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[IAmA]: 74-time Jeopardy champ, Ken Jennings.
[Original post here.](http://redd.it/fwpzj) This IAmA is verified, and was originally posted on 03 March, 2011. Statement | Response :--|:-- Nice username. (**Tabler's Note: His username is WatsonsBitch**) | Lots of people think it's a Jeopardy reference, but actually I was thinking of that time Watson and I were cellmates in prison, and it kept raping me. Me being a Canadian and all, I have to ask... what are your views on cannabis? Have you ever tried it? | Never been high--except on a drug called Ken Jennings! (Warning, Ken Jennings may cause drowsiness, nausea, "housemaid's knee," night blindness, paralysis, or death. Ask your doctor if Ken Jennings is right for you.) You're mormon? from Utah? really? | No. I am a devout Mormon, but I'm a native Seattleite. We were living in Utah at the time I was first on Jeopardy though, but then I decided to move to a state where most people don't think water fluoridation is part of a global United Nations conspiracy. Just kidding Utah! Love you man. How do reconcile all the logical inconsistencies in Mormonism given the highly rational mind you must have? | I thought this might come up. Normally I would think you were a jackass for telling a stranger "Hey, your religion sucks!" but luckily this is an AMA, so all courtesy bets are off. It's true that, from a rationalistic point of view, Mormonism has plenty that is crazy-seeming about it, but then again, so do all religions. To me--even me, a guy who tends toward sensible, naturalistic explanations for things!--that is what gives religion its charm. All I know is that my faith makes me happy and makes me a much better person. That doesn't mean I agree with everything all Mormons do (for example: the "Soldier of Love" video by Donny Osmond) or even everything the institutional church has done. People are flawed. But in general, Mormons are salt-of-the-earth when the chips are down. They have your back. Even the South Park guys know that. You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise. It's crawling toward you. You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping. Why is that, Ken? | Nice try! You can't win 74 straight Jeopardy games without also learning how to pass the Voight-Kampff. Nexus-6 babeeee. How did it feel to beat Brad? | Yeah, I felt like the buzzer gods were not smiling on me last time Brad kicked my butt. This would have been sweet, sweet revenge, if a supercomputer hadn't been raping me the entire time. In the sixth season episode "See You in September" of the TV show "Perfect Strangers", it is revealed that Balki is a licensed nupitiki doctoruthiki, a Myposian marriage counselor. He administers the Myposian marriage test to Larry and Jennifer, to help them get over their fear of getting married. However, no mention was made of this in the second season episode "Since I Lost my Baby", when Balki and Larry attempt to save the Twinkacettis' marriage. Was this a continuity error? Or did Balki receive this certification through some sort of correspondence course from Mypos at a later date? | I've thought a lot about this over the years, and have decided that Balki didn't feel right using his Myposian certification in his adopted country, due to the licensing issues, both legal and ethical, that even he would recognized. And now we do the dance of joy! You're a little too funny, did you hire writers with your winnings? | Bruce Vilanch is hiding under my desk right now. Unfortunately he's not writing jokes for me, if you know what I mean. What is Alex Trebek like off camera? | Trebek takes a lot of heat for being sort of smug and starchy on camera, but that's just for TV. In person he is sort of a nut, always doing goofy jokes and accents and little bits of soft-shoe and stuff. He's like your good-natured, slightly-losing-it grandpa. Have you spent any time with Trebek outside the confines of the Jeopardy studio? Do you send him Christmas cards? Does he come over for dinner? | Alex and I don't get to hang out much due to the convoluted Jeopardy security requirements. I saw him at last year's National Geographic Bee in DC (he hosts, I was doing research for my next book, Maphead, about geography geeks). So I don't know the guy real well. He's a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a Perry Ellis suit. What has been the single biggest change in you life since your epic winning streak, besides the money? | Old people can't keep their dry, lilac-scented hands off me. Man, do old people ever love Jeopardy. I can't go