Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?

yeah they're doing best of the 80s & 90s for the next few weeks

heh, i did the exact same thing.

Arthur Chu talks to HYPHEN mag about his success:

http://i.imgur.com/A48SNs5.gif

Oh whoops why was that in my copypasta. Anyway: http://hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2014/02/haters-gonna-hater-jeopardy-winner-arthur-chu-bucks-naysayers-and-their-asian-s

I think it makes more sense with the gif

“I pushed myself really hard […] I became a Jeopardy machine, and that’s probably why I acted weird when I was at that taping," says Chu. I told myself that as long as I have confidence that I’m doing the right things and making the right choices […] as long as I did everything I could to win the game and controlled everything that was under my control, I can walk out of there with my head high.”

What sucks in a really evil way is that many viewers of Jeopardy are hating on Arthur and making racist, offensive comments (surprise, surprise!), hurling just about every insulting Asian stereotype at him, most frequently on Twitter. I ask if he thinks it’s because he defies people’s expectations of the “meek and humble Asian,” and he says: “To some degree I think I’m unfortunately living up to a certain Asian stereotype – Asians are supposed to be very nerdy, very competitive in academics and I was raised in that sort of environment. […] They would have reacted differently had it been somebody else. A lot of what they say about me, ‘this guy is creepy,’ ‘this guy is a robot,’ ‘this guy is flat and emotionless’ you can’t deny that it’s there, but I try not to fixate on it. ”

And instead of laying low in the hopes that the hating will eventually go away, Chu asserts himself and responds to the nasty comments on Twitter. In one case, he responded with “The next time you realize you won $37,500, we’ll see how humble you are.” Chu says: “I think the big part of the fact that I can show a different side of myself on Twitter to an extent defies people’s expectations […] it’s easier for me to do it online than on camera. They imagine that I must be this one-dimensional nerd who’s only good at Jeopardy. […] [B]ut you can’t assume that about anybody when you only watch them for 20 minutes on a game show where it’s about winning. […] And I think that [talking back] was a big part of humanizing me to people who were watching Jeopardy and making a different kind of narrative out of it.”

Chu explains very well why he is how he is. It's rare to find a person as intelligent as he is self-aware, and in reality, Chu comes off as a really good guy. “I spent a lot of my life unwilling to take chances and I think that’s a common story for kids who kind of grew up with a certain kind of tiger mom upbringing […]. “ [B]ut at this point in my life, I’ve learned a lot of things will never happen to you if you never take the risk, and failing is not as painful as it seems, the pain you imagine from failure is actually a lot worse than the actual experience itself.”

So I agree with everybody that none of the sites that have published pieces on him have said "look here is this Asian nerd let's laugh at him." But it takes two to tango for something to go viral and I do think that race was a factor in how the internet see this kid even if we all disagree on how much of one it is. To ILX's credit everybody here has been focused purely on the game theory aspect of it and that's great and shame on me for thinking otherwise? Never was my intent to implicate anyone in this thread for having impure motivations, merely wanted people to be aware that there was this other issue. And that's probably the last I'll have to say on it unless I go buy some more ice cream.

I hate to admit that CNN's headline—"Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game"—is precisely correct.

I don't worry about this guy, he seems totally chill and reasonable and smart and funny and nice. I find all of this more interesting than just watching a game of Jeopardy, and frankly I enjoy the hell out of Jeopardy (not the kids' games though, those are crazy boring).

Didn't realize this dude was from my neck of the woods. Here's a local article: http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2014/01/31/team-arthur-local-trivia-buff-highlights-the-finer-and-controversial-side-of-jeopardy

Chu trails off at this point and mentions that, maybe, after all, the good folks behind Jeopardy! wouldn't want many of those off-camera antics getting out. He references an ill-timed joke that Trebek cracked about a student shooting up his school after his teacher gave him a measly 98-percent on a test.

Hah this is actually a well-worn joke about studious Asians on both sides of the Pacific

I mean, not the school shooting part. But the part about not getting 100%

Arthur Chu is at least the third guy to win a handful of Jeopardy games using the Forrest Bounce just in the last year. One of them was this super smug guy from Georgia who was a big Ric Flair fan. The wager-to-tie biz is way less common.

the thing about this guy's "strategy" is he still needs to be really fast and know basically all the answers right? so it's not like he's gaming the system in a way that undermines the basic game itself

it's a little unsportsmanlike to hunt for daily doubles in a category you know nothing about just to deny them to the other contestants (cf sports) but who cares it's fucking jeopardy

Dang I didn't know balls was on Jeopardy xxp

Interrupting Alex is also bad form.

alex seems like a guy who seethes w/ rage once the cameras stop rolling

been down with the "fuck alex trebek" cause ever since that college jeopardy episode where a girl said she wanted to be a music journalist after seeing Almost Famous and he went off on an "ohhhh a GROUPIE!" tear

oh shit, that happened? Fuck him forever.

there are more than a few anecdotes like that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ogS9Ifpjs

there's like a minute of obnoxious fanfare from the poster before the clip

i still like jeopardy, because I play along and get to pretend i'm smart for 22 precious minutes.

lol, the thing that struck me watching clips of jeopardy this week was wow trebek's a bigger dick than i remembered. canadians that come to america and become republicans are the weirdest kind of toothless cranks.

Christ, that's even worse than I imagined it would be. Smug asshole.

xp

lol at trebek's 'and what did he do - say it comeon say it, i got the best followup'

Trebek is frequently a smug asshole, I love his sarcastic sum up of bad stories and subtle takedowns of annoying contestants, but this was in bad taste, ugh.

http://i.imgur.com/NP9MpmD.png

Boom. Damn

Playing for the tie does seem like kind of a dick move though. The benefit is extremely marginal at best, but it's way worse for the show and you deny a slot on the show to one person who flew all the way out to LA for the taping.

if they really have people fly out and tell them to fuck off if there's a tie, i'd say that's the show's problem. not sure how it's "worse for the show" in any way that would matter.

