this! is! a fun quiz!

Can You Answer the Jeopardy! Clues Matt Amodio Couldn’t?

Photo: CAROL KAELSON/Jeopardy Productions Inc.

Matt Amodio is a man smarter than you who has been politely whooping the asses of his Jeopardy! competitors since early August, with the computer-science Ph.D. student now amassing the second-longest winning streak in the show’s history. (And also over a million dollars, but who’s counting.) “I worry about becoming a bit of a villain; a Death Star of someone who just keeps winning,” he recently told us. “You accumulate reasons to not be liked, you know? I’ve been pleased that everyone has been very nice to me.” Like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer before him, however, Amodio has proven to not be totally unstoppable, with many close games and many other missed clues. In that spirit, if we gave you every single clue that he got wrong, do you think you could get (some of) them correct? Seriously. We made a quiz for this exact reason. Just keep scrolling.

The instructions are easy: We laid out the clues as given on Jeopardy!, verbatim, as well as the categories, all of which Amodio buzzed in and got incorrect. Don’t type your answer in the form of a question — it confuses our poor little quiz — but we have made it so minor misspellings will be counted as correct. (Example: Tom Petti for Tom Petty would be fine.) Good luck. We believe in you, smart reader.

SING "OUT": Ed Sheeran won 2015 Song of the Year & Best Solo Pop Performance Grammys for this ruminative tune.

WE GUARANTEE IT: "For years politicians have promised" this, Nixon said in 1969 — "I'm the first one to be able to deliver it."

EXODUS TELLS US ... "God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of," this body of water.

MED SCHOOL: Third-year students typically begin clinical these to gain experience in many specialties for a few weeks to a few months.

EYE-DEOLOGY: Dehydration of this transparent eye part can cause vision changes; swab the lower lid to stimulate tears and hydrate it.

SOMETHING BIG IS COMING!: The term juggernaut comes from a massive vehicle pulled by thousands of pilgrims to honor this avatar of Vishnu.

NONSENSE WORDS: Seen here, it is the logo for this candy treat whose name also means "nonsense."

NONSENSE WORDS: Originally it referred to the slop used as food for pigs; now it's a term for a meaningless sentiment.

JIMMY CARTER: One of the two Cabinet departments created during the Carter administration; both begin with the same letter.

BUTTE OF COURSE: Providing millions of gallons a day, Big Butte Springs is the main water supply for the Medford region in this state.

MILITARY EMBLEMS OF BELIEF: The faravahar signifies this Persian religion.

LITERARY CHARACTERS: This owner of a large estate in Derbyshire is described as "proud" at least half a dozen times.

HISTORY: Overthrown by the U.S., this Panamanian dictator was convicted in Miami of federal drug and racketeering charges in 1992.

ARABIA: This city in the Sirat Mountains commands the attention of the devout five times a day.

TOUGH 3-LETTER WORDS: This Latin word meaning "thus" begins Virginia's state motto.

OSCAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES: In 1952, he said, "It's a very long way from the heart of the Belgian Congo to the stage of the Pantages Theater."

HURRICANES: When the winds of a tropical storm reach 74 mph, it's classified as this level of hurricane.

MINNEAPOLIS NEWS CLUES: Returning to the city sidewalk in 2017 after two years of street construction, the statue of this TV character again reminded residents, "You're gonna make it after all."

'80s LADIES: At the 1988 Summer Olympics, she ran off with three gold medals and one silver.

WORLD OF JOBS: In Swedish: blomsterhandlare.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR: Knights of the Templar order wore a distinctive style of dress, a white surcoat emblazoned with this symbol.

IDIOMS MADE FANCY: All those things that enhance the buoyancy of your vessel.

TURTLE POWER: These skin features of reptiles can be used to tell sea turtles apart; the green turtle has two prefrontal ones between its eyes

THE LAST WORD SAID IN CLASSIC FILMS: Gone With the Wind.

GEOGRAPHIC AKAs: Monte Cervino is what the Italians call this mountain that they share with the Swiss.

THE LAST WORD SAID IN CLASSIC FILMS: Apocalypse Now.

CHILDREN IN THE BIBLE: St. Paul's epistle to the people of this ancient Greek city now in Turkey advises, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord."

LET "IT" BE: From Latin for "to fold together", it means involved in a crime or other wrongdoing.

SOMETHING: In 2020, a grandson of this tenth president passed away at 95 (yes, you heard that right, and no, they never met).

THE STATE'S RICHEST PERSON: Washington: Sorry, Bill Gates, it's this guy.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS: This "miserable" guy says, "I was a convict. I have spent 19 years in prison."

3 CONSECUTIVE VOWELS: He's the Old Testament prophet most quoted in the New Testament.

COMEDY AND SPORTS: These are the two of a reporter's five w's that are not on the baseball team in Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?"

FROM FILM TO TV: In two film versions of a TV sitcom, Shelley Long played this character.