anywhere in public where there might be old people, like Hallmark stores or cemeteries. I have nothing to say but your "What Be Ebonics?" answer was my favorite Jeopardy moment of all time. | Some say funny, some say racist...you know, tomato tomahto. What is your educational background? | Went to high school in Seoul, Korea. Went to U of Washington and BYU. Bachelor's in English and Computer Science. Can you give us an abriged version of how you ended up taking HS in Seoul? How's your Korean? | My dad served an LDS mission in Korea in the 1960s and always wanted to go back...we moved there in 1982 when he got a job at a law firm in Seoul. My Korean sucks, sadly. I've forgotten a lot. Even without subtitles, I could usually understand Jin and Sun on Lost. Mostly. When growing up in Korea, did you bedroom have a ceiling fan? | Obviously not, since I survived. Do you really drive a 1999 Toyota Corolla still? | Yes to the black 1999 Corolla: straight-up gangsta. Who cooks the most, you or your wife? | My wife is an excellent cook and I can only make breakfast food. If you can only cook breakfast does that mean you are not the one who BBQs? | Wait, you're right. I grill too. Jeez, you guys are tough. Do you often get recognized in public? | Yes, it's like the first scene in A Hard Day's Night every time I leave the house, except all the girls are all in their eighties. How do you feel about the strike in Wisconsin? | I am standing up on my desk right now holding a piece of paper that says UNION! just like Norma Rae, in support of organized labor in Wisconsin (I take bathroom breaks twice a day). What would you give a Ted talk on? | My TED talk is entitled "How to Make Love Like a Jeopardy Champion." In your next Jeopardy appearance, would you consider just drawing a giant penis where your name would be? Do they check for that? | Jeopardy has made me re-write my name in the past (once when I wrote it backwards, another time when I wrote it in Cyrillic) so I don't think a giant penis would make the cut, plus it would make Alex feel inferior. But I did put [a giant scrotum](http://imgur.com/6LI9g) on the title page of my book Brainiac. Specifically, what kind of wheelbarrow do you carry your balls in? | My balls are carried for me at all times by the thirteen contestants who lost to me on Jeopardy back in 2004 with a negative score, meaning they didn't get to compete in Final Jeopardy. They take turns. Will you be the leader of the Resistance against Watson once he starts to control Skynet? Please, and thank you. | Once we are all working in the slave-pits together, I will try to put in a good word for you all. I will be like the old Barnard Hughes character in Tron, who remembers the Master Control Program when it was just accounting software. Um, Ken, GOD I'm an IDIOT, I never know how to start these questions.. You.. you.. remember that time you were, uh, you were on Jeopardy? That was awesome! | Speaking of 90s-era SNL: people do whistle the Jeopardy theme to me in elevators. I always think of "Rooooox-anne..." Did winning at Jeopardy get you hella laid? | Again, devout Mormon, happily married family man, etc. But luckily my wife has a weird "game show contestant" role-playing fantasy, so yes. Yes it did. Many educated people do not believe their holy books to the letter, so you being a devout Mormon throws off my stereotype. Can you elaborate on how much of the book you believe is factually based? | Luckily, Mormons are not biblical literalists. So you can choose to keep all the crazy stuff you like (Moses just turned his rod into a snake! badass!) and choose to ignore the crazy stuff you don't like (wait, God just sent bears to kill those kids because they made fun of Elisha's male pattern baldness?) I'm not saying no Mormons are young-earthers...but let's just say you're not likely to see those ones on Jeopardy. Actually, it was Aaron that had his rod turned into a snake, not Moses. I just corrected Ken Jennings. My life is complete. | Being corrected by you has turned my rod into a snake. You're generally known as a Mormon, but you seem far more loose than the stereotype (using terms like "bitch," for example). It seems like you'd violate the prohibition on gambling with every daily double and final Jeopardy answer. Do you ever feel pressure from your religion to act in a certain way in public? Or am I just misinformed about how strict the religion is? | I feel more like the pressure is the OTHER way. People have this idea that Mormons are monolithically boring and/or creepily Stepford-y. But in my experience, that's bull, and Mormons are