Jeopardy Reject

Ah yes, indeed I was a 3 time Jeopardy Reject myself. I attended contestant searches in New York in 1987, 1988, and 1992. My crime was to fail the written exam. This consists of 50 questions which you must answer in 13 minutes. I did not have to put the answers in question form such as "What is a node?". However the highlight for me was that the second time while they were grading the tests a certain special guest came out to meet us. It was none other than Alex Trebek himself. He was wearing an extremely cool white baseball team like jacket which had the Jeopardy logo on the back and his first name on the left side of his chest written in script. So I asked him where I could get a cool jacket like the one he was wearing. He told me "Revelation Rags" in L.A. and that it cost $70. I consider this to be one of the great moments of my life, even if the television viewing public did not get to see me make a complete ass of myself.

The term "Jeopardy Reject" is not only a literal term, but also used as an insult, primarily in intellectual circles, generally as a chiding comment on the ability of a friend or colleague to produce knowledge outside of his or her field. For example, a person who can quote the entirety of the proof that "the rational numbers are a countable set", yet cannot name 25 U.S. states if asked, may be referred to as a "Jeopardy Reject" by their friends. (Not that this ever happened to anyone or anything...;) On a different note, many people who are actually selected as contestants on the game show nonetheless prove poor participants, as the pressure of the situation saps their otherwise competent intellect.