‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Loses $3,200 After Mispronouncing Coolio’s Hit Song Title ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’

When giving answers on the game show Jeopardy!, contestants need to be very careful and specific!  Not only do answers need to be given in the form of a question but, as it turns out, pronunciation needs to be spot on.  One contestant on Monday night’s episode found this out the hard way.

On the New Year’s Day episode, the clue in question read as follows:  “A Song by Coolio from ‘Dangerous Minds’ goes back in time to become a 1667 John Milton Classic.”

The clue was referring to a book called Paradise Lost as well as Coolio’s hit song Gangsta’s Paradise.  The contestant, Nick, answered by clearly saying, “what is Gangster’s Paradise Lost?”  Host Alex Trebek initially awarded him the money as he said what seemed to be the correct answer.

Moments later, however, Trebek interjected with some bad news for the contestant.  It seemed that the Jeopardy! judges gave a second thought to his previous answer.  Trebek said, “Our judges have re-evaluated one of your responses a few minutes ago, Nick.  You said ‘gangster’s’ instead of ‘gangsta’s’ on that song by Coolio, so we take $3,200 away from you. You are now in second place.”

Now, while it might seem that the ruling was made based on a technicality, as it turns out, the words ‘gangster’ and ‘gangsta’ appear separately in the dictionary!  Jeopardy! released an official statement which said:

“Although Nick’s response of “Gangster’s Paradise Lost” was initially accepted, the hard R sound caught the ear of one member of the onstage team, who immediately followed up with a quick check.  It turns out that “gangsta” and “gangster” are both listed separately in the Oxford English Dictionary, each with its own unique definition.”

A video posted to Twitter by The Daily Show‘s Roy Wood Jr. shows how the whole event went down during the game show.  Poor Nick!

Let Nick’s mistake be a lesson to us all. In 2018, you gotta keep it gangsta at all times. Never Gangster #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/NMO7QsAfyI

— Roy Wood Jr- Ex Jedi (@roywoodjr) January 2, 2018

Today we learned that there’s a huge difference between a “gangster” and a “gangsta.”
J!Buzz: https://t.co/VLdEDXNMNU pic.twitter.com/vIICbqbj0k

— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) January 2, 2018

What do you think about the judges ruling on Jeopardy!?  Do you think the contestant should have been awarded the points for his answer?  Let us know what you think in the comment section below!

 

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Source: Entertainment Weekly