And the CNN Situation Room host sucked. He didn't know where Jesus was born. He thinks Julia Childs wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking. He was just not good at Jeopardy.

It doesn't help that he was playing against Jeopardy wizard Andy Richter, who handily won $68,000 for the St. Jude Children's Hospital, but Dana Delany was there too and she didn't end the Double Jeopardy round thousand of dollars in the hole.

Even better: The Tonight Show aired scenes from the show rehearsal, where you can see Wolf being even dumber and also weirdly rude and pretentious. What this guy has to be pretentious about is anybody's guess.

Full Jeopardy episode, at least until it is removed from YouTube:

You see, Munson shares a few Manhattan-based friends with us, friends who for the past few months have been insisting, "OMG you have to meet Munson!" We'd heard stories about him sleeping with this or that socialite, getting married on a whim in Vegas, getting a DUI in the drive-thru of a Taco Bell in Florida, the relationship he destroyed with a tasteless Natalee Holloway joke, but for one reason or another, mainly out of social malaise, our meeting John Munson has yet to take place, but we, as well as the rest of America, were introduced to him in a big way this past Friday night.

It was the finale of Jeopardy's 25th season and Munson, who really was introduced by the show's announcer as a "self-proclaimed gadabout," was one of the contestants. As soon as we heard this and saw the ascot, the suit, the pinky ring, the loop in his signature to form something resembling a cock on his podium display screen, and finally the winking at the camera, we knew that this had to be the John Munson we'd heard so much about. A quick text message confirmed that our suspicions were correct.

Though the entire Jeopardy episode is available for viewing on YouTube, we had our video team put together a montage of memorable Munson moments from the show, including the rather sweet and sad story of his motivation for appearing on the show as well as his wrong answer to the Final Jeopardy question asking which 69 year-old singer toured in 2009 and had a number one hit in 1984, the year Jeopardy first went on the air.





After the show we were forwarded the text of an invitation Munson sent out to friends prior to his appearance on the show seeking audience support. It reads in part:

It's official. I'm going to be a contestant on the television game show Jeopardy! As a lot of you know, this has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. While some people fantasized about going to space, or hitting a home run in the world series, or having a threesome, for me it was Jeopardy. And threesomes. Since I got the call a few weeks ago, I've been doing everything I can to prepare - studying my presidents, attempting (and failing) to grow a mustache, buying a bunch of fake bling on eBay, figuring out how to write my name so it looks like a penis, - and now, as a final touch, I'm trying to assemble a posse.

While it doesn't appear as though Munson succeeded in his efforts to "assemble a posse," he definitely succeeded in bringing attention to himself, as the word "gadabout" topped the Google trends list for a few hours after his appearance on the show aired nationally.





And, of course, the Twittering classes went nuts over John Munson.





Could it be that we have a new Gawker fameball in the making here? We're sure that between his blog and his Twitter page and whatever stories get sent into us, John Munson has the potential to become a familiar character in the Gawker lexicon. Don't let us down John.





And again, Munson's entire Jeopardy appearance is on YouTube here, here, here and here.

Unlike the complex game of chess, mastering Jeopardy with a computer would seem to be a simple matter of automating Wikipedia searches. But there's more to it than that:

One of the toughest challenges for Watson's programmers is predicting confidence in answers-in other words, programming the computer to know when to buzz. Jennings, during his record-breaking Jeopardy! run, would sometimes buzz early, then seem to think for a few seconds before answering.

"I can't validate one way or another exactly what Ken Jennnigs was doing, but I can say the behavior you described is one that suggests that I'm extremely confident that I know all the answers," Ferucci said.

Okay then, but if IBM was searching for an even more impressive feat, how about programming its computer to host Jeopardy rather than play it? Trebek's robotic delivery makes him easily replaced by a speech synthesizer. Heck, we bet Watson's blinking lights would be more watchable.

