Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 7, 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 Languages) for Thursday, December 7, 2023 (Season 40, Game 64):
Since it can make someone “Japanese laugh as heartily as a Dane”, Lillian Gish saw film as an aesthetic this, the name of a language
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Robin Lozano, a technology chief of staff from Shavertown, Pennsylvania
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Yungsheng Wang, a deputy public defender originally from Lafayette, Louisiana
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Scott Shewfelt, a writer originally from Tavistock, Ontario, Canada
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Today is Quarterfinal #7 of the Hearts bracket of Fall 2023’s Champions Wildcard. This is a reminder that the first 71 episodes of this season were envisioned as replacement programming due to the WGA strike. Regarding the replacement programming, I definitely have some thoughts about the community in general, especially in the context of what Nick Cascone said at the end of his interview on Inside Jeopardy this week; in fact, I am seriously considering devoting my entire Saturday editorial this week to what Nick said.
Meanwhile, I also want to mention something about typos: Yes, I do sometimes make typos. It happens. If you see a typo, feel free to send me a quick note or even a comment in the article; I appreciate that. What I don’t like as much is, instead of having the typo pointed out, that the typo is screenshot for posterity as I’m mocked for it in other fora. We’re all human.
I should mention something about there being an actual game today, being that I’ve devoted a significant amount of time in this section to other things. Today’s game is between Scott Shewfelt, Yungsheng Wang, and Robin Lozano. Scott had Dr. Oz and Aaron Rodgers as guest hosts; Scott’s defeat saw him go viral with a “Who wanted to kick that field goal?” moment, mocking Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s play calling late in the 2021 NFC Championship Game. Yung was an alternate for the 30th Tournament of Champions, and I think that his having won three games already definitely makes him the favorite to advance out of this one. (Of course, I’m sure Robin will now go and surprise everyone after I’ve focused on Scott and Yung in most of this preview.)
Another reminder that I have started a Sunday mailbag column where I answer fan & viewer questions regarding the show. If you have a question, feel free to send it to mailbag@thejeopardyfan.com!
(Content continues below)
My friends over at Geeks Who Drink have introduced a daily trivia game—Thrice! Existing to make daily clever trivia content accessible to a wide audience, it's a daily challenge that tries to get you to the answer via three separate clues. It has a shareable score functionality to challenge your friends and new questions every day will give you a new daily social ritual. You can find it at thricegame.com.
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Correct response: What is Esperanto?
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.)
Esperanto was a language created in the late 19th century by L.L. Zamenhof, intended to serve as a universal second language to foster world peace. It was designed to be learned within a few months. Interestingly, the French people are probably why Esperanto didn’t gain more of a foothold in the 1920s; the French language had long served as an international lingua franca and, worried that it would lose that status, its delegate at the League of Nations routinely blocked any Esperanto recognition attempts.
Moving onto the subject of today’s Final Jeopardy clue, Lillian Gish wrote a piece in Encyclopedia Britannica on silent film in which she described motion pictures as “a species of aesthetic Esperanto”, especially the silent films with which she was most familiar, saying “the motion picture art of Charlie Chaplin will inevitably make a Japanese laugh as heartily as a Dane”. Combining silent film with newsreels of the early 20th century, Gish concluded “the motion picture is at once the common story-book, newspaper, and text-book of the 20th century”.
To me, this Final feels more difficult than some of the others we’ve seen in recent weeks. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, December 7, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Oklahoma!; Super Bowl Stars; Fire Place; On The “T”able; 4 Your Consideration; A Donut Shop Dictionary)
Robin got off to the best start, finding the daily double on clue #3; despite seven lead changes and two ties in that opening round, Robin led at both commercial breaks.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Robin 5 correct 1 incorrect
Scott 4 correct 1 incorrect
Yungsheng 4 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Robin was a volunteer EMT in college and had to do CPR during an Eminem concert.
Yungsheng got lots of drinks in Taiwan because of his tattoo.
Scott says he still talks with Aaron Rodgers (not really).
