Ken Jennings: Confessions of a Trivial Mind

June 27, 2006 9:20 AM

"So, like many of you, I’m sure, I have this huge styrofoam version of my head sitting in the garage." -- Ken Jennings, former unstoppable Jeopardy! killing machine, blogs. [Who?]
posted by Gator (32 comments total)

"Offer void where prohibited by law or your mom."

Woah, Ken, pretty quick with the "your mom" jokes there! Pretty sassy for a Mormon!
posted by GuyZero at 9:27 AM on June 27, 2006

That "your mom joke" is like one of those things that sounds dirty but isn't. If you carefully parse it, it doesn't really make any kind of inappropriate sexual or derogatory references to anyone's mom. Bummer.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:34 AM on June 27, 2006

He should get off his mom. I just did.
posted by psmealey at 9:39 AM on June 27, 2006

I'll take "Another 15 Minutes" for $500, Alex.
posted by yhbc at 9:43 AM on June 27, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Sam Raimi/Peter Buck separated-at-birth jokes ..... Ken Jennings lying in a hammock reading mental floss ..... a long and pointless post about an appeals court case involving quiz books ..... I think I feel a migraine coming on.
posted by blucevalo at 9:45 AM on June 27, 2006

Haha blucevalo, I felt the same way but then read your post and thought "ooh I missed the appeal court case" and went back to the blog.
posted by exogenous at 9:47 AM on June 27, 2006

Interestingly (to me), Jennings was the top rookie entrant in this year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (last year's tournament was the subject of the just-released documentary Wordplay).

The overall winner last year and this year was a 21-year-old kid who I'm willing to bet could have schooled Jennings on Jeopardy.
posted by solid-one-love at 9:49 AM on June 27, 2006

Is he saying many of us have a styrofoam Ken, or a styrofoam copy of our own head?

The movers lost mine.
posted by sohcahtoa at 9:55 AM on June 27, 2006

I wouldn't be so quick to compare crossword puzzles to Jeopardy. One aspect of crossword puzzle solving is simply having solved a lot of crossword puzzles. A lot of the same answers will pop up and the solver learns how to think appropiately as well. Jeopardy is just general knowledge, period. (Not that it stresses the brain often.)
posted by Atreides at 9:58 AM on June 27, 2006

He's making a living doing what he loves. I can't begrudge him that.

I'd love to be a professional know-it-all.
posted by empath at 9:59 AM on June 27, 2006

I actually found the whole site pretty engaging. The guy has a sense of humour, is self-deprecating and writes reasonably well. If you're not interested in trivia stuff at all, well, probably not interesting, but otherwise, pretty cool.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:00 AM on June 27, 2006

I agree jacquily. I wish I could have 3 million to start my blog about nothing.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:12 AM on June 27, 2006

I do love his column in "Mental Floss" I keep trying to come up with a good one to send to him.
I figure it's harder to link 2 things in 6 jumps if they start out close together and I've been working on it for months.
posted by Megafly at 10:16 AM on June 27, 2006

I clicked on the link thinking "really? how could this possibly be worth the FPP?", and found it pretty funny and engaging. But then, I'm a fan of obscure, pop-culture-y, intellectual-nerd humor. And he's genuinely witty, IMO.
posted by LooseFilter at 10:19 AM on June 27, 2006

"You think you're pretty smart, don't you, Trebek? What with your Drago mustache and your greasy hair!"
posted by ninjew at 10:23 AM on June 27, 2006

He might not be keeping the blog for fame's sake... Though I don't think I ever played him, I was involved in the college quizbowl circuit and I recognize a lot of the names from the suggestion page. I think he keeps this blog because he has friends and fans.
posted by frecklefaerie at 10:27 AM on June 27, 2006

Also, it was a really big deal in the QB community that "one of our own" did well on Jeopardy, because, as this wapo article states, quizbowlers do notoriously bad at Jeopardy.
posted by frecklefaerie at 10:39 AM on June 27, 2006

He always seemed like a fun guy on Jeopardy!, thanks for the link, Gator.

ninjew: That's 'dago moustache'.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:42 AM on June 27, 2006

Also, it was a really big deal in the QB community that "one of our own" did well on Jeopardy, because, as this wapo article states, quizbowlers do notoriously bad at Jeopardy.

You know, that's funny, because in one of his blog posts, he points out that most of the big winners on game shows were quiz bowl vets.
posted by macmac at 11:52 AM on June 27, 2006

On post-view, I use too many commas in my writing. ,.
posted by macmac at 11:53 AM on June 27, 2006

Look at the picture of Ken Jennings reading "mental floss" pay attention to the thumb on the cover of the magazine. I swear I did a double take thinking that that thumb was Ken Jenning's cock sticking out.
posted by I Foody at 12:37 PM on June 27, 2006

macmac: hmm, looking over that list I see the absence of quite a few J! losers I personally know. That list seems dominated by folks who were proud of how they did.
posted by frecklefaerie at 1:52 PM on June 27, 2006

I was amused by this sentence on his 'about' page:

"ESPN: The Magazine called him "smarmy (and) punchable," with "the personality of a hall monitor," thus continuing America's long national struggle between jocks and nerds."

Come on. That's pretty funny.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 2:57 PM on June 27, 2006

I laughed at much of his site, pleasantly. He's not just smart, but he's genuinely witty. I can't understand why he's a Mormon.
posted by solid-one-love at 3:00 PM on June 27, 2006

Ken was regularly posting on the Television Without Pity forums during his run on Jeopardy. All in all, he seemed like a standup guy.
posted by Symeon at 3:58 PM on June 27, 2006

No comments on his "blog" = no blog. IMNSHO.

Yeah, I'm a snob, whataboutit?
posted by davidmsc at 5:43 PM on June 27, 2006

I Foody, his thumb has put more points on the board than his cock. (sorry, Ken, congrats on being so smart)
posted by Frank Grimes at 7:03 PM on June 27, 2006

I've got a syrofoam bust of Nefertiti, but with an extra set of eyes. Does that count?
posted by hob at 10:32 AM on June 28, 2006

Eh, he's still got the wee beady eyes. He makes me twitch.

(No, this is not just because I lost on Jeopardy. Really. I swear.)
posted by Dreama at 11:03 AM on June 28, 2006

I liked his blog. Thought it was funny and engaging. Will be reading it again soon.

One time I folllowed a long and rambling circuit of Ken Jennings links which led me to a Trebek/Jennings pornographic fanfic on Livejournal. I am convinced that you can find slash featuring everyone who ever lived on Livejournal if you just look hard enough.
posted by LeeJay at 5:39 PM on June 28, 2006

Is he saying many of us have a styrofoam Ken, or a styrofoam copy of our own head?

Now, through the magic of eBay, we really could have a styrofoam Ken.

posted by jacquilynne at 3:55 PM on June 29, 2006

He's a funny guy, and it's an interesting blog. I just wish that he would tone down a) pimping his book, and b) the proselytizing. Just a bit, you know? Then it'd be great. As it is, it has a bad aftertaste because it feels somewhat insincere.
posted by danb at 8:07 PM on June 29, 2006