AMERICAN RIVERS: This word comes before "Bow" in a Wyoming river and before "Lodge" in a Kansas river.

PLAYS: A critic called Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party" a "comedy of menace", punning on this phrase for plays about high society.

HISTORIC BUSINESSMEN: Born in the village of Waldorf, Germany, in 1763, he arrived in the U.S. in 1784.

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY: They're the five words that "makes jack a dull boy"

MED. ABBREV.: Since 2000, the vaccine given in the U.S. for this is the IPV or inactivated one.

AUDIBLE: Johnny Depp got the honor of bringing this guitar legend's memoir to life. "Mick and I knew each other just because we happened to live very close, just a few door away, with a bit of schooling thrown in."

THE CHOSEN FEW: British Airways in 1996 was the first airline in modern times to offer its first-class flyers this feature for a comfy snooze.

3-LETTER WORDS: The British use the name of this booze to mean "strange."

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: The first published announcement of the Declaration was by a Philadelphia paper that reported it in this foreign language.

LET'S TAKE IT OUTSIDE: This mountaineering-apparel company began in 1966 in San Francisco's North Beach.

EXTINCT ANIMALS: With feathers once favored in women's hats, the Carolina variety of this bird was widespread in the eastern U.S. until around 1920.

NAME THE MOVIE KING: Patrick Stewart in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights."

A POET LAUREATE: The poet laureate of this state, like Marie Howe, receives the Walt Whitman Citation; Walt was from that state.

SOUVENIR: The Museum of the American Revolution sells a toy of this instrument played by two marchers in the Spirit of '76 painting.

LESSER-KNOWN ARTISTS: Jean Metzinger has been called the third artist in this movement, and his 1912 treatise on it was one of the first.

HEY, WHAT YEAR IS IT?: Burr kills Hamilton nonmusically; Lewis and Clark set out; Friedrich Schiller tells the tale of William Tell.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE: Don't set your beer glass down on the Table of the Great Commanders made with this material, a specialty of Sèvres, France.

"A" MOVIE: It won the Oscar as the best film of 2012.

BEASTLY EPONYMS: A penguin species found in southern South America is named for this 16th-century man whose crew were the first from Europe to see them

PROTEST THIS: People in this Scandinavian country couldn't fly their flag under Prussian rule, so they bred protest pigs with colors.

BOOKS FOR KIDS: "Merlin Missions" are books in this "Magic" time-traveling series for older readers.

19th-CENTURY MUSIC: A veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, this German who built his first piano in 1836 later made a grand turn to America.

HAVE A FEW LAUGHS: This late comic, handing out compliments in "Caddyshack": "Hey, baby ... you must have been something before electricity."

WE'LL GET TOGETHER: Get C, H, and O together in the right proportions, and you've got this gasoline additive also called ethyl alcohol.

"ISH" LIST: The word assassin goes back to a Muslim sect during the Crusades whose members were thought to be ritual users of this drug.

DEEPER CUTS: The 2000 album Return of Saturn by this ska-pop band found "Magic's in the Makeup."

MATH: When the NBA's Steph Curry puts up a three-point shot, this point, the apex of a parabola, is about 16 feet above the floor

WORLD FLAGS: The use of red, yellow, and green as Pan-African colors began with the flag of this nation, the continent's oldest independent country.

FOUNDRY: Once one of the largest of its kind, the Gary Works in Indiana is still a functioning foundry of this corporation.

CROSSWORD CLUES "Q": Term for a 40-to-49-year-old
(14 letters).

7-SYLLABLE WORDS: A gross this is a misrepresentation of an event as less complex than it really is.

GAME STOP: In the NFL regular season, overtime games end after nobody scores in the period that's this many minutes long.

IT'S A GAS: Lachrymator is a more formal word for this class of irritants.

ORGANIZATIONS: In 2019, David R. Malpass became the president of this global finance organization that's affiliated with the United Nations.

"IN" THE DICTIONARY: This French loanword means "indifferent or nonchalant."

MUHAMMAD ALI: In my father's greatest boxing rivalry, he won two out of three classic bouts with this other legendary champion, whose relentless slugging style made an unforgettable contrast with my dad's speed and showmanship.

RIGHT HERE IN THE RIVER CITY: Well south of Kansas, the original falls on the Wichita River in this state are gone, so the city built a new set upstream.

MUHAMMAD ALI: In 1978, my then-36-year-old dad won the heavyweight title for an unprecedented third time with a triumphant decision over this young Olympic champion who had taken his crown just seven months earlier.

MOTORCYCLES: On a motorcycle, it's a flip-out lever on the side used to spin the engine and not an online money raiser.

"C" FLAT: The X's give an extra hint to this popular form of embroidery.

SLOW TALK: A common phrase is "slow as molasses in" this month; if it's said of you, pick up the pace!

