Jeopardy!, the popular game show that’s been on the air for 35 years, doesn’t really flub it up often. But the televised contest to see who can get the most trivial details right still apparently makes errors from time to time, as it did recently when it used nonexistent Tetris block names in one of its questions. The contestant managed to get the question right, however, and these block names are still so hilarious they may be worth knowing anyway.
Found the clip. This is just embarrassing. @kelslewin @frankcifaldi @GamingHistorian @scully1888 pic.twitter.com/svHTcTwWrT
— Chris Chapman (@retrohistories) October 8, 2019
In a tweet from February, game developer @vecchitto, made a photoshopped version of a Tetris instruction booklet, where he placed fake name titles on the various types of blocks. The block names included: Orange Ricky, Blue Ricky, Cleveland Z, Rhode Island Z, Hero, Teewee, and Smashboy. The tweet featuring the joke photoshop went somewhat viral—garnering about 12,500 retweets as of this writing—but went by the social media wayside afterward.
I found the original instruction booklet for #Tetris and… did anyone know that these pieces had names?? pic.twitter.com/SvtxvIcUz6
— vecc “trebek fooler” hitto (@vecchitto) February 24, 2019
Cut to October 9, and somehow the joke names from the tweet end up on Jeopardy! as a part of an $800 question in the category “Video Game-Pourri.” The question, which read, “The 7 rotatable blocks used in this video game have names like Orange Ricky, Hero, and Smashboy,” was then published as a tweet by Jeopardy!. Said tweet was recognized by Norman Caruso, the gaming historian, as being erroneous, and he subsequently published his own tweet stating, in part, that “I just checked my [Tetris] manual, no names. Sorry Jeopardy.”
There’s a pretty good photoshop going around that gives the blocks names in the NES manual.
I just checked my manual, no names. Sorry Jeopardy ? https://t.co/t8uSkeXzqY
— ?Norman Caruso? (@GamingHistorian) October 8, 2019
Another person interested in video game history, Chris Chapman, posted a clip of the question to twitter, which is posted up top and comes via Kotaku. And while it seems that Jeopardy! has yet to respond to the news of its question being untruthful, people are still most definitely letting the show know that it got this question… incorrect.
Any thoughts on this Jeopardy! debacle? We’ll take your opinions for $100 in the comments!
Feature image: William Warby