CULTURE
KING OF THE KNOW-IT-ALLS I ONCE REGARDED MY ODDBALL COMMAND OF FACTS A USELESS, SUPERFLUOUS SKILL. THEN WE ALL MET KEN JENNINGS. BY MICHA EL J. MO O N EY ILLU ST RAT IO N S BY MICHA EL MA B RY
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earned him millions of dollars and a career as the game show guy. e was first introduced to the world as “a software engineer from As I type this, he’s the guest host of “Jeopardy!,” the first person to stand Salt Lake City.” He wore a modest navy jacket, a wide maroon at that lectern since the longtime beloved host, Alex Trebek, died in Nonecktie, and a nervous, unassuming smile. His first name appeared in his vember, after a public battle with cancer. Sony, which owns “Jeopardy!” is own all-caps handwriting at the front of his podium: KEN. When that epiexpected to name the new permanent host sometime this year. In a field sode of “Jeopardy!” first aired, on June 2, 2004, nobody could have known that includes former news anchor Katie Couric and actor LeVar Burton, the ride Ken Jennings was about to take America on — or the joy he would Jennings is the odds-on favorite. provide factoid lovers. Whether or not he’s the new face of “Jeopardy!,” though, Jennings is Jennings won that day. He had a slight lead entering the Final Jeopardy already an icon for a certain percentage of the population. Because he’s round, and he knew the name of the first female track and field athlete to not just the greatest game show contestant of all time. Ken Jennings is an win medals in five different events at a single Olympics (Marion Jones), uncommon inspiration for factoid lovers everywhere. so he ended that first episode with $37,201 in winnings. Jennings won the next day, too — knowing things like who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987 (Rita Dove) and the name of the New Mexico governor who offered to pardon Billy the JENNINGS HAS Kid (Lew Wallace) — bringing his total winnings rowing up in the ’80s and ’90s, I watched “JeopBECOME MORE THAN to $59,201. He also won the day after that. And the ardy!” just about every day. I inherited my affinity for A QUIZMASTER. HE day after that. And the day after that. game shows from my mom. She’d say she likes the brain HAS BECOME THE It went on for weeks. Then months. Every weekpuzzles because they keep her mind sharp, but the RAREST KIND OF CELEBRITY: RICH day, for half an hour, millions of people across the truth is in our home, intelligence was the highest virAND FAMOUS country tuned in to watch this mild-mannered tue. Not necessarily the solving-global-problems type FOR JUST, LIKE, 30-year-old married father from Utah absolutely of intelligence. We didn’t spend a ton of time discussing KNOWING STUFF. obliterate his fellow contestants on America’s most canonical literature or classical music or modern polithallowed game show. Jennings seemed to have a ical theory. No, our family specializes in useless, obbottomless pit of knowledge, and could recall it all scure factoids. I may not have been able to spell the instantaneously. He also had a gently sarcastic air word restaurant until sometime in high school, but as about him, a wry grin that hinted he knew somefar back as I can remember, I savored the chance to thing he couldn’t wait to say. He’d answer questions prove that I knew things like the name of the larg— or, more accurately, because on “Jeopardy!” contestants must answer est glacier in the world (the Lambert-Fischer Glacier in Antarctica) in the form of a question, Jennings questioned the answers — with such or the year the Titanic sunk (1912) or the speed of sound (some 767 speed and ease that it felt like watching performance art. miles per hour). “What is Halifax?” “Who is Humpty Dumpty?” “What are the Arabian As you might guess, this did not make me the most popular kid in school. Nights?” It didn’t take long to understand that most of society doesn’t care much for During his streak, and in the years since, ’Jennings has become more the know-it-all type. If you want to make friends and attract a love interest, than a quizmaster. Through his books, his Twitter presence, and his apobnoxiously reciting trivial knowledge is not the way to do it. But, in the pearances on subsequent “Jeopardy!” tournaments (and a few other game privacy of a living room, a game show provides the perfect safe space for shows), Jennings has become the rarest kind of celebrity: rich and famous just this type of know-it-all-ism. for just, like, knowing stuff. Not stuff about successful investment strat On sick days or school holidays, I basically marked the time by the egies. Not stuff about how to cure a crippling disease or engineer a safer game show on TV. No matter how bad I felt, I knew I had “The Price Is vehicle. Just random stuff. His capacity to remember and recall factoids has Right” to look forward to. Then “Hollywood Squares,” “Family Feud,”
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