Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?

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

loving that interview on the avclub

Yeah, I dug this:

I think I mentioned that I have some experience as an actor, and I was like, “I’m going to be playing a role and that role is of an unstoppable Jeopardy! champion.”

You have no idea that Jeopardy! picks the top 5 percent of telegenic appeal from their pool. I was probably one of those super awkward people. My glasses were crooked, and I stammered and stumbled a lot my first audition. And I didn’t get called. I don’t know that that’s why, but I was like, “Next time I’ve got to prepare like it’s a real audition.” Since then, I’d done some more community theater

he won again btw

yup, he blew 'em away

I don't know how the taping schedule went, but I have to wonder if last night's episode was taped after the controversy took off. There was just something a little winking or snarky in the way Alex introduced him by talking about his winning streak before adding "and that's all you need to know about him."

i think they were filmed last week or the week before, so probably. in that AV Club interview he mentions he already taped this week of shows (without saying how far he got)

AVClub interview also points out (iirc) that beyond being a strategy, tieng in Final Jeopardy lets the two tieing players each take home a pile of cash, vs. the typical winner takes all, loser gets a couple of grand system.

It was a great interview all around. For an awkward nerd or whatever, this dude sure knows how to work the press. I wonder if he googled that, too?

doesn't seem like he's that awkward at all, just a dude who knows how to use self-deprecating humor and wants to work his 15 minutes for all they're worth

Well, in the interview he gives lots of reasons why someone might seem awkward, not least that Jeopardy! culls the most photogenic 5% from a pool of the nerdiest nerds in the nation, but also that everyone is exhausted and nervous and not operating at 100%. Also he says he was so focused on his strategy he pretty much ignored about how he may or may not be coming across. He's been pretty consistent: you're there to win. Everything else is a distraction.

Awkward on the show, I should have stressed. Every interview comments on what a nice, normal dude he seems irl, at odds with his Jeopardy! performance.

I mean he's right in that it's similar to how people tend to judge a man's character by what he does on the football field, for instance. Few people look totally comfortable on Jeopardy - well maybe Ken Jennings by his 30th episode

i remembered to watch tonight!!

does he always dominate this dramatically?

spoiler alert dude, cmon

oops sorry!

7pm jeopardy ppl are the worst

Man, it's been forever, but I want to say it comes on at like 4 or 5 here. Maybe that was just in the Oprah era.

Trebek compared him to Ken Jennings today. I can only hope!!! (I don't understand this dude's status as a "Jeopardy villain", but the very idea of a "Jeopardy villain" is entertaining)

aw crap, i fell asleep and forgot. must remember tomorrow

def in favor of game show villainy: "if i win this episode, three audience will not make it home today

your move, trebek"

*audience members
fuck i cant even do my shitty sub-custos shit anymore

He's up by something ridiculous like 10 grand after the first round. His opponents' attempts at beating him with his strategy are pointless and futile.

Hilarious. When he's winning by over double the next opponent, there's basically no point in even doing Final Jeopardy, right? (I believe in this case it was 44K to 6K!)

He kinda wussed out by not going for the one-day record tonight. But then again, I would have too.

I did love how Trebek blatantly egged him on there to go for that bet, since if he lost it, it would've given the others a chance (he would have had to bet about 30K?) to win. But we all knew he would make the smart play

And how the producers apparently corrected Alex during the break to let him know that he was $2000 off. I wonder if they let Chu know that before he laid down his wager.

*$200 off

actually if he had gone for the record and missed he still would have won by a mile.

that's true - he would have had to lose AND the second place winner would have had to bet it all and won (doubling her $6K to $12K, and Chu would go from $44K to about 11K)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/02/28/arthur_chu_jeopardy_s_reigning_champion_talks_to_ken_jennings_about_the.html

yeah caught the end of last night w/ trebek egging him on and chu not taking the bait

Pure badass. I love this guy

The one thing I do think is a negative thing where I wish I hadn’t done it was “cutting off Alex,” which is what I think gets people most riled up—but of course that’s what you’re likely to do when you’re in the zone and already thinking about jumping to the next clue. Problem is Alex kind of chooses the points at which he makes a little comment or joke about a question at semi-random, sparse intervals so it’s hard to predict when he’s going to do it— people accidentally “cut him off” on the show even when they aren’t all hyped-up and intense like I was. It’s something I would be more careful about if I could do it again, though, because I do think interrupting/talking over someone truly is rude in a way that just being intense and abrupt isn’t.

uh oh

Pretty sure that interview happened after his first week of shows, during the break when there were a bunch of tournaments.

And yeah, one of the things that embitters me is that the entire Television Without Pity “brand” is now tarnished for me.

He should consider that a blessing. TWP has been ass for years now.

Chu already seems a lot more "normal" in the second week, in terms of appearance/mannerisms

I hadn't seen the obnoxious anti-Chu tweets featured in the Slate article, but no surprise that people are morons. LOL @ Chu-phoria

Last night was the first time watching Jeopardy since Ken Jennings. I'm all in with this dude.

I learned a new word today: whizbo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/02/27/why-were-actually-mad-at-jeopardy-villain-arthur-chu/

Chu’s strategy wasn’t part of some long-brewing master plan, but simply the result of some Googling. He did some searching once he found out he would appear on the show and was inspired by what discovered about Chuck Forrest, a 1985 contestant whose similar Daily Double hunting even earned a phrase to describe his method of play, the “Forrest Bounce.”

How anyone can be mad at this guy is beyond me. 40K BEFORE final jeopardy! This guy is awesome.

after reading that chat with KJ i am even more in the tank for this dude

Yeah, me too. I fucking love that he said this:

So we root for Rocky against black guys who, by all appearances, really are better boxers than he is, because unlike them Rocky isn’t JUST a boxer, he has a girlfriend, he has hopes, he has dreams, etc. This comes up over and over again in movies where the athletic black competitor is set up as the “heel”—look at the black chick in Million Dollar Baby and how much we’re pushed to hate her. Look at all this “Great White Hope” stuff, historically, with Joe Louis.

So is it any surprise that this trope comes into play with Asians? That the Asian character in the movie is the robotic, heartless, genius mastermind who is only pure intellect and whom we’re crying out to be defeated by some white guy who may not be as brainy but has more pluck, more heart, more humanity? It’s not just Flash Gordon vs. Ming the Merciless, it’s stuff like how in the pilot episode of Girls Hannah gets fired in favor of an overachieving Asian girl who’s genuinely better at her job than she is (the Asian girl knows Photoshop and she doesn’t) and we’re supposed to sympathize with Hannah.

i knew i wouldn't like Girls, for some reason

clearly researched all aspects of modern media management: learned that GIRLS references get clicks in online venues. guy is a master

I haven't watched this show in months, but I'm watching today's episode now. Happy to provide spoilers if y'all want.