This is not something I planned on writing tonight, but here we are.

This is related to the Thursday, June 6, 2019 episode of Jeopardy!, which my DVR tells me is episode 194 of season 35.

It’s late in the first round of what would turn out to be a very close game.

I eagerly awaited each clue in this category:

Comic Book Sidekicks

(Yes, in the end, I got all five right.)

But here’s where things got interesting: Reigning champion Emma Boettcher, who so famously defeated James Holzhauer earlier in the week, trailed in the game at this point.

Another contestant, Salome Gonstad, had just chosen “Comic Book Sidekicks” for $1000.

Boettcher buzzed in first.

Here’s what happened:

Emma got the answer wrong, but Alex Trebek credited her with the correct response.

The sound quality isn’t the best as it’s just me pointing my phone at the tv screen, but she clearly said “Asterisk.” That’s not the Gaul’s name. That’s a reference mark.

The character’s name is “Asterix.” You can read my review of more than three dozen of his books in The Asterix Agenda: A Pipeline Portal. I know the character fairly well. I know how to pronounce his name. Even with a French accent, it’s not “Asterisk.”

Jeopardy! has denied contestants the past over lesser infractions. Usually, they’d come out of the next commercial break or just before the Final Jeopardy! clue is read to make the correction.

That didn’t happen here.

See? It’s not “Asterisk The Gaul.”

During the commercial break, someone should have replayed the ‘tape’ and taken $2000 off Boettcher’s score. ($1000 for the right answer, and another $1000 for getting it wrong.)

This might not have mattered in the end. Boettcher hit a Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy! round and bet just enough to take the lead, though she lost the lead on the very last question, answered Final Jeopardy! wrong, and was deposed as champion by the third contestant, Brendan Roach.

The same thing may very well have happened even if she started the Double Jeopardy! round with $2000 less.

But —

Who’s to say that Salome Gonstad didn’t know the correct answer? After all, in another clue, she knew these were the Moomins:

That proves she knows a little something about comic characters from Europe!

Gonstad was in third place going into Final Jeopardy!, but the difference in score between all three was relatively small. If she had gotten that $1000 from the Asterix clue, maybe things would have played out differently.

Bring her back!

Gonstad answered the Final Jeopardy! clue correctly, too.

I think it’s time for Jeopardy! to invite Gonstad back next season. They’ve done this before…

And Asterix the Gaul deserves the respect. =)

For More Discussion: Check out JBoard.tv’s message board, where they have a daily thread for each show. I posted a link to this article on there. I wasn’t the only person who heard the question the way I did. In the thread, people are debating what Emma said, whether it was correct, and how much French accents matter.

None of it has changed my mind, though.

The Pipeline Podcast #15

I devoted an episode of The Pipeline Comics Podcast to this topic. You can listen to it here:

Or check out the show notes for more information on how to subscribe so you don’t miss another episode!