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Robin 12 correct 2 incorrect
Yungsheng 7 correct 1 incorrect
Scott 6 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Robin $5,000
Yungsheng $4,800
Scott $2,000
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Greek Alphabet Puzzlers; Amphibians; During Lou Gehrig’s Consecutive Game Streak; Labor Unions; It’s Raining Mensa; Star Wars Before & After)
The Daily Doubles were crucial again; Robin fell back to a tie for the lead after missing hers, while Scott converted a True Daily Double to leapfrog everyone! Scott held that lead going into Final.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Scott 13 correct 3 incorrect
Yungsheng 15 correct 4 incorrect
Robin 18 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Scott $14,400
Yungsheng $12,000
Robin $4,800
Yungsheng was the only player correct in Final, which makes him a semifinalist!
Tonight’s results:
Robin $4,800 – $4,800 = $0 (What is English?)
Yungsheng $12,000 + $11,000 = $23,000 (What is Esperanto?) (Semi-Finalist)
Scott $14,400 – $10,000 = $4,400 (What is French?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) FIRE PLACE $800 (clue #3)
Robin 1000 +1000 (Scott 0 Yungsheng 600)
2) AMPHIBIANS $1200 (clue #7)
Robin 8600 -3000 (Scott 2800 Yungsheng 5600)
3) DURING LOU GEHRIG’S CONSECUTIVE GAME STREAK $2000 (clue #16, $13600 left on board)
Scott 6400 +6400 (Yungsheng 9200 Robin 7200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 165
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Scott 3
Yungsheng 5
Robin 4*
DJ! Round:
Scott 2 3 4 5 3 5*
Yungsheng 4 4 4 3 4
Robin 2 3* 2 3 5
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Yungsheng 4.00
Scott 3.57
Robin 3.17
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:
Yungsheng $12,000 Coryat, 15 correct, 4 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Scott $10,000 Coryat, 13 correct, 3 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Robin $7,600 Coryat, 18 correct, 5 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $29,600
Lach Trash: $14,600 (on 13 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $9,800
Lead Changes: 10
Times Tied: 4
Player Statistics:
Scott Shewfelt, career statistics:
68 correct, 19 incorrect
6/8 on rebound attempts (on 21 rebound opportunities)
30.70% in first on buzzer (70/228)
5/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $23,500)
1/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,000
Yungsheng Wang, career statistics:
99 correct, 17 incorrect
6/7 on rebound attempts (on 23 rebound opportunities)
34.74% in first on buzzer (99/285)
5/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $14,899)
4/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,640
Robin Lozano, career statistics:
61 correct, 15 incorrect
6/7 on rebound attempts (on 19 rebound opportunities)
36.09% in first on buzzer (61/169)
2/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$5,000)
1/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,400
Andy’s Thoughts:
- No 1s or daggers in the clue selection—kudos to all three players for that! I wish the Final Jeopardy betting had been better, though.
- Today’s box score: December 7, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Scott $14,400 Yungsheng $12,000 Robin $4,800)
Scott: Standard cover bet over Yungsheng is $9,601. However, this is the famed Faith Love scenario. If you really think Yungsheng will bet small enough to keep Robin locked out, bet $0. (Actual bet: $10,000)
Yungsheng: I’d limit my bet here to $2,399 to keep Robin locked out. Or, if you don’t think Scott will make the cover bet in this scenario, go all in. (Actual bet: $11,000)
Robin: If Scott makes the standard cover bet, he falls to $4,799. I’d bet $0. Another option would be to bet everything if you think Yungsheng will bet to pass Scott by $1. (Actual bet: $4,800)
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I thought “What is a common language that could be shared by a Japanese and a Dane?”, and came up with Esperanto. Even though it was based on European languages, it is actually popular in Japan, and there are about two million speakers worldwide. (I am not one.)
That would be a big mental leap for me (I missed this FJ!), but obviously not for everyone🙂. And probably not for Ms. Gish, who wrote that EB piece in the heyday of Esperanto’s popularity.