as diverse in most ways as anybody else. I think it would be cool if people figured that out. So I just try to be myself. How much of your success on the show would you contribute to knowing the answers the other contestants did not versus just being able to time the buzzer clicks better than them? | Yeah, Jeopardy is not Price Is Right...you can't get on just for wearing a military uniform or an "I Love Alex" t-shirt. Every night, all three contestants passed a very hard test to be there. Ergo, nearly all the contestants know nearly all the answers nearly all the time. So it just comes down to buzzer mojo. Which is why Watson won so handily...pretty hard to have better response time than a circuit board. How did you prepare for Jeopardy before your first appearance? | I watched the show obsessively. This is pretty nerdy but I even watched it standing up behind my recliner at home, using one of my son's toddler toys as a makeshift "buzzer." (Insert dirty joke here.) My wife kept score for me. We made flash cards of presidents and "potent potables" and crap like that. Whats your favorite band/album? | Favorite record: man that is tough. I'm listening to the new Destroyer record as I type this. When the laws are changed I want to marry Dan Bejar. Be honest. Did you actually lose the day you broke your streak, or did you throw the game? | People keep asking me this. WORST CONSPIRACY THEORY EVER. Have you ever quit a job where you were making like $75K an hour? But I think that lady who beat me was probably born in Indonesia, or Kenya, or something. Disqualified! What category would be a nightmare for you? | I remember COUNTRY MUSIC kept showing up. That or HOCKEY. Least favorite categories. Basically anything with a mullet is my Jeopardy kryptonite. **Tabler's note: a deleted post lies here, and I'm not sure what it says. The poem Ken responds with, however, is so good, that I kept it here.** | There once was a host named Trebek... I forget how it ends but YOUR MOTHER'S A WHORE! (**he replies to his own comment here**) Wait, I got it. There once was a host named Trebek, Whose mustache was sexy as heck. It would have been weird If he'd grown a big beard, Like Conan, or Riker on Trek. What's your favorite form of knowledge absorption? Books? Internet? Documentaries? | Is this Watson? HUMAN PLEASE RESPOND: WHAT IS YOUR PREFERRED FORM OF KNOWLEDGE ABSORPTION? Do most people in the audience get your awesome sense of humour? Or do they politely laugh and give you confused looks? | I think you are projecting here. Do you find that people you've known before your fame have tried to be more closer to you than they were before? Has this strained any relationships? | Actually, no. People came out of the woodwork, but only in a good way. Like "Hey, I was in your kindergarten class, good job on Jeopardy." Keep in mind this was before Facebook. What is one epiphany/something that was said to you that made you realize "I can maintain my fame and not be remembered as just the guy who once won big at Jeopardy!"? | Screw that, I don't want to be famous. I keep getting asked who my publicist is. Why would I have a publicist?!? I'm just a guy on a game show. I got mine. I need a privacist. Most importantly, next time you're at the studio, could you please request that Sean Connery's voice be used for Watson? | I've heard that IBM really did consider using Darrell Hammond for the voice, no lie. That would have been the awesomest thing in the history of awesome. Are there ever times when you're in public and people try to call you out for a duel of random knowledge? Do you carry your own buzzer in case of such an event? | Sometime radio DJs try to do a "stump Ken" thing because they are idiots, and people will call in, who, I swear, have no idea how trivia works. "So Ken, my mom used to buy shoes at this place on 125th Street? It's gone now. WHAT WAS IT CALLED?" Suppose one of your hands was amputated and the only option for a replacement was either a lobster claw or an octopus tentacle. Which do you choose? | Why do all the options have to be sushi? I foresee problems if your graft looked a little TOO delicious. Do you think you'll be asked to take over for Trebek when he retires? Would you do it? | I doubt I would be asked...wouldn't they be more likely to go with someone with, you know, actually hosting experience? That said, I would do it in a heartbeat. Talk about a dream job. That dude works like five days a month reading trivia questions (okay, "answers," YEESH) and makes millions. Plus millions of middle-aged cat ladies have sexy fantasies about him. What do