PEACE: Some tomahawks were modified opposite the blade as one of these to represent peace at treaty signings.

INVENTORS AND INVENTIONS: Bartolomeo Cristofori's invention of this instrument was music to the world's ears around 1700.

STARTS WITH "B": Guinea is a small species of this primate.

1980s MOVIES: The Dip used to kill characters in this 1988 film consisted of acetone, benzene, and turpentine, ingredients of paint thinner.

THE GREAT DIVIDE: The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail runs from Montana to the Chihuahuan Desert in the bootheel of this state.

NEW TO THE OED: Much in the news, this verb means to withdraw financing from an institution.

AWARDS AND PRIZES: Named for a British man, this prestigious award is funded by Google and Intel and given for contributions to computer science.

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS: The cosmetics brand e.l.f. is an acronym for these three areas where its products are used.

INSPIRED CHARACTERS: Buck Mulligan, who routinely chides Stephen Dedalus in this novel, was based on James Joyce's pal Oliver St. John Gogart.

MONEY IDIOMS: This rhyming term refers to the output of a counterfeiter.

WORLD WAR II NAVAJO CODE TALKERS' DICTIONARY: These opposite military movements, toward and away from battle, were nas-sey and ji-din-nes-chanh.

WELCOME TO COMET-CON!: An unusual object known as 288P has a tail, so it's classed as a comet, but it's basically a binary this, also called a minor planet.

FOOD AND DRINK IN THE BIBLE: In the King James Version, these creatures are a plague in Exodus 10, but deemed okay to eat in Leviticus 11.

GET-TOGETHERS: Similar to a seminar, this small conference derives its name from Greek words meaning "to drink together."

SIGNATURE SONGS: A bio of John Fogerty says this CCR signature song shifts "Northern Californian experiences to a southern setting."

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: A punning song title from Talking Heads is "Sax and" these instruments.

"CITY": Liberation Tower in this city was named for the liberation of its emirate in the 1990s.

"CITY": Soon after the discovery of the Comstock Lode 15 miles to the northeast, its economy grew rapidly.

A 9-LETTER "N"OUN: The current version of the new castle gives this Swiss city its name.

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS: From Greek for "three-legged", a triskeleton is a symbol of this people who arrived in Ireland during the Iron Age.

FROM GRAY'S ANATOMY: This "is pyramidal in form, and its upper angle or root is connected directly with the forehead."

I NOMINATE YOU FOR A NOBEL PRIZE!: How sweet! In 1919, Max Planck and this other German physicist nominated each other for Nobel prizes.

THE WEEKEND: A Saturday in the park can be fun for this breed that has a scary rep but is loyal and fearless.

CHAPTER AND VERSE: In a Tennyson poem, this "Lady" is imprisoned in a castle not far from Camelot.

"ST" FOR A START: This adjective means dark and hellish, like a journey to Hades.

GERUNDS: Free-falling and the canopy ride are segments of this activity.

SPIN CYCLE: You'll also need handsticks if you're buying these to spin in your juggling act, as Senor Wences did

NAME CALLING: Around 1860 this man blazed a trail from Kansas & established a trading post in Oklahoma Territor

Answers, descending from the top (1-50): “Thinking Out Loud”; the moon; the Red Sea; rotations; the cornea; Krishna or Jagannath; poppycock; hogwash; Department of Energy or Department of Education; Oregon; Zoroastrianism; Mr. Darcy; Manuel Noriega; Mecca; sic; Humphrey Bogart; category 1; Mary Richards; Florence Griffith Joyner or Flo-Jo; florist; red cross; whatever floats your boat; scales; day; the Matterhorn; horror; Ephesus; complicit; John Tyler; Jeff Bezos; Jean Valjean; Isaiah; when and where; Carol Brady; Medicine; a comedy of manners; John Jacob Astor; all work and no play; polio; Keith Richards; a lie-flat bed; rum; German; the North Face; the Carolina parakeet; King Richard the Lion-Hearted; New York; drum; Cubism; 1804.

(51-103): Porcelain; Argo; Ferdinand Magellan; Denmark; Magic Tree House; Henry Steinway; Rodney Dangerfield; ethanol; hashish; No Doubt; the vertex; Ethiopia; U.S. Steel; quadragenarian; oversimplification; ten; tear gas; the World Bank; insouciant; Joe Frazier; Texas; Leon Spinks; a kick-starter; cross-stitch; January; a peace pipe; the piano; baboon; Who Framed Roger Rabbit; New Mexico; defund; the Turing Award; eyes, lips, face; Ulysses; funny money; advance and retreat; an asteroid; locusts; symposium; “Born on the Bayou”; violins; Kuwait City; Carson City; Neuchâtel; the Celts; the nose; Albert Einstein; Dobermann; The Lady of Shalott; Stygian; skydiving; plates; Jesse Chisholm.

Can You Answer the Jeopardy! Clues Matt Amodio Couldn’t?