Ken Jennings takes AMA questions on Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fwpzj/iama_74time_jeopardy_champion_ken_jennings_i_will/

by jimmyjim • 15 years ago

207 32 15 years ago

jedsmith• 15 years ago

Lots of people think it's a Jeopardy reference, but actually I was thinking of that time Watson and I were cellmates in prison, and it kept raping me.

After I read that response I scrolled right back up and checked his proof that it's him. I knew Ken Jennings has a sense of humor, but I clearly underestimated him.

joelhaus• 15 years ago

The retort wasn't bad either:

How bad can a 3½-inch floppy be?

blahedo• 15 years ago

See also: "Bruce Vilanch is hiding under my desk right now. Unfortunately he's not writing jokes for me, if you know what I mean."

sudont• 15 years ago

He said further down that he likes to turn the assumption of boring mormons on it's head.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fwpzj/iama_74time_jeop...

mattgreenrocks• 15 years ago

How edgy.

burgerbrain• 15 years ago

What better way to clear up mormon stereotypes than by making prison rape jokes....

Benjo2• 15 years ago

I was a little jarred that he explicitly mentioned rape. Don't get me wrong, nothing is off-limits for a joke, provided it is funny enough, but this joke is just as funny without the last clause. Including it is just redundant, not to mention it pulls the punchline slightly. To me it reads like he's trying to be offensive.

I guess this version of the punchline could hit through a language barrier though?

syllogism2• 15 years ago

Ehhh, it depends on your expectations (or how you "mentally deliver" it, for a text joke). To me just a prison rape reference is kind of tired, so spelling it out contradicted my expectations and was much funnier.

edanm• 15 years ago

My favorite answer:

"My Sunday school teacher, when I was a Mormon teen, once memorably advised us that "There's nothing more overrated than sex, and nothing more underrated than a good bowel movement." It totally worked...I don't remember a single other sermon from when I was a kid, but I think about this guy exactly once a day, and then again once a week."

JoachimSchipper• 15 years ago

Look past the "we're turning into reddit" HN angst: the IAmA reddit really can be very interesting.

thecoffman2• 15 years ago

There's much of reddit that is still interesting and useful, and there's plenty of good discussion to be had - it just has a much worse signal to noise ratio since its exploded in popularity. If you're willing to unsubscribe from some of the bigger subreddits and take the time to "roll-your-own" so to speak, there is a lot of value to be had.

javanix3• 15 years ago

Right, there's really nothing fundamentally different about HN and reddit other than the audience. At their core they are both vote-based commenting communities - and the generally high quality of comments makes me wish more sites (like Gawker, Engadget, etc) would use the same mechanism. Yes there is a lot of herd behavior but it's leagues better than the "First post!" cruft you see everywhere else.

monochromatic• 15 years ago

Got some suggestions for good subreddits?

araneae• 15 years ago

Entertaining perhaps, but I thought the interview with the IBM guy was a lot more interesting. There's not much on here except personal information and jokes.

kmfrk• 15 years ago

Still no thanks to the quality of the comments posted, though, and that's the main problem with the site.

Jennings is fortunately able to be hilarious in all his answers, no matter how poignant the questions are.

ZachPruckowski• 15 years ago

Have you seen the level of commentary around the 'Net? I agree that Reddit's fallen down a bit, but it's way better than any other free and generalist site on the web. Heck, it's better than most soft-specialist sites. Reddit is in the same class of website as Digg, major newspapers, and YouTube - have you been to those sites and read their comments sections? Don't, if you want to keep any faith in humanity. By contrast, Reddit is almost reasonable. It's below HackerNews/Groklaw quality, and probably even below ArsTechnica quality, but it's still above average overall, especially among non-specializing and free sites.

rms• 15 years ago

I read reddit way more than HN these days. But I guess I also don't go to startup networking events in lieu of chilling on the beach in Thailand...

machrider• 15 years ago

The key to reddit is creating an account and subscribing to the right subreddits (programming, science, compsci, ...). Equally importantly, unsubscribe from the main "reddit.com" reddit, pics, wtf, etc. Suddenly reddit becomes an informative, useful site.

javanix3• 15 years ago

So apparently Ken Jennings is about 9000x more hilarious than I expected him to be. Good to know.

syllogism2• 15 years ago

He's a lot better than I expected jeopardy-win-streak-guy to be. I first saw him play on the Watson special, and was impressed that he chose his charity pretty rationally (VillageReach, top charity at www.givewell.org ).

SeanLuke• 15 years ago

I fully expected it, having read the question/answer session he did for the Washington Post two weeks ago. Utterly hillarious, especially the bit about Watson's voice.

http://live.washingtonpost.com/jeopardy-ken-jennings.html

shawnee_• 15 years ago

Q: "What is one epiphany/something that was said to you that made you realize 'I can maintain my fame and not be remembered as just the guy who once won big at Jeopardy!'?"

A: Screw that, I don't want to be famous. I keep getting asked who my publicist is. Why would I have a publicist?!? I'm just a guy on a game show. I got mine. I need a privacist.

His Tuesday Trivia messages are always entertaining, but they aren't usually this funny.

jfm3• 15 years ago

The most interesting bit is that he thinks trivia-game ability is genetic.

(Well, that and how he handles being a mormon.)

joezydeco• 15 years ago

The admission he's a Dan Bejar fan blew me away.

Ken Jennings takes AMA questions on Reddit

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