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A seemingly simple Final Jeopardy question stumped all three contestants in 1984

It was only Alex Trebek's second day on the job when all three contestants gave the same wrong answer and all ended up with $0 .

Representative photo by Rosemaryetoufee

"Jeopardy!" is one of the most popular trivia shows in the world.

The popular game show "Jeopardy!" originated in 1964, and for six decades it has stumped contestants and viewers with tough trivia questions and answers (or answers and questions, to be more accurate). Competing on "Jeopardy!" is practically synonymous with being a smartypants, and champions win lifelong bragging rights along with whatever monetary winnings they end up taking home.

To win "Jeopardy!," you place a wager in the Final Jeopardy round with whatever money you've collected through the first two rounds. All three contestants write down their wagers based solely on the category given, then they have 30 seconds to write down the question for the same answer after it's revealed. Very rarely do all three contestants get the Final Jeopardy wrong.

But in 1984, on Alex Trebek's second day hosting the show, a deceptively simple Final Jeopardy answer answer resulted in all three contestants making the same wrong guess and ending the round with $0 each.

The category was "The Calendar," and after the contestants placed their bets, the answer was revealed: "Calendar date with which the 20th century began."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The 20th century was the 1900s, as most of us are aware, and all three contestants wrote down identical responses: "What is January 1, 1900?" But they were all incorrect. And unfortunately, all three had wagered their entire amount, leaving them with nothing across the board.

"Oh, I don't believe it!" exclaimed one of the contestants as they all laughed at the absurdity. "I'm at a loss for words," said Trebek.

A member of the audience asked what the correct answer–or question— was, and Trebek shared that the correct response would have been "What is January 1, 1901?"

If that seems confusing, it's probably because we all made a huge deal about the year 2000, marking it as the end of the 21st century as well as the turn of the millennium. But basically, we were wrong. Some people did point it out at the time, but the excitement and momentum of celebrating Y2K had us all in a frenzy and no one was going to wait until January 1, 2001 to celebrate the new millennium.

Why should we have? It all comes down to the fact that in the Gregorian calendar the first year wasn't 0 A.D., it was 1 A.D. The first century spanned from 1 to 100 A.D., the second century from 101 to 200 A.D. and so on, leading up to the 20th century officially being from 1901 to 2000. So January 1, 1901 is actually the date that the 20th century began, despite how unituitive it feels.

To be fair, you'd think a "Jeopardy!" contestant might recognize that the question seemed awfully simple for a Final Jeopardy round, but only having 30 seconds to think under pressure is tough. And it's not like these people lived in the internet era where random trivia questions like this regularly go viral, making us more aware of them. And this episode aired over a decade before the "Seinfeld" episode where Jerry explains the "no year zero" thing to Newman, who had planned a millennium party.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

As one person pointed out, the calendar answer is technically correct, but it's not the way the average person thinks of centuries, just as a tomato is technically fruit but the average person thinks of it (and uses it) as a vegetable. Even though there were some sticklers about the year 2000, most of us just went along with seeing it as the turn of the millennium because it felt like that's how it should be. It's kind of wild how most of us can think of something incorrectly but we just sort of collectively accept our wrongness about it.

The 1984 episode has been making the viral rounds, prompting people to share how much they miss Alex Trebek. The beloved, long-time "Jeopardy!" host died in 2020 at age 80 after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He worked up until the point where he couldn't anymore, even while undergoing chemotherapy. His final episode included a touching tribute honoring his 37 seasons with the game show, the end of an illustrious and iconic era.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This article originally appeared last year.

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Adam Trent played a trivia game with the delivery guy that changed his life in an instant

It was shared more than 600,000 times.

If you're like me and you'd never heard of Adam Trent before seeing this story, you may want to pencil in some time to check out his other videos after this. What makes this video different is that Trent's kind but simple gesture had the unintended consequence of literally changing one man's life for the better.

And it all started with a simple game of trivia and a few envelopes.

As the delivery man is preparing to leave, Trent opens his front door and asks if the man will stick around to play a game, telling him he can keep the contents of various envelopes taped to the wall … if he answers the question on each envelope correctly.


Understandably a little suspicious, the delivery man agrees to the premise. And it turns out he's pretty good at trivia! Some of the questions are deceptively simple, such as "how many points is a touchdown in football?"

And then there are other more challenging ones, like name the capital of Florida. It's a question that if you know it, it's incredibly obvious. And if you don't, well you might feel a bit silly for not memorizing your state capitals. But the delivery guy nails every question, impressing Trent. Until he doesn't.

It's the final question -- another of those "incredibly easy if you know it and impossible if you don't" ones that is entirely out of this guy's demographic: Name two members of the former boy band N'Sync.

Trent lets the doorman off the hook and gives him all the envelopes. It turns out that each one contains different denominations of cash: $20, $5 and $1. At the end, turning emotional, the delivery guy reveals that the small amount of cash made the difference in him being able to pay rent.

