Sometimes, Jeopardy! viewers will do anything to take a swipe at Ken Jennings, but to be fair, sometimes he does step in it. The game’s host might not be the one writing the clues, but he sure does take the heat for any of the controversial calls, which unfortunately make him the punching bag for fans of things like correct answers and the truth.
The latest Jeopardy! blunder to be upsetting fans is from a clue this week in the category, Waterfalls. The clue read: “A Yosemite fall with a wispy ribbon of water that flutters in the air like diaphanous cloth bears the name of this marital wear.” One-day champion Kelly Proulx seemingly gave the correct answer, responding: “What is Bridalveil Falls?”
Jennings revealed it was incorrect. “It’s actually Bridalveil Fall, so we couldn’t take that.” This made the clue just more confusing, for both viewers and contestants.
ready to individually fight the #Jeopardy judges for ruling “Bridalveil Falls” wrong because of the extra “s” that was not germane to the clue. being pedantic to that degree is disgusting and negatively affects the game.
— Nate Rathjen (@rahtgee) July 3, 2024
According to the official Yosemite website, the waterfall is called Bridalveil Fall. The folks over at the Jeopardy Subreddit seem to agree that the ruling was unkind, even to Jeopardy’s standard. One user wrote, “I typically give long and wide deference to the judges, but f*ck the judges for that ruling. there is nothing pinning the clue to ‘fall,’ so she got the required information correct. that was positively disgusting.” Others called the rule “arbitrary,” while complaining about the inconsistencies in the games.
One fan seemed to offer an explanation that the clue was referring to an actual bridal veil, not the waterfall itself, but then that would still be just as confusing considering the category. It’s times like these when Alex Trebek’s calm demeanor during troubling times is truly missed.
