If you can't beat 'em, make a joke—that's the strategy one good-humored Jeopardy! contestant used on last night's episode.
Ari Voukydis was stumped by the Final Jeopardy clue: "In 1891, this European said, 'Perhaps my factories will put an end to war sooner than your Congresses'."
His response? "Who is this handsome gentleman?" with an arrow pointing up at himself. (The actual correct response was "Who is Alfred Nobel?" Neither of the other two contestants got it right.)
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Voukydis got a big laugh from the audience and a "Good for you, Ari!" from ho st Alex Trebek—even though he didn't take the top prize. He finished in second place with $6,100 and won $2,000.
Voukydis hails from Los Angeles, and, of course, works as a comedy writer. "When I realized that I didn't have an opportunity to win after Final Jeopardy, then I went after sort of a secondary target, which was to come up with a good Final Jeopardy answer so I could kind of lose on my own terms," he told Today.com. Watch his episode below (he reveals his response at the 18-minute mark):
So while Voukydis may not be advancing to the next episode of Jeopardy!, his answer will go down in history as one of the funniest Final Jeopardy responses ever. Curious who else made light of this pressure-filled game show? Look back on past Final Jeopardy jokesters below.
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Last year, "Jeopardy Teen Tournament" competitor Leonard Cooper won the big prize—but he made headlines for the hilarious way he did it. His last Final Jeopardy clue read, "On June 6, 1944," he said, "The eyes of the world are upon you."
Cooper, who was well ahead of his opponents and had a clear path to victory, may not have known the answer, but he was confident enough to write ""Who is some guy in Normandy. But I just won $75,000!"
Trebek responded, "You did indeed! Way to go!" (The correct response, by the way, was "Who is Dwight D. Eisenhower?")
After a five-game winning streak in 2011, contestant Tom Kunzen was baffled by this Final Jeopardy clue: "Harpo Marx was among this group when it met in NYC's Rose Room for its final time, in 1943, and found there was nothing left to say." Th e correct response would have been "What is the Algonquin Round Table?" but Kunzen conveyed his cluelessness with a drawing of an angry face or "rage face." He even mimed the emotion himself.
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John Krizel was one of Kunzen's competitors, and also failed to come up with "the Algonquin Table" as the correct response. He wrote "What is I have no idea" instead.
Parade's puzzle master Ken Jennings famously competed against the IBM supercomputer Watson in 2011. Even though Jennings answered the Final Jeopardy clue correctly (� �Who is [Bram] Stoker?" in response to "William Wilkinson's 'an account of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia' inspired this authors's most famous novel."), Watson ultimately triumphed. But Jennings managed to do something Watson couldn't: Sneak a joke onto his answer screen. "I for one welcome our new computer overlords," he wrote.
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In 2007, contestant Jared Cohen couldn't come up with the right response to the Final Jeopardy clue: "The original one of these on Mass.'s Little Brewster Island was built in 1716; automation didn't come until 1998." (The correct answer is "What is a lighthouse?") So instead, he wrote out Alex Trebek's name backwards. "I heard that sends you back to another dimension," Cohen explained, making a reference to this Family Guy clip:
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