Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 12, 2023, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as noon Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category American Literature) for Tuesday, December 12, 2023 (Season 40, Game 67):
Chapter 100 of this novel introduces the one-armed Captain Boomer of the Samuel Enderby
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Henry Baer, a software engineer from San Francisco, California
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Julia Markham Cameron, an attorney from Brooklyn, New York
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Gary Hollis, a chemistry professor from Roanoke, Virginia
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Today begins the semifinal round of Fall 2023’s Champions Wildcard Hearts bracket with a matchup between Gary Hollis, Julia Markham Cameron, and Henry Baer. As I said in my semifinal preview, Gary is the latest in a long line of strong professors from the 2021 Professors Tournament. One weakness in his game, though, is that he seems to bet conservatively on Daily Doubles, which may give an opening to fan favorite Julia, as well as Henry, especially if things aren’t a runaway going into Final Jeopardy today.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Moby-Dick?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2023 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
Moby-Dick, one of Herman Melville’s classics of 19th century American literature, is often referenced by the Jeopardy! writers. Published in 1851, it was a story of Captain Ahab (of the Pequod)’s quest against the giant whale who had bitten off Ahab’s leg on his previous voyage. Interestingly, the book was critically panned in its time and was only really celebrated in the 20th century.
Interestingly, this might be a Final where having watched a lot of the show might make things easier for you. Since the start of Season 38, there have been three different occasions where the show has referenced a triple-digit chapter number in Melville’s work. (Today would be the fourth.) Having paid attention to a detail like that, and remembering that Melville tended to keep his chapter lengths short, might prove to be an important clue for either the player or the viewer.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, December 12, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Have You 8?; Auto Racing; Black Mystery & Crime Fiction; Animals; Sounds Kinda “Iff”-y; I’m Absolutely Sure)
An incorrect Daily Double and a few other incorrect responses dropped Gary into the red early, but he pulled out of that by the first break and, buoyed by running the AUTO RACING category, he was within $1000 of the lead after the opening round.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Julia 5 correct 0 incorrect
Henry 2 correct 0 incorrect
Gary 5 correct 4 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Henry wrote software to help him study.
Julia has a BF (Julia made sure to specify boyfriend, not best friend) who came to support her during her first appearance as well.
Gary wants to shout out his teachers from back in North Carolina, because Jeopardy is “a lifetime of preparation”.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Henry 6 correct 0 incorrect
Julia 9 correct 0 incorrect
Gary 12 correct 4 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Henry $4,800
Julia $4,400
Gary $3,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Yes, I’ve Eton; Seinfeld Before & After; Anatom”e”; Sticky Stuff; Mcpeople; Words Of Peace)
Julia got to the first of the round’s Daily Doubles, but an incorrect response knocked her out of contention. Gary got to the last one, and his correct response—plus some excellent gets after that—ensured he had a runaway going into Final Jeopardy!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Gary 26 correct 6 incorrect
Henry 12 correct 2 incorrect
Julia 15 correct 4 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Gary $20,800
Henry $9,600
Julia $800
Everyone got Final Jeopardy correct; Gary is now a finalist!
Tonight’s results:
Julia $800 + $800 = $1,600 (What is Moby Dick?)
Henry $9,600 + $1,234 = $10,834 (What is Moby Dick!)
Gary $20,800 + $12 = $20,812 (What is Moby Dick? Thanks, Mom) (Semi-Finalist)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) HAVE YOU 8? $600 (clue #5)
Gary 600 -600 (Julia 0 Henry 1000)
2) McPEOPLE $1600 (clue #13)
Julia 4400 -4000 (Gary 8600 Henry 5600)
3) WORDS OF PEACE $2000 (clue #16, $14800 left on board)
Gary 10200 +3000 (Julia 1600 Henry 5600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -121
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Gary 3 4 5 3*
Julia
Henry 4
DJ! Round:
Gary 4 3 5 1 2 3 3 3 5*
Julia 2 4* 3 4
Henry 4 4 3
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Gary 3.38
Henry 3.75
Julia 3.25
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 0 (0.00 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Gary $20,400 Coryat, 26 correct, 6 incorrect, 50.88% in first on buzzer (29/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Henry $9,600 Coryat, 12 correct, 2 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Julia $4,800 Coryat, 15 correct, 4 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 1/3 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $34,800
Lach Trash: $6,000 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $13,200
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 1
Player Statistics:
Gary Hollis, career statistics:
88 correct, 18 incorrect
8/9 on rebound attempts (on 21 rebound opportunities)
37.72% in first on buzzer (86/228)
6/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $11,400)
2/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,600
Julia Markham Cameron, career statistics:
98 correct, 16 incorrect
7/11 on rebound attempts (on 21 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (94/282)
1/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$4,000)
3/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,080
Henry Baer, career statistics:
85 correct, 10 incorrect
5/6 on rebound attempts (on 26 rebound opportunities)
26.32% in first on buzzer (75/285)
7/9 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,600)
3/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,800
Andy’s Thoughts:
- No complaints about clue selection, though I do think Gary can stand to be more aggressive in terms of bet sizing on Daily Doubles.
