A final ‘Jeopardy!’ question about Pokémon completely stumped contestants

Jeopardy! is renowned for being a tense, challenging quiz competition, especially when the game winds down to its final round. For contestants on the show’s November 28th episode, the questions got particularly perplexing once the subject came to Pokémon.

“The desire in his childhood to catch every insect inspired Satoshi Tajiri to create this 1996 game,” read Canadian host Alex Trebek from the ‘Video Games’ category.

Matt Preston, who was in third-place at the time with $10,400, responded with “What is Pokémon?” While the most accurate answer from long-running JRPG series that released in 1996 would have Pokémon Red and Green, Trebek still accepted Preston’s more general response. Having put $10,399 on the line, Preston would then go on to take first place with $20,799.

However, Preston’s rival contestants weren’t so lucky. Marcus Gresham, who had been leading the game with $14,400, wagered a whopping $10,001 on Centipede, the 1980 fixed arcade shooter by Atari. While nearly two decades off the mark, Gresham at least picked a game that featured an insect in it — tangentially related to what Trebek had mentioned.

However, for reasons that only she may know, Amanda Barlau, the second-place contestant, bet a significant $6,000 of her $12,400 total on Splat! — the 1983 ZX Spectrum maze computer game that has nothing in common with Pokémon.

The game ended with Preston taking home nearly $21,000, securing his position in tonight’s show and, perhaps most importantly, smiling smugly over his win.

Maybe Gresham and Barlau need to get into Pokémon GO. 

Image credit: IMDB

Via: Polygon