It's incredibly difficult to keep a secret anymore, and in this adolescent media world, it's impossible. So: I assumed, because Greg hadn't been blowing cash and buying everybody drinks and hookers over the last three months, that he had lost on Jeopardy. We'd known about this for a while, and a bunch of us had even helped him study. I was even a little concerned; he was putting so much effort into winning that I feared what would happen if he lost. Every pseudo intellectual has dreamed of being on Jeopardy. Actually making it, and then getting crushed, could emotionally devastate even the most stable of us. So I worried Greg was doomed.

Halfway through Double Jeopardy, my worry was not displaced. All of us had gathered at the Barrow Street Ale House, hoping to cheer Greg on, but he was so far behind that our priorities changed. No longer were we, "Way to go, Greg." It became, "Christ, how the hell do I deal with the crying dude when I just want to leave already?" And then he caught a break, and hit the second Daily Double, and then entered Final Jeopardy within distant striking distance. At this point, we were just happy he'd made it that far. He had nothing to be embarrassed about. I was trying to imagine a scenario where Greg would feel comfortable inviting people to come watch his show without him actually, you know, winning. This seemed about right. Within striking range during Final Jeopardy. Close enough. Good show, son. Everyone back in Illinois is surely proud.

And then the crazy defending champion woman missed — honestly, Galileo was obvious; she totally choked — and, somehow, amazingly, Greg had won. I write about sports a lot, more than I'd like, actually, and I find that the more sports I watch, the more difficult it becomes to come across an outcome that's truly unexpected. The term "upset" has become trite. Even the scrappy underdogs make millions and, if you met them in real life, would not like you. But to actually watch a friend of mine come from nowhere — seriously, the man was defeated — and win, in front of everyone he knows and holds dear (and even a few he doesn't) ... well, not even this cynical Brooklynite could deny it. About 35 jaded, angry, jealous, winded media people, everyone sniping behind everyone's backs beforehand, apoplectic that THAT guy got THAT assignment, all in a room together ... suddenly screaming like we're 10 year olds, shocked, giddy, foolish. It was awesome. This is all giving Greg a bigger ego. But it's true. The place went nuts. We were all so happy.

He's on again tonight, and maybe he'll win, and maybe he'll lose. Honestly, after the first unexpected victory, it turns strange, really, to cheer for your friend to make more money. This is New York, after all, and more money could mean a better apartment than I have, and That. Just. Won't. Do. But for one night, we were all Marshall. Update the Greg Lindsay Career Trajectory, folks. My friend is a Jeopardy champion.

So, now that he's won on Jeopardy ... maybe he can finish his goddamned book.

Speaking of Jeopardy... Update!

Taping an episode of the show next Monday will be none other than media reporter, journalism school expert, and all around public married person Greg Lindsay! Update the Career Trajectory!

• Things You Can't Do Coked Up—Guessing there's no book deal forthcoming. Prove me wrong, publishers!
  
• Final Jeopardy—God Bless Red Lasso. [Via Kottke]

First up, the categories. Maybe when Art Fleming was alive, America just couldn't get enough clues about "Botany" and "Ballet" and "The Renaissance," but come on. Does every freaking category have to be some effete left-coast crap nobody's heard of, like "Opera," or, um, "U.S. History" or whatever? I mean, wake me up when you come up with something that middle America actually cares about. I think it would rule if, just one time, Alex had to read off a board like:

• PlayStation

• The Arby's 5-for-$5.95 Value Menu

• Reality TV

• Men's Magazines

• Skanks from Reality TV Who Got Naked in Men's Magazines

• Potpourri

As if a mormon's understanding of the FHM slut du jour is going to put his kids through college. Thus Jennings' words are in jest; alas, Michael Starr's response in yesterday's Post didn't quite grasp that. But what did Jennings expect? The Post has a feeble grasp of these things — it's not like you'd see Starr raping and pillaging Alex Trebek's piggy bank.

Dear Jeopardy! [Ken Jennings via AP]
Sense of Humor, Meet Michael Starr [Ken Jennings]