- Today’s box score: December 12, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Gary $20,800 Henry $9,600 Julia $800)
Gary: Limit your bet to $1,599 or less; but don’t worry about the math. Just bet $0. (Actual bet: $12)
Julia: Bet whatever you like. (Actual bet: $800)
Henry: Gary’s runaway is slim. It might be worth going all in, just in case he messes up the math? If second place really matters to you, bet $7,999 or less. (Actual bet: $1,234)
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Had this one almost immediately… then switched to A Tale of Two Cities. Darn.
Out of curiosity I had to look. Tale of Two Cities has 45 chapters.
Instant get for me!🙂 I’ve got the annotated version somewhere in my collection. Enderby was a real person (the ship was real also) who started a whaling company.
Moby Dick was my guess – long book that would have a captain in it. Tried reading it decades ago, gave up about 100 pages in.
I wasn’t allowed to give up; had to read it for English class. Anytime I see 100 chapters or more, I’m reminded of “Moby Dick” so, no problem getting this one.
I knkew this one almost immediately call me ishmael was one of the lines I remember from Moby Dick. Good book. Happy to see everyone getting this final
The main reason I got this was that “Boomer” and “Starbuck” are call-signs for fighter pilots on “Battlestar Galactica”, and I knew Starbuck came from Moby-Dick, so I figured that Boomer probably had, as well.
Huh. Today I learned.
Thank you!
It is peculiar that, according to Wikipedia, the title of the book, and of the opera (2010) has a hyphen, as opposed to all mentioned screen adaptations (1956 film, 2010 film, 1998 TV miniseries, 1967 animated TV series). Until today, I was under the impression that the “correct” variant is without a hyphen.
Apparently it was titled ‘Moby-Dick’ when first published in America [previously ‘The Whale’ when published in London], but the title on the cover most of the time since has not had the hyphen. Britannica uses no hyphen and neither does PBS, but the History Channel does. Weird.
It was supposedly inspired by a (supposed) real whale named Mocha Dick [no hyphen]. I’m thinking “Moby-Dick” has been the preferred usage recently to help with internet searches versus getting search results for just one or the other of the two words.
Mostly unrelated, but “Mocha Dick” was what my friends christened my coffee-colored car in high school after we learned that factoid in English class.
LOL Love it!
I didn’t love the wording of the $1,200 clue in the “Seinfeld Before & After” category. The clue reads, “This Wham! Frontman continually barges into the apartment of the actor who plays Kramer” – The answer was George Michael Lewis. I got the answer they wanted, but I was a little hung up on the fact that Kramer burst into Jerry’s apartment, not his own. So even though it was solvable, it bugged me. I’m probably a little crazy, but was I the only one that felt the clue was “wrong”?
You mean George Michael Richards?
Nice guy…ran into him at the Whole Foods in Palm Desert during Coachella about 5 years ago. Very personable, very friendly, and very tall. BTW, yes, his hair was in the “Kramer” style, with I’d say a 50% trim.
All 5 of those clues were more logically [grammatically?] warped that Jeopardy’s ‘Before & After’ categories usually are, so I didn’t think this one was much worse than the others. Since all three players got at least one correct and none were triplestumpers, I guess the clues weren’t too bad.
Michael Lewis is my favourite non fiction writer.
I nearly ran the AUTO RACING category. My wrong one was a low value clue because “slewing” immediately came to mind (since a slough is aquatic), so I didn’t keep thinking to maybe remember fishtailing. [I wondered if my response MIGHT have been acceptable, but the best I can tell the term “slew” is rarely applied to vehicles and then maybe only for skidding in one direction, not back-and-forth like fishtailing. I think maybe I always thought of that motion as “slewing” because I’d heard it about skidding one direction and Seattle Slew won the Triple Crown about the time I started driving 😉.]
I nearly ran it as well, except for the one you didn’t get. 🙂
What did you say? (Or did you mean that you could not come up with anything?)
Yeah, my FJ was a no go today. What’s new….lol. Great win Gary and look forward to seeing you in the Final starting on Friday.
Animals category! Octopuses have ARMS, NOT TENTACLES!!! C’mon Jeopardy writers, let’s get the correct terminology! Also, as I already stated, the plural is octopuses not octopi as answered by Gary. 😉
You are totally correct about the arms, but octopuses is just the preferred plural and octopodes is also technically correct, but octopi is still allowed in general speech — i.e., not scientific papers, textbooks, etc. (though more and more people like you and I know better and I, too, am surprised that Gary apparently didn’t — but I am not surprised that Jeopardy! accepted it).
Thanks for “octopodes”, a new term for me. Also not surprised Jeopardy accepted “octopi”. 🙂