the contestants talk about when you stand next to Alex while they roll the credits? Just pretending to look suave for the cameras? | It's normally a pretty awkward social scenario. Two of you are shell-shocked and pissed, one of you has just realized he's going to have to come back and do it all again after a 10-minute tape break, and one of you is slightly drunk and wants to get out of there before the Lakers game starts. What was your SAT score? | My verbal was better than my math. Has there been any talk of a rematch with Watson (and Brad Rutter)? | Only by Brad, once you get a few drinks in him. I think both Jeopardy and IBM think they have gone to the promotional well about as much as they could with the Watson thing, and it will retire undefeated, like Rocky Marciano. What do you think of BYU suspending its star player right before the NCAA tournament just for having consensual sex with a major? | I think that is going to cost the program millions. You can't say their convictions are hypocritical, at any rate. They really believe students shouldn't be having sex outside of marriage, and there are plenty of non-crazy reasons to go along with that, obviously. Not really a question, but you came to my school (Escalante Elementary in Utah) I think in 2004-05 ( I was in 6th grade) and talked to us all about your winning Jeopardy! I just wanted to let you know that a bunch of us wanted to sit up front because we thought you'd throw out money since you won so much! Haha...only in the minds of 6th graders... | Sorry! Last time I tried to throw hundred dollar bills at a sixth-grader I spent the night in jail. When you were a software engineer, what language(s) did you program in? Do you still program for fun? | Mostly Java. "Programming for fun" was always a foreign concept to me...I was not a great programmer. I pity the fools who are maintaining my old code right now. Say I was going to be competing on Jeopardy in two months from now. What books/resources would you suggest I look over to prepare? | Congrats! You will be joining an elite club of virgins. Preparation: my book Brainiac is okay for that, but Bob Harris's book Prisoner of Trebekistan is better. (Mine is less Jeopardy-centric.) Mike Dupee's out of print How To Get on Jeopardy...and Win is best of all. But I think the title might be a little on-the-nose, don't you? Read The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Know world capitals. Know US presidents and their dates. Remember: by the odds, most first-timers lose, so be determined to have fun no matter what. You will also play better that way. Don't wear a sweater, you will look like a tool. Why no love for Corbin Bernsen? He collects snow globes and plays a character on one of my favorite shows, "Psych". | I guess I am unfairly conflating Mr. Bernsen with his sleazy "Arnie Becker" character on L.A. Law. Sometimes I assume Charlie Sheen is a crazy, dissipated party animal like his sitcom character too. Were you always interested in trivia or did it happen later in life? Do you use the [memory palace technique](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci) to memorize trivia? | Hey, I just read Josh Foer's new book about memory palace techniques. No, most trivia people I know don't cram. They are just natural sponges for information. Something weird and genetic in the way their associative memory works, I guess. They are just curious about everything. And when you are curious about a subject, facts just stick. I did do some mnemonic stuff on Jeopardy to remember stubborn stuff that was too boring EVEN FOR ME to remember. Like: John Quincy Adams was elected in 1824. So I'd picture Quincy, M.E. working a 24-hour shift or something. Could you make me a mnemonic story about the moon and what year we first landed? | Let's put it this way: it involves you, between the moon and New York City. Anything? OK. You state you are a devout Mormon. Create a Jeopardy category of "odd" things most non-Mormons would not know about the Mormon belief system. The more odd the better! | Mormon trivia: **1** Christian Aguilera was born Mormon. Not our finest effort. **2** The original proposed name for Utah, "Deseret," isn't related to "desert." It's a Book of Mormon word (and therefore etymologically iffy to nonbelievers) meaning "honeybee." **3** Mormon congregations are called "wards," and dioceses are called "stakes." Some of our houses of worship used to therefore be called "stake houses," but this turned out to be too confusing. (Especially because there was no salad bar.) **4** Mormon scripture strongly implies that the apostle