Obviously moved, Trent gives him the final N'Sync envelope, which contains the largest cash amount: $100. Speechless, the doorman turns away, kneels and the video cuts out.



It was an incredibly classy move by Trent. Yes, we're all entertained by the fun trivia and it's hard to not be hit by the feels at the end. Of course, we've seen enough seemingly heartwarming stories to realize there are often system problems on full display. In this case, why does a man hustling at his job have to win a random trivia game to pay his rent? It's a little dystopian if you stop to think about it. And that's why we'll give Trent more credit for not making the video about himself. There's no cheesy moment where Trent flips the camera around, no soapbox moment of lecturing us all about economics and no attempt to push out his social media channels, or whatever it is that so-called influencers are up to these days.

It's simply a human to human moment. Honestly, seeing these two men interact is itself special during the middle of a pandemic and a hugely divisive election season. The fact that it ends in a sweet moment that brings real, if temporary, change to one person's life just makes it all the better.


This article originally appeared on 9.3.20

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A Twitter user asked people to share the most random facts they know. The answers didn't disappoint.

Why do people even know this stuff?

via PixaBay / Twitter

People started a viral thread about the most random facts they know

Certain people have an innate ability to remember random facts. They are great at trivia but can also be insufferable know-it-alls.

So why are some people better at recalling random facts than others? Researchers in Europe believe that it's because their brains are more efficiently wired than other people's.

"We assume that more efficient networking of the brain contributes to better integration of pieces of information and thus leads to better results in a general knowledge test," biopsychologist Erhan Genc, from Ruhr University Bochum, said according to Science Alert.


Brittany Packnett Cunningham, an MSNBC contributor, activist, and co-host of Crooked Media's "Pod Save The People," wanted to harvest the mind hive on Twitter and find the most random fact that anyone knows.

"I mean RANDOM random," she wrote.

The answers ranged from the utterly pointless to the truly amazing. There was also a generous helping of utterly disgusting answers thrown in the mix.

Almost every answer deserved the follow-up question: "Why in the world do you know that?"

Here are some of the most random responses to Brittany Packnett Cunningham's question: "What's the most random fact you know?"

Most were utterly useless, but somehow still fascinating.

Muhammad is statistically the most common first name on the planet while Wang is the most common last name on the planet. But I still haven’t met anyone named Muhammad Wang.

The only word in the English language with all vowels+Y in alpha order is “facetiously”

Queen Elizabeth is one of the only people in the world who doesn’t need a passport to travel. Everyone else in the royal family does.

NYE goes hard

In DNA, mushrooms are more similar to animals than they are to plants.

Some were pretty darn cool.

London Tube platforms have different tilings because when the Tube was originally built, a lot of people who used it were illiterate, and the different tilings helped them know what station they were at.pic.twitter.com/Yw8e04zCJA

Some were thought-provoking.

You've never seen your own face. You've seen a reflection, and you've seen pictures, but you've never actually seen your own face!

When you look at a flower, some of the photons that entered your eye just ended a 100,000-year journey from the center of the sun. Nobody else sees them. Just you. 10% of THOSE will give up their energy to cause a chemical reaction that—literally—makes them a part of you.https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/1221992423905202176 …

Elephants are the only animals other than humans who have something like funerals. They cover the dead elephant gently with leaves and branches, then stand around in a circle for hours making sad noises.

There was a day when your parents put you down and never picked you up again.

Others were disturbing.

Humans have a coccyx (aka a tailbone) which is the remnant of, you guessed it, a vestigial tail. One of our several vestigial features.

The act of touching glasses to cheers comes from medieval suspicions of poisoning each other, so youd slam mugs together to spill each others drinks into your own to show trust you werent trying to kill them. Europeans man...

Male dolphins can ejaculate as far as 10' and with such force it can kill a human if that human was foolish enough to attempt zoophilic relations with dolphin.

Artificial raspberry and strawberry flavoring comes from the anal glands of a beaver.

And some could be helpful down the road. You just never know.

If you are attacked by a gator and your arm is in its jaws, push, don't pull. If you can push the flap open at the back of its throat, water rushes in and it starts to drown and will open jaws, hopefully releasing you.

The Phenomena: "The Doorway Effect" When you forget the reason you enter a different room. To retrieve the reason, walk backwards w/o turning around. It can trigger the memory.


This article originally appeared on 02.06.20

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People are sharing the most random facts they know. Here are 15 of the most intriguing.

An 18" pizza is more than double the size of a 12" pizza.

via Sydney Troxell/Pexels, Maddie Franz/Pexels, Murray Becker/Wikimedia Commons

The Hindenburg disaster, a slice of pizza and a squirrel.

How is it that some people seem to know a lot of random facts and are great at trivia, while others can’t get a question right while watching “Jeopardy!”? A big reason is curiosity. People interested in many different subjects have a more significant knowledge base than those who do not.

Further, when people are genuinely interested in a subject, they retain knowledge much better than if they heard the information in passing. So, while two students may learn the same thing in class, the genuinely interested one will remember the information, while the other will quickly forget it.

