Cynics Unlimited

Having gone to a school rife with purported and self-purported “geniuses”, it shouldn’t have surprised me that Ken Jennings was less than intelligent in managing his personna. Jennings, who won a record 74 straight victories in Jeopardy, chose to bite the hand that feeds him on his blog, as described in an AP news article. The original blog post is written in the form of a letter to Jeopardy itself, and offers disdain for both the show and the general public in equal doses:

You’ve got a good twenty years on you now, and that’s Trebek-era alone. Times have changed since your debut, but when I watch you, it’s the same-old same-old: the same format, the same patter[n], the same fonts, the same everything as when I first crushed out on you in fourth grade. You’re like the Dorian Gray of syndication. You seem to think “change” means replacing a blue polyethylene backdrop with a slightly different shade of blue polyethylene backdrop every presidential election or so.

Does every freaking category have to be some effete left-coast crap nobody’s heard of, like “Opera,” or, um, “U.S. History” or whatever? I mean, wake me up when you come up with something that middle America actually cares about. I think it would rule if, just one time, Alex had to read off a board like:
-PlayStation
-The Arby’s 5-for-$5.95 Value Menu
-Reality TV
-Men’s Magazines
-Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men’s Magazines
-Potpourri

Granted, the satire would have been a non-issue if it were written by the average blogger. Coming from the man whose fame is owed entirely to the show, however, it smacks of ungratefulness. Jennings did stress the humor intent in a subsequent post but still came off looking somewhat haughty.

Going back to the opening sentence, I’ve had a lot of time to observe the behavior of geniuses, and came to the conclusion that quite often the difference between a genius and someone who is autistic is the value society places on his/her forte. Several schoolmates came to class having invented their own math theories or were able to calculate complex math equations in their heads faster than the average person could do so with a computer … but ask them to do anything remotely social and they either do something completely awkward or petrify in a wave of near-retardation. Ever the self-promoter and salesman, Ken Jennings does not fall into the genius category; rather he comes across as a self-purported genius – usually discernable by the fact that he directly and indirectly states how much smarter he is than you at every possible opportunity. Think Donald Trump, rather than Bill Gates.

The website of Ken Jennings - modesty and all

At the end of the day, Ken Jennings must remember that Jeopardy’s ability to survive without changing format for over 20 years is an ode to the show’s staying power. Individual Jeopardy winners, on the other hand, are forgotten rather quickly. Good luck with that merchandising.