They only pay 2nd place people $2,000 whereas for a tie they pay them the amount they won, usually a lot more. They only tape every two weeks, so whoever was scheduled for the last taping goes home and I don't think it would make too much sense to fly them out 2 weeks later. At the very least they are out the airfare and hotel.

And keep in mind this is only a benefit to the extent that the person you tied is worse than the average Jeopardy contestant, a highly questionable assumption

Playing for the tie does seem like kind of a dick move though. The benefit is extremely marginal at best, but it's way worse for the show and you deny a slot on the show to one person who flew all the way out to LA for the taping.

― justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Friday, February 7, 2014 8:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isnt this actually nice for the person who would otherwise be in 2nd place?

And keep in mind this is only a benefit to the extent that the person you tied is worse than the average Jeopardy contestant, a highly questionable assumption

it's not though, and there's a link above that illustrates why
http://thefinalwager.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/The-Final-Wager-Guide-to-Game-Theory-dominance-Slide-11-1024x576.png

basically if 2nd place winds up wagering a small amount banking on leader not getting the question right then you tie there as opposed to losing because you bet $1 more than you really had to. It's pretty dependent on the way 2nd place should wager

Hmm, I guess that makes sense, and I certainly don't fault anybody for trying to maximize their winnings.

I don't go on Jeopardy to make friends.

i dont always go on jeopardy, but when i do, i prefer dos winners

They only pay 2nd place people $2,000 whereas for a tie they pay them the amount they won, usually a lot more. They only tape every two weeks, so whoever was scheduled for the last taping goes home and I don't think it would make too much sense to fly them out 2 weeks later. At the very least they are out the airfare and hotel.

They bring in locally-based contestants and alternates for every taping week to create contingencies against situations like this - when I was on the show we taped on the second day of the taping week, and when they taped the day's first game, they actually made a point of using a non-local contestant who'd been held over from the first day for some reason to make sure everybody got on the show as scheduled.

SOP for returning champions is for Sony to pick up their airfare, plus accommodations at the fabulous Culver City Radisson - Ken Jennings goes into detail about the mechanics of this in his book, as I recall, and it's actually pretty interesting. In the rare event that they had to bring a contestant back to LA for a first game, I'm pretty sure they'd do the same thing. (The $2000/$1000 for second and third are more or less explained as a means of offsetting one's initial travel costs, anyway.)

I read Ken Jennings' book but it was a while ago and I don't remember it too well. Good info, thanks.

even if you don't care about this stuff his book is a really good read, I give it my full endorsement

I am not usually and "I like this guy because he's pissing people off" sorta dude at all but the more people this guy pisses off the better I like him

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WmMqi5PTt0

flash didn't rap that, c'mon jep

ken jennings weighs in - http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/02/ken_jennings_on_jeopardy_champion_arthur_chu_and_daily_double_hunting.html

jennings somewhat off in thinking baseball, football, etc embrace innovation - the actual teams might (and in baseball's case there was considerable resistance here even) but there's considerable resistance from the media and the fans to a certain extent. football is pretty much constantly innovating to the extent that sometimes long ago discarded innovations or ideas can momentarily become evolutionarily advantageous again but there are still considerable segments of the fans and the media that want to see the game 'the way it used to be played', this kind of conservatism generally is exhibited more during discussions of concussions or other areas where the game is perceived to be under attack and under threat of some sort of emasculation, it's pretty rare this griping really focuses on actual schemes or specific innovations but you can see it flare up from time to time eg some of the chip kelly stuff earlier this season. another difference is that sports at any level where 'fans' comes into play is generally played by ppl who have played the sport before. jeopardy is generally played by ppl who are learning how to play as they play, to the extent that simply googling 'how to play jeopardy' beforehand can be a considerable advantage. i've never been on jeopardy so i could be way off (maybe jaymc can weigh in) but it seems like there are aspects of actually playing it that couldn't be anticipated by someone playing along at home. the other night i watched an episode of community i had dvred and there was 15 minutes of jeopardy before it and lo and behold it was a chu episode. anyway these ppl were pretty bright clearly (they'd made it on jeopardy) and there was a question that was basically 'what is 5 times 12' and nobody got it so there is clearly something about the game that makes actual thought (as opposed to mere memory) difficult. in this respect this makes what chu is doing more impressive to me now, actually having the presence of mind to execute the strategy and still having to yknow actually answer the questions (which is something that kinda diminishes the innovation in that it's not an innovation that allows a player to overcome a talent deficit against an opponent, it's not a gamechanger) is pretty impressive. strategy also seems like it tends to leave the easier questions on the board so maybe this makes the game 'harder' for ppl playing at home and they resent him for it.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgvmTFlCMAA52vl.jpg

lmao

WS the hell out of the girl on the left tho

I really dont get why people dont go nuts on the daily doubles. I thought the point of this game was to win money yall.

haha yeah I kinda always mark someone for a doomed loser when they're sorta behind, or even when they're sorta ahead, and they get a Daily Double and bet a thousand when they could bet two or three. IMO they tend to get the question right, and lose the game. I can totally see making that same mistake in person - it's hard to overcome a lifetime of cautious instincts and remember that you must win the game or it's not real money, and always go big. I mean unless it's a category you just know jack shit about, fucking go for it, the main obstacle on the other questions is not having time to think and come up with it.

Extensive (and kind of fascinating) interview with Arthur Chu:
http://www.avclub.com/article/controversial-jeopardy-champ-arthur-chu-tells-his--201355

Arthur will be back on today for those who have wanted to watch.

thanks, i forgot about this