Ken Jennings

See also

As Jennings has captured the imagination of pundits across America, he naturally invites comparisons to characters in pop culture. {{spoiler}}

Related Topics:
Pundits - America - Pop culture

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• The 1991 French sketch-movie "Les Secrets professionnels du Dr. Apfelglück" featured a contestant, Émile Leberc (pronounced "Lebeurk"), played by Roland Giraud, who, better than Jennings, answers every single question at a game show. Trebek's equivalent in the movie, Gérard Martinez, played by Alain Chabat, cannot stand the increasing rudeness and haughtiness of the contestant and tries to get rid of him, using more and more devious ways.
• In the 1950 comedy movie Champagne for Caesar, the scholarly Beauregard Bottomley (Ronald Colman) finds it demeaning how interested the public is in people who can answer a few trivia questions on a quiz show. When the show accepts his dare to let him play on past their 5-question limit, the doubling prizes soon have great fortunes at stake. Eventually Bottomley ends his own run by suggesting a simple question that he cannot answer. Art Linkletter and Vincent Price play the show's host and producer.
• David Foster Wallace wrote a fictional short story called "Little Expressionless Animals" well before Jennings first appeared on Jeopardy! in which the protagonist is a woman who wins on the show every day for a year. She is eventually defeated by her autistic brother, who has a photographic memory about anything related to animals; knowing this, the producers purposely loaded the board with zoological questions to unseat the uncharismatic woman.
• The movie Quiz Show chronicles the winning streak of Charles Van Doren, who captured the attention of the nation, but was later found out to be a fraud.

There have also been parodies of Jennings' streak:

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• On an episode of the FOX sketch comedy Mad TV, Jennings makes an appearance on Jeopardy! Fed up with Jennings' win streak, Alex Trebek shoots the champ in anger, but is horrified when he finds out Jennings is a robot (Spoof of Terminator). Before that, Trebek encourages Jennings' opponents to buzz in before the champ can. Jennings' most memorable line: "The computers hate the tedium of Jeopardy!. We prefer the down-home dopiness of Wheel of Fortune... I must win all the money..." Jennings and Trebek are portrayed by cast members of Mad TV.

See also Tom Walsh for the record holder previous to Jennings, and David Madden who currently holds the greatest winning streak since Jennings.

Related Topics:
Tom Walsh - David Madden

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