John, as well as three Book of Mormon disciples, never actually died but are still kicking around someplace. Awesomely, this leads some Mormons to repeat urban legends about "the three Nephites" miraculously appearing to help little old ladies, repair the cars of stranded travelers, etc. **5** My Sunday school teacher, when I was a Mormon teen, once memorably advised us that "There's nothing more overrated than sex, and nothing more underrated than a good bowel movement." It totally worked...I don't remember a single other sermon from when I was a kid, but I think about this guy exactly once a day, and then again once a week. What is the most outrageous thing that happened during the filming of the shows? Did Trebek ever snap at anybody? | I have told this story before, but the security on the show is pretty intense. I totally caused a CTU-like "shutdown" one time by changing my necktie using the wrong mirror--the same one Trebek uses. No contestants allowed back there! I thought it was pretty funny at the time, except for all the crew members who probably got fired over it. What is your favorite Bond film? | Goldfinger and Casino Royale. I have a weird fondness for the Timothy Dalton Bonds though. Even the Joe Don Baker one! I KNOW! Do you speak any languages other than English? | Fluent in Spanish, some Korean. How old were you when you got your first girlfriend? | Nine, but it was Heather Thomas on The Fall Guy, which probably doesn't count. Do the contestants and Trebek practice the "get to know the contestants" banter? | Obviously not. What are the accommodations like backstage? | Because of the scandals of the 50s, it's still a felony to rig a game show. So the contestants are all sequestered like a jury and trooped around together like a chain gang. If one person needs to pee, it becomes a mass bathroom break. The whole scenario is a little awkward, like if all the teams in the NCAA tourney had to share a locker room. You were putting on a good show for humanity during that second game. Why didn't you bet it all on the final jeopardy question? I was anticipating a big bet in classic Jennings style. | It was a two-day total-point final, and Watson couldn't be passed. I had second place locked up over Brad, so I couldn't wager much. How long did it take to film each episode with Watson? I heard the machine would crash several times and so it was not a normal game. | Yeah, between Jeopardy taking the show on the road (Watson doesn't travel so we taped at an IBM lab in Westchester County) and the complications of connecting a computer to the game, there were lots more glitches than normal. Did it affect Brad's or my buzzer mojo? We will never know. I know you have a young son. What was your parenting like when it came to teaching him things as he grew up? Do you try to instill knowledge into him? Make him memorize almanacs? Just read a lot? Does he exhibit a strong want to learn things? | I interviewed a LOT of trivia nerds for my book Brainiac, and they all seemed to come by it from birth. Like how you can't coach height, I guess. My son definitely has the gene, he is the kid always annoying you with his latest fact from the Guinness Book of World Records. I wish I knew how to turn normal kids into trivia nerds, because then I could write a bestselling book with the secret. Also, the teen pregnancy rate would plummet. Obviously you are something of a Renaissance man when it comes to trivia - your knowledge has a fair amount of depth but an unequaled breadth. I think it's fair to say that our culture is moving away from that kind of knowledge and towards intense specialization - people tend to define themselves as experts in increasingly small and specific areas. Do you agree that that is a trend? If so, is it a good or bad thing for us as a thinking species? As a culture? | Yeah, I wrote about this in Brainiac. The problem with specialization is that cultural literacy is starting to disappear...there are fewer facts and references that you know everyone will know. Even something like TV--there are 175 channels instead of 3. This means it's harder to communicate. It's harder to get to know people. You should be building colossal marble statues of your Jeopardy champions, people! We are your last hope in a world in which you have outsourced all your stuff-remembering to Google. Ken, you have a way with the written word. Brainiac was an excellent read and I'm looking forward to your new geography geek book, Mapheads. Are there any works of fiction kicking around in the mind of Ken Jennings? | I'm thinking of writing a bildungsroman in which