‘Simpsons’ Writer Calls Out ‘Jeopardy!’ for Botching A Piece of Sideshow Bob Trivia
Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder – but not Ken Jennings, obviously. No one wants Mayim Bialik back.
With 762 total episodes, a massive cultural footprint and a seemingly endless well of behind-the-scenes stories and fun facts available to the public, The Simpsons is an absolute gold mine for trivia shows. On Jeopardy!, The Simpsons has commanded entire categories in some competitions, and the admiration has even gone both ways on some occasions – the late, great Alex Trebek appeared in the Season Nine Simpsons episode "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" playing himself, and the show’s current host and former repeat champion Ken Jennings had the same honor in Season 28’s “The Caper Chase.” Unsurprisingly, there is a shared demographic between the two TV institutions, which makes a recent spelling error in a Simpsons-themed Jeopardy! question absolutely unconscionable, or so says Bill Oakley.
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Yesterday, the prolific Simpsons writer and producer called out Jeopardy! and Jennings for misspelling the middle name of one Robert Onderdonk Terwilliger, Jr., better known by his stage name Sideshow Bob. It’s enough to make a man swear a vendetta.
To be fair to the writer behind this Jeopardy! question, both of the most prominent Simpsons wikis show misspellings of “Onderdonk” under sections for both Sideshow Bob and his extended family, so it seems entirely likely that Jeopardy! did double check the spelling of Sideshow Bob's middle name only to be misled by the masters of the canon compendiums. However, Sideshow Bob's extensive Wikipedia page shows the correct spelling, meaning that the more meticulous custodians of comedy knowledge knew to consult the show's scripts for spelling specifics.
And, at the end of the day, Jennings himself probably had little to do with the spelling error, so Oakley's CC of the Jeopardy! host feels a bit unnecessary. If anything, Oakley's beef is with the nerds who maintain the fan encyclopedias about the show, so this blunder is on the real-life Comic Book Guys who probably won't be fired from a job that doesn't pay.