Jeopardy!/J! In Popular Culture

Jeopardy! was briefly parodied in the 1982 movie called Airplane II: The Sequel featuring original Jeopardy! host Art Fleming suddenly moderating a match with the passengers as contestants. ADDITIONAL NOTE: The film also has an appearance of future Wheel of Fortune host and fill in Jeopardy! host/Celebrity Jeopardy! contestant Pat Sajak as a local Buffalo anchorman.

Shortly before the long-running current version premiered in syndication, the original version of Jeopardy! was satirized in a music video by "Weird Al" Yankovic called "I Lost on Jeopardy", which like many of Weird Al’s songs was a spoof. This one is of Greg Kihn Band's 1983 hit (Our Love's in) "Jeopardy". Greg Kihn himself appears at the end of the video. Al himself played Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, and some categories referencing him were used on the regular show. ADDITIONAL NOTE: The song also referenced another long-running game show, The Price is Right, for which the actually lyrics are: "Don't know what I was thinkin' of/I guess I just wasn't too bright. Well, I sure hope I do better/Next weekend on the Price Is Right-ight-ight."

A spoof of Jeopardy! is seen in the live musical stage show Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out of Our Shells Tour where the turtles play their own version of the show and briefly mention its host Alex Trebek.

A spoof of a Jeopardy! episode is seen in one episode of Beavis & Butthead. A clue is heard that says, "Doctors say that people need one of these once a year," to which Beavis responds, "What is a shower?"

In 1990, Jeopardy! was featured in the long-running NBC sitcom Cheers. Mailman and frequent bar visitor Cliff Clavin (played by John Ratzenberger) was a longtime fan of Jeopardy! When he learned that the show was taping in Boston, he wasted no time in trying and making it to the show. During the show's opening, we saw a brief cameo appearance of announcer Johnny Gilbert introducing Alex. The six categories for the Jeopardy! segment consisted of Civil Servants, Stamps From Around The World, Mothers & Sons, Beer, Bar Trivia, and finally Celibacy; Woody (played by Woody Harrelson) referred to this round as "Cliff's Dream Board". The scene instantly changed from the first segment to the Final Jeopardy! segment, and this was where everything went south. The Final Jeopardy! segment was "Movies" and the clue was "Archibald Leach, Bernard Schwartz and Lucille LeSueur"; the correct response was "What are the real names of Cary Grant, Tony Curtis and Joan Crawford?", but Cliff's response was "Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?"; Cliff, in his cocky manner, risked everything and lost, causing a lady contestant who only had $400 to win. Cliff then protested that they should've accepted his answer. In the final scenes of the episode, Alex walked into the bar he actually stopped by to get a drink and Cliff was there he was completely embarrassed by his appearance & performance on the show at the time; Alex then walked up to Cliff and consoled him about his end-of-the-show troubles and even thought of leaving the show and moving to Tibet, but Cliff seeing that he worships the show didn't want Alex to go away, and so he successfully convinces Alex to stay seeing that he makes the show an American institution. When Alex did agree, Cliff's obsession disappeared and he went out to share the news that he saved Jeopardy!; after that, Cliff's friend Norm Peterson (played by George Wendt) talks with Alex and tells him that it's admirable that he would come all the way over to the bar just to try to make Cliff feel better; Alex then reveals that he didn't know Cliff was at the bar, and that running into him had only been a coincidence, and so he made up the remarks about quitting as improvisation to placate Cliff because "he scares me." Norm replied, "You, too?" This very episode created "Clavin's Rule" or "pulling a Cliff Clavin"; take, for example, a contestant from the real show on a 2000 episode who did that on a "Daily Double". John Ratzenberger would later become a celebrity contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy!

On a 1988 episode of Mama's Family called "Mama on Jeopardy!", Thelma Harper's (played by Vicki Lawrence, who hosted Win, Lose or Draw for NBC at the time) friend Lola (played by Beverly Archer) tried out for Jeopardy! as a way of meeting host Alex Trebek, but after missing a few questions both on Shakespeare, Thelma was the one who made it to the show. When she got there, Thelma did terrible, for she was in the negative zone up until Double Jeopardy! where she got two right the first she stumbled into the correct response, and the second was about The Three Stooges causing her to get out of the hole with +$100 and allowing her to play Final Jeopardy! in which the category as luck would have it was "Shakespeare". The final clue, however, had nothing to do with any of Shakespeare's plays; it was "the name of William Shakespeare's only son". Thelma, naturally, did not get the clue right; her response was "What is Bubba?" which cost her all but one dollar. The lady player on her left, however, who also responded incorrectly, did. The champion at the time who also responded incorrectly, from not wagering a lot of his winnings, remained champion. The correct response, incidentally, was "What is Hamnet?" Thelma thought she was going home with Lee Press-On Nails, but actually, as announced by Johnny Gilbert, she won a trip for four to Hawaii, which pleased Mama, who announced she's taking her worthless family with her. This was sort of a lead-in to a two-parter which followed.



ADDITIONAL NOTE: Vicki Lawrence (as well as her character Mama) would later appear as celebrity contestants on Celebrity Jeopardy!

Jeopardy! was briefly mentioned on an episode of Perfect Strangers where Balki & Larry competed on a game show called Risk It All which used set parts from a real game show called Fun House, produced by the same company as Perfect Strangers. It was made when Balki was upset about not playing the stunts since cousin Larry only wanted to answer the questions. Bob Goen portrayed the host in that episode.

In the 1991 episode of Tiny Toon Adventures called K-ACME TV. It paid homage to Jeopardy! with the spoof Gyp-Parody!. The show was hosted by Buster, and three of the contestants were Elmyra, Byron, and Calamity. Gameplay was the same as the show it's spoofing.

In 2005, a knock off movie of the show was called Jepardee! featuring Chris Spencer as Alex Getback, Rodney Perry as Tyrone Watkins, Niecy Nash as Kelsha Jenkins and Gary Anthony Williams as Dr. John Butler as three contestant go head-to-head guessing favorite questions about celebrities, hot sauce and household appliances.



ADDITIONAL NOTE:

According to its poster, the tagline for this movie says "Uhhh, Now what the question is?"

In 2011, after their parody of Hollywood Squares Hustler made another porn parody game show movie called ''This Ain't Jeopardy! XXX This is a Parody''. In the film there was a semi-reference clue that read "This long handled gardening tool also means Immoral Pleasure Seeker" in which Pimp Steve answered, "What is a Hoe?". This is a parody from the actual clue from the show itself that read "This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an Immoral pleasure seeker" in which former Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings also responded, "What's a hoe?" For both terms respectively the correct response actually is "What is a rake?" You can read about the film in the links page.

In the 2012 box office movie flop The Three Stooges (based on the formerly popular 1922-70 comedy show of the same name), the "Think" music plays as Moe, Larry, & Curly are thinking of a way to raise money. The music ends abruptly when Curly waddles on the sidewalk.

A 2013 episode of the short-lived talk show revival of The Queen Latifah Show did a spoof of Jeopardy! called Rap Jeopardy! where Queen Latifah challenges Will Smith in the episode, hosted by Alex Trebek. In addition, this is the only spoof of Jeopardy! where it oddly features two contestant podiums instead of three.