Studies show that curiosity is one of the most significant predictors of having a high IQ.

A Redditor named TechSavvy_Ryan asked the curious folks on the platform to share the facts that “most people don’t know.” The post went viral, inspiring over 8,000 responses in just two days. So, we cobbled together a list of the 15 most intriguing facts so you can wow people at your next trivia night or cocktail party.

Here are 15 facts that “most people don’t know."

1. Hindenburg survivors

"Most the people involved in the Hindenburg disaster lived." — CaligulaMonkey

"It was said 62 of the 97 people survived. You can see them running away in the nick of time as they touched the ground." — Rook2Pawn

2. Freaky fish

"Irukandji jellyfish grow only to about 1 cubic cm in size, but have an incredibly painful sting. One symptom of the sting is a strong impending sense of doom. Victims have begged their doctor to be killed as they were certain they would die anyways." — NikkiRex

3. Dangerous laughter

"You can collapse your lungs from laughing." — ContentTask2032

"So you can technically die from laughing?" -PaptaLopikju-

4. Dark side of cruises

"The amount of murder, rape and suicide that happens on cruise ships. Most of them unresolved, too." — PeacefulKillah

"Most newer cruise ships also operate an onboard morgue, as they are now considered cheaper options to retirement homes. Last time I was on a cruise, a crew member let slip that there were 2 deaths from natural causes." — Kegman83

5. Happy birthday

"A company called Warner Chappell Music collected licensing fees for use of the song 'Happy Birthday to You' all the way until 2015. That’s why characters in movies often sing other songs like 'For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”'and restaurant chains often have their own birthday songs they sing to customers." — ItsMeCourtney

6. Burial facts

"A burial plot is called a graveyard if it's part of a church lot. It's called a cemetery if separate." — Missusmidas

"The backyard is only a graveyard if they can find the body." — Diels_Alder

7. Spanish Africa

"The only Spanish-speaking country in Africa is Equatorial Guinea. Its capital, Malabo, is on an island slightly northwest of the country’s mainland." — Dre_Lake

8. A case of bad nerves

"If your nerve is broken in the wrong way, the nerve will send a pain signal to the brain and it won't stop." — RhiannonCrystalLady

9. Pizza truth

"An 18-inch pizza is more than two 12-inch pizzas. To do the math, the surface area of a circle is pi x r squared. Pi is the constant. 18 in pizza has a 9 in radius, or r. 12 inch has 6. 9 squared is 81, 6 squared is 36. 36 x 2 is 72. 81 is greater than 72." — Who_Else_But_Macho

"Not only that but if you assume that each pizza has a 1" wide crust all the way around, the 18-inch pizza is 79% toppings and 21% crust, while the two 12-inch pizzas are only 70% toppings and 30% crust. So not only do you get MORE pizza, you get a more efficient pizza with a greater toppings-to-crust ratio." — Tajwriggly

10. Declare your pacemaker

"When a body is to be cremated, the funeral director will first ensure that any rubber sole shoes, watches, phones, glasses, and sealed glass/metal containers are removed. Any sealed container becomes a pressure vessel when exposed to temperatures exceeding 1000°c. These will explode and do significant damage to the crematorium. This is the same reason why any electrical devices or items with batteries are removed, including most watches, and also pacemakers. When an undertaker asks whether your loved on had any medical implants or pacemakers, this is the reason why.
Glasses often tend to leave a silica residue on the bottom of the cremator which is just awkward to clean up and can build over time. Rubber soles are just incredibly polluting and are often not caught by the many filtration systems. This usually results in a black plume of smoke coming from the chimneys. Also, all metal residues and materials which are collected after the cremation is completed are gathered up and can either be returned to the family (upon request) or else treated and recycled, with proceeds from the recycling going towards a worthy charity." — Flaky_Tumbleweed

11. Scuba or S.C.U.B.A.?

"Scuba is an acronym, standing for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus." — JackCooper_7274

12. Squirrel speed

"Squirrels run faster up trees than on flat surfaces." — sstebbinss

13. Battleships

"Battleships in museums/ on display that are WW2 and later cannot start their engines because they have preservative grease inside in case the Navy has to bring the ship back into service." — Stravata

14. Sharkgevity

"Sharks predate trees." — External_Crazy_6568

"Well duh, they're predators." — Flowcahrt83

15. Code-shifting cells

"Your immune system has at least 1 cell to combat every single infection that could ever exist. Your T-cells are cells that, when created, go through a sort of training phase in the thymus where they are allowed to change their genetic code at random, in order to be able to battle 1 random very specific disease. During this, the body also kills any T-cells that are accidentally adapted to kill human cells. Then the T-cells are sent to lymph nodes, to be found later by presenting an antigen (a part of a pathogen) to it. Basically, you have something for everything in your body, the problem is just finding it, as it takes a good few days for your body to locate the specific one." — Chipperland4471


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