a star-struck young quiz show contestant from a small town arrives in Hollywood, and the dark forces that try to corrupt him on his way to fame. I also have a volume of game show erotica coming out in the fall. By the way, if you are a nerd of any kind, especially a trivia nerd, I hope you check out my first book Brainiac. It's still in print at Amazon and finer bookstores everywhere. Or you can order a [signed copy](http://ken-jennings.com/brainiac.html) from my website. Or, if you like the smell of homeless people looking at pornography, you can check out from a local library. Plug over. How do they decide what to ask contestants about for the interview portion? Why are they always SO unremarkable, when that's likely the only moment these people will ever have to tell the public something interesting about themselves? | It turns out that being able to pass a very hard trivia test does not exactly self-select for telegenic-ness. Have you ever had your IQ tested? What is it? | I think my parents did a test when I was a kid but they would never tell me what it was. I can't decide if that means it was good or not. Anyway, IQ is bullshit. Except for the IQ movie where Walter Matthau plays Albert Einstein as an adorable yenta. That IQ is awesome. Back when you were in the middle of your winning streak, I faintly remember Alex asking you to tell something about yourself, and you replied that you had killed someone. Can you expand on that? | It was just to watch him die. What do you think of the Southpark critique of Mormonism? How do you feel about atheists and atheism in general? | The South Park approach to Mormonism (wacky doctrine, nice people) is so dead-on I have nothing to add. I like atheists, but prefer agnostics. I know this isn't a new critique, but plenty of atheists have an unquestioning zeal you'd be hard-pressed not to call...religious. What is your favorite Celebrity Jeopardy episode (from SNL)? | Let's just say I tried to register on Reddit today as TurdFerguson. Shockingly, it was taken. Do you have any advice for a computer science student? | Learn Hindi and Mandarin. Thank you, I'll be here all week. Dear Lord please don't REALLY let me be here all week... Have you bathed in a huge pile of cash yet? | I have a big vault full of coins like Scrooge McDuck. What kind of fiction do you like to read in your spare time? | I just finished the new Jonathan Franzen book (it's good! Not as good as Corrections) and am working my way through the Library of America's complete Raymond Carver volume. Turns out Carver actually wrote in a pretty conventional prose style but he had this overpowering editor that edited all his stuff into that almost self-parodic laconic style. Weird. Did you have a "Duh!" moment when you missed the final jeopardy question with your answer of FedEx or did it truly stump you? | I always did my own taxes. I could have thought about that question for 30 minutes, not just 30 seconds, and still blanked it. Constructive note to all the people who like to come up to me on the street and tell me how "easy" that one was and "even they" knew it: go to hell. What's your favourite algorithm? | Bubble sort. What happened to the game show that you were developping with Comedy Central? Is it just stalled or completely scrapped? | Effectively scrapped...they wanted something "smart" to pair with the Daily Show back in '05. Freaking Colbert... That said, if you know any network execs, I have some time free. (**earlier in this post, the questioner calls Ken "K-Jeezy"**) As for a question, what's the deal with highschool in Korea? Sorry if that's been answered before, but how was that? Have you done much traveling beside that? | My street name is actually "Special K." Yeah, we travel a lot. Thailand and Cambodia last year, and then London for our anniversary. Growing up overseas was awesome. I can think of plenty of Americans who would benefit from having seen from a young age that (a) holy crap this country is totally different from us and (b) holy crap this country is like centuries older than us and despite those differences doing just fine! Screw American "exceptionalism." I'm here to promote Earth exceptionalism. Our planet should be a city on the hill to the (loser) rest of the solar system. I mean, did you see that Planet Earth thing? We have glaciers and llamas and fruit bats and shit. Did you ever think that the 'answer in question form' thing was unnecessary bullcrap? I mean who says 'To marry Elizabeth, Prince Philip had to renounce claims to this southern European country's crown.' when you say 'What is Greece?' | You