I can’t believe I actually knew this one. Esperanto is mentioned in a Basia song, so that probably helped.
In regards to the podcast and how some are vocal on the tournament overkill maybe the best course of action would be having the TOC with all the side tournaments every other year. It’s going to be hard to find enough qualifiers for next years TOC with how this season played out anyways. Plus this way the TOC feels like a special event like the Olympics.
You don’t hold the Stanley Cup/Super Bowl/World Series/NBA finals every other year.
Hence why I mentioned the Olympics, also you don’t invite teams that didn’t qualify in the first place back either and give them a “second chance”. Sure baseball has a wild card but there is a good reason for that.
So, why is it good enough for baseball, then, and not Jeopardy?
Probably to give 4 teams who qualified a short break and an advantage of sorts. I suppose a tournament of 8 looks better than a tournament of 4. Why don’t they give football teams a second chance if it’s ok for jeopardy?
Regarding “second chances”:
Sports actually has a term for this.
It’s called “repechage”.
What the show is doing is not foreign in the world of sports. Moreover, the top players of the previous season have been given an advantage, they’ve essentially been placed higher on the “ladder”.
Just because it’s different from how it used to be doesn’t make it inherently wrong.
I guess long story short we just need to enjoy the game of jeopardy. It will clearly be next to impossible to please everyone in regards to tournament play. I was just trying to find a happy medium maybe everyone could be happy with 🙂
The common association of a dane and the japanese language was the reason why I came up with esperanto evne though my brother studies japanese since college. I still think this is a very popular language among all people.
Just as a friendly reminder, Scott has now played under three hosts now – Dr. Oz, Aaron Rodgers, and Ken Jennings.
That’s why Andy reminded us (if we read his “Pregame Thoughts”), since it went without saying that Ken Jennings is the current host.
Came up with Esperanto simply because of the alliteration with aesthetic. No knowledge, just a guess.
Andy; my feelings towards typos and other errord is best expressed in this line from “MY Way.” “Mistakes, I’ve made a few, but not to few to mention.”
In regards to this final Jeopardy, I think I understood what Lillian Gish was saying, but didn’t know to which language she was referring to.
Now that we’ve been through 64 episodes this season without any unrevealed clues, is it safe to say that we’re not going to see any, at least, until regular play returns? Seems like you could eliminate that part of the statistics for now. 🙂
Is is likely (or possible) that the show will continue to do whatever it is doing to eliminate unrevealed clues in the future once regular play resumes? Just a thought.
Could it just be because these are all experienced players? I think I recall Andy saying in the latter part of last season (when the count was staying below average) that he thought the show had (or might have) already made some changes for the purpose of cutting down on unrevealed clues, so especially with that AND experienced players, it doesn’t seem that surprising to me that there have been none so far.
The clues are certainly being read at a quick pace too so that helps along with the knowledge of the players
I think this is a big part of it. Also, my impression — which I don’t have time to verify — is that there have been very few video and guest-read categories this season.
With 10 lead changes and 4 ties, I thought this made for a pretty interesting/exciting game, despite Andy’s concerns about the FJ wagering. Anyone could have won it at the end so that added to the interest. I liked this episode.
With the given category and mentioning Japanese and Danes in one phrase, the clue boils down to “This is an international language”. I’m glad, though, that it was Esperanto, and not Volapük (“Language of the World”, or lit. “World Speak”).
I never would have come up with the this Final Jeopardy. 🙂 Great game and happy to see Yungsheng move on to 1 of the 3 Semifinal games.
Tomorrow we get Gary Hollis (of the 2021 Professors Tourney), along with Season 37’s Carmela Chan and Jon Spurney.
Anyone have a thought on who they think might win? I wasn’t watching when any of these players were on so I’m not sure who I’d consider the favorite. I see Carmela is a 3X winner and that Jon is a 2X winner, and Gary won his Quarterfinal match.
Hopefully it’s another tight and close game and anyone could win going to FJ.