We’ve learned that the best quiz show contestants know how to deal with tough questions, but what about the ones in between? We’re talking about the people who can’t answer a single question. Generally, these folks are dealt a bad hand. But if you want to improve your odds next time you end up on Jeopardy!, we suggest avoiding these secrets.
You might think that being called “clueless” by Alex Trebek is humiliating enough, but it’s really just the beginning of your downward spiral. After all, chances are that your friends have heard about your failure on national television and will never let you live it down for as long as you walk this earth. Quiz show fodder is a badge of shame that you’ll never be able to remove. In fact, it’s probably best if you just change your name and move somewhere else.
We know that there are a few people out there who really want to become the next Ken Jennings or Peter Shockey, but we’re here to tell you that this isn’t going to happen for most of you. Many contestants have tried over and over again to get on Jeopardy! but have failed every time. Naturally, most of them get discouraged and quit trying, but a small group of obsessives keep fighting the good fight – until they lose one too many times. These are the poor souls who never quite realized that they weren’t cut out for this sort of thing.
The Secrets That You Shouldn’t Know About Quiz Show Fodder :
1. You’re not actually smarter than the average guy.
This is probably the most disheartening thing you need to learn about yourself if you want to improve your chances of becoming a Jeopardy! contestant. Basically, you might think that you’re better at trivia than everyone else because you spend all your free time reading books and watching documentaries, but statistically speaking, this isn’t true.
2. You can’t rely on luck to make it happen for you.
Sadly, we have all seen Jeopardy! contestants stumble over their answers every now and then and lose right after they miss one – even if they were right as soon as they got in front of the board. Sure, you might feel like a bit of a genius during this moment, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to make you a champion.
3. Everyone has bad days.
Even the most legendary Jeopardy! players have days when they just don’t have it. You might not know this, but there are folks out there who have won more than twenty games in a row, but that didn’t mean that they were invincible. Truly, it’s just a matter of luck whether you’ll be able to get lots of money or not. Otherwise, you’re likely to go home with only a few hundred dollars and an even worse sense of shame than you already have.
4. You need to practice before the show for hours every day for months at a time.
Unless you’re on Jeopardy! because you were selected to be a contestant or somehow managed to get yourself on the show just before Alex Trebek retired, then your odds of becoming the next Jeopardy! champ are going to be so small that we barely even want to talk about it. Why? Well, first of all, it’s difficult as hell and can take months if not years of practice. You see, there are hours spent memorizing how all thirty-six clues work and figuring out which answer is right for each question.
In addition, you also have to learn how many seconds each clue takes and what’s considered a good time for each category. It’s not going to happen all of a sudden. There are certain things that you need to know in order to win at Jeopardy! and most of them aren’t going to come naturally.
5. You have to know how the game is played before you can win it.
This is a big secret that most people who get on Jeopardy! don’t know about, but if you want to do well next time, then you’re going to have to be ahead of the game from the very first question out. In other words, you need to know how to make the money machine work in your favor. You see, the producers will make sure that you have just enough money on hand at all times or else you might be stuck with a pittance like $300.
That’s why it’s of the utmost importance that you figure out every possible way of making this cash fly off of your fingers as fast as possible. Some contestants have been known to push their luck by wagering their whole bankroll on one question, especially if the answer is something that they can’t get out of their head for any reason whatsoever. We wouldn’t recommend this method for everyone, though!
