS, and Escalades.
Football players. A couple teams’ worth. And, most importantly, Bad Bunny. I think he won.
(I say this despite having watched the Seahawks beat the Patriots. Bad Bunny still won.)
I thought the NFL went under?
Anyway, if it involves a ball, and no one can go 200 mph, it’s just a game.
Racing is a sport.
Buzkashi is too!
Ugh, sportos are the worst.
Well considering I don’t watch TV and most sports involve balls and sticks instead of wheels, I too have no idea who played in or won the Superbowl. I can talk all day about cars and bikes though.
Ah yes, the national StickBall Championships! That’s the one where they beat each other in the balls with sticks, right?
You jest, but: Stickball – Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
I’ll be honest, I couldn’t even reliably tell you what team comes from what city, let alone who played or where the Superbowl was even held.
Then again, I’m Canadian. American football is not as big of a deal up here. Although the stereotypes are correct if you wanna guess which sport IS a big deal up here.
Canadians are really into Hobbyhorse competition right? Isn’t that how you try out to be a Mountie?
What’s a Hobbyhorse?
Those stuffed animal horse heads on a stick that kids pretend to ride. Turns out there is an actual competition with them.
^^ Me playing Trivial Pursuit in the 90’s.
The SportsBall category is always going to be my Achilles heel in any trivia game.
Professional sports requires a level of mental dedication that I just can’t give. I know all my sports facts through osmosis from the people around me.
The “Football” category episode is pretty fun, too. Unless you’re as clueless about football as those people were about cars. Alex had fun with it, though. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h33u2eeVqXo
“If you guys ring in and get this one…”
Yeah, that would be me, I can maybe fake a conversation for a couple of sentences, but the subject better change quick after that, because that’s all I can do
“How ’bout that local sports franchise, think they will go all the way this year?”
[Wait for response …]
“Yeah, I hate that so-and-so, I think he is a real [xxx]”
Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
I heard that team went plaid.
Go Sports!
There is a Yankovic song for that too.
Possibly his best
I know there’s a quarterback and a wide receiver, who I assume is just the person with the widest shoulders on the team.
Also, there’s touchdowns. Which I assume are the points.
I’m pretty sure the tight end is the one with the most muscular butt, too.
It was a trick – none of the questions were about football
This is my problem with Jeopardy. They will ask obscure Shakespeare questions (They’re all obscure to me) but nothing that is real world useful. Like, when using jumper cables this is the color terminal you connect first.
The one matching the connector in my right hand.
Right on red, just like with driving. It’s all comin’ together.
I laughed way too hard at that
It’s a trivia contest.
You can try starting a “Practical Knowledge Quiz Night” at your local coffee shop or bar, but people watch Jeopardy to brush up on their trivia.
Aren’t jumper cables just a slang term for a skip rope?
My favourite internet deep cut is this one guy who would show up on random social media platforms. He’d tell a lengthy seemingly on-topic story that always somehow ended with his dad coming in and beating him with jumper cables.