know who complains about this? Europeans!!! You aren't one of those Europeans, are you? (Actually, in my experience, it's usually the British who profess to be the most baffled by it.) Yes, the show's little syntactic conceit makes no sense whatsoever. But you have to understand that US audiences have grown up on this format. We don't even hear the "What is..." anymore. It's like "like" or "you know." It's background noise. Do you have any desire to go try to cure cancer or anything like that? | I was going to this afternoon, but then I got sort of busy... Stupid Reddit. My wife's two favorite people are you and Anderson Cooper. No question, just letting you know. | I have some bad news for her. Uh, about Anderson Cooper that is. *I'm* as straight as the Utah-Arizona border. (But without all the polygamy.) What are your plans for the future? Will you ride the Jeopardy wave into the sunset, or do you have other plans independent of your game show fame? | I like writing. As long as people buy my books, I get to keep writing. Jeopardy only calls once ever seven years, and my DVD habit doesn't pay for itself! You get sick of people assuming you know everything? I used to elaborate on topics that interest me (there are many) in sufficient detail that people thought I was a know-it-all, and would give me a hard time about it, all the time. Whenever I DIDN'T know something, they'd make a big deal about it. It's gotten to the point where I rarely comment at all anymore. | I have this habit of pulling out my phone to double-check stuff in conversations that nobody is sure about, so people tend to realize very quickly that (a) I don't know everything and (b) that thing you do with you iPhone is pretty annoying honey. (b) is usually my wife. Just want to say thanks for your support of public television and radio. | Sesame Street and Electric Company taught me to read; it's the least I could do. But the "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" coffee mug at my elbow right now is pure affectation. Let's say you're at home with friends and people want to play a board game. What do you go for? Settlers of Catan? Risk? Monopoly? Who's In My Mouth? | I love this trivia-lite game called Wits and Wagers so much that I just wrote some questions for it. Oh, and we are currently obsessed with this little-known 90s word game called Inklings that I bought at a yard sale. Another shameless plug: I'm sure University Games would love to sell their warehouse full of unsold "Can You Beat Ken" board games I tricked them into printing up back in 2005. BUY BUY BUY. Do you feel overwhelmed with questions yet? | Yeah, where is the STOP ASKING SHIT button again? Random question maybe, but there was is reference to your high school days on Wikipedia. Is it true that you were a graduate of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program? | Yes, but so was Kim Jong-Il. (This is my version of "Hitler was a vegetarian" for IB Eurotrash.) Why do you welcome your new robot overlords? Is it because their knowledge is undeniable? | No, it's not robot-specific. I'm just a welcoming guy. Gays, immigrants, the Chinese...I welcome all onslaughts. What are some interesting jobs offers that you have gotten since your Jeopardy fame? | Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Harry Reid (D-NV) both called me back personally in 2004 to try to get me to run for Orrin Hatch's Senate seat. I am not making this up. Win on a game show and you can apparently run for the US Senate. That was when I realized the Democratic Party was f@#$ed in '04. Are you a democrat? | Registered and everything. Small d and large. What is the best thing you've gotten to experience because of the Jeopardy run? What do you think of Seattle? | I got to read the Top Ten list on Letterman, which would have made my high school self pretty much explode with happiness. Love love love Seattle. There's nowhere else to live. Do you watch Jeopardy! with your children and if so, how often do they get questions right? | I can't really relax into Jeopardy anymore...I get PTSD when I hear Trebek's voice and the music. But like Marty McFly says, my kids are gonna love it. Dylan ran in last night to tell me he nailed a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" question that went 0-for-3 on the show. Nerd! Do you have any advice for getting over this lack of an interesting life for the purposes of getting on Jeopardy and y'know just because? | I've sure you have the material...you just need to frame it right. It can be anything. Claim that you love airline food. Give Trebek a straight