‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React to ‘Weird’ Final Jeopardy! Clue

Meredith Jacobs October 14, 2024, 7:30 pm

Caryn Radick, Jack Swansey, and Eamonn Campbell — 'Jeopardy!' — Jeopardy!, Inc.

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the October 14 episode of Jeopardy!]

Being dialed in to social media could have helped you out with the Final Jeopardy! clue in the October 14 episode of the syndicated trivia show.

One-day champ Eamonn Campbell (with a total of $13,700), a lawyer originally from Manchester, Vermont, returned to face off against Caryn Radick, an archivist from Kendall Park, New Jersey, and Jack Swansey, a writer originally from Durham, North Carolina. And it was a close game throughout, with Campbell leading at the first break in the Jeopardy! round but Swansey in first heading into Double Jeopardy! But even after missing the third Daily Double of the game—he got the first right and Swansey the second—Campbell was still leading heading into Final Jeopardy!, with $14,800 to Swansey’s $14,600 and Radick’s $4,600.

In Final Jeopardy!, the clue in “Corporate Mascots” read, “A 2014 tweet said that this mascot was the ‘embodiment of a milkshake or taste bud.’” The answer was Grimace, and Both Campbell and Radick answered correctly. Campbell became a two-day champion with a total of $43,200 in winnings ($29,500 for his second game).

If you were surprised by that clue, you’re not the only one. One fan wrote in the Reddit thread for the game that, looking at an article on MentalFloss.com, “it sounds like the content of this FJ is essentially a retcon that arose out of a random quote from a McDonald’s manager and then a couple of vaguely supportive posts from the official McDonald’s twitter account.” That person also noted that the description used in the clue cannot be found on McDonald’s “rather extensive” fandom wiki page for the character: It “makes no mention of the ‘embodiment of a milkshake’ thing, and only one reference to the notion of him being a tastebud (described as ‘yet another argument’).”

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One fan suggested that the writers went with this clue due to a TikTok trend from last year and “googled ‘McDonald’s Grimace trivia’ and wrote a clue based on the first couple of hits. I’m amazed 2 out of 3 players got it.” That person wasn’t the only one surprised anyone got it correct, and another viewer admitted, “As a rule, I’m not a fan of any FJs that are primarily based on tweets.”

Another person wrote, “A reference to a ‘2014 tweet’ was weird. Made it seem like it was a new mascot when it was a really old one. Not aware of the TikTok trend you mentioned but Grimace was always THE milkshake mascot as far as I knew, being a tastebud was never part of his lore/ trivia from since my childhood.”

One of the players for the October 15 game, Zoe Grobman, shared, “I remember a lot of us in the green room were laughing pretty hard at the Final Jeopardy clue about Grimace, which led to a hearty debate about why in the world Grimace is purple, which even the contestant coordinators chimed in on.”

Grobman also admitted to being “relieved upon learning that the returning champion was only a 1-time champ,” but went on to add, “That relief lasted approximately 10 seconds until Ken announced that Eamonn beat a 5x champion and I saw how good he was.” Grobman will now be facing off against Campbell as a two-day champ.

What did you think of the Final Jeopardy! clue? Let us know in the comments section below.

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