line and his elderly audience will love you for it. Do you have any anecdotes that didn't make it to the air because they were offensive/off-color/out-of-character? You were on the show for 74 days, so if it didn't make it, then it must've been filthy and thus, hilarious. | Once I wrote down on my card that I was a "grammar Nazi." (I know, pretty exciting after 60-something games.) This got changed on the air to "grammar cop." You can't be any kind of Nazi on Jeopardy. Going into the show what chances did you think you had in being able to beat Watson? | Watson was beatable. I beat it badly once in practice. So did Brad. But when it gets a good run of categories, it's unstoppable. Considering how the electronic reflexes gives Watson such a huge advantage over reacting to the buzzer, do you think it would have been fairer if they introduced some small delay as a handicap? | I suggested some reasonable tweaks to level its speed advantage [on my blog](http://ken-jennings.com/blog/?p=2554). Boxers or briefs? | No one has posted a Mormon "magic underwear" joke yet! Reddit FAILS. Leg. What is it? | Flag on the moon. How did it get there? What is your favorite sandwich? | BLT. How was your time at Seoul Foreign School? | Go Crusaders! Ah, the fond memories I have of your papier-mache, now-politically-incorrect Christian mascot. What is your favorite Simpsons episode? | Lemon tree maybe? Like choosing between your children. OK. If you had to choose between Mona on Who's the Boss or Blanche on Golden Girls for a steamy night, who would it be? | Blanche. Campy middle-aged women with southern accents always remind me of Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. MAJOR CRUSH! Has anyone you have met on the street ever asked you a random trivia question to "test your skills"? | A doorman at a hotel in St. Louis wouldn't let me in before I named all the presidents that ascended to the office without being elected. True story. Are you a BYU sports fan? Do you think Jimmer Fredette will be as effective in the NBA as he is now? | I'm not convinced that Jimmer is a legitimate NBA threat. Sorry fans! Did you make any friends with any of the people you met through Jeopardy? | We actually had one, uh, Ken Jennings runner-up and his family at our Oscar party last weekend. But most of them hate me with the cleansing, white-hot hatred of that Dianetics volcano. You mention that one of the harder parts of Jeopardy! is the mastery of the buzzer. Can you describe your technique for effectively buzzing in to answer? Did you use a timing method or was it a mash-and-pray method? | Wait one Trebek-syllable (ts is the abbreviation for this SI unit) then mash mash mash. If you are on against scared humans, you'll do great. Against the scary computer from WarGames, you will still lose. Just wanted to say thanks for trying to save us from the Robot Overlords. I'll guess we will have to rely on John Connor since you blew it! | I hope you mean Christian-Bale John Connor. Because if you mean Edward Furlong, we are f@#$ed! PC or Apple? | PC laptop, Apple phone. Bi-curious, I guess. I heard through friends of friends that you were something of a power player in the college academic team/quiz bowl circuit. Any truth to those rumors? Is that where you got your buzzer mojo? | I played some college quiz bowl, but was never that great. Quiz bowl requires greater depth of knowledge than Jeopardy does. Most of my Jeopardy-type knowledge is a mile wide but less than an inch deep. Favourite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)? | Diet Dr Pepper. What are your favourite "geek/nerd" shows? | For some reason Mindy and I are watching ST:TNG on DVD lately. Holy cripes Riker is a smug bastard. What's your favorite place in Washington State? | The deck of a ferry boat going between Seattle and Bainbridge Island on a warm, clear day. Is there a celebrity you've got to meet that you've always wanted to meet? | Grover from Sesame Street. Alec Baldwin. Norm McDonald. That sounds like the setup for some terrible "Karnak" joke. At what point in the process (if any) were you wanting it to just be over? | Are you talking about this AMA? Do you sit or stand(crouch) to wipe? | I didn't even know crouchers existed until recently. That is messed up. I guess I can live and let live, as long as they don't try to infect the rest of us with their sick, sick agenda. And I think that's it. Jesus Christ that took a long time. Anyway, Helpful_Table_Maker, if you're looking for help with anything, lemme know. Or if you have suggestions on how to better format this table, cause it's huge. more