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Type on Jeopardy!
Posted by Ehague in
8 Nov 2007 — 6:57am
8 Nov 2007 — 6:57am
If you missed the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions semi-finals last night, you also missed the category "Knowledge of Fonts" in Double Jeopardy. The answer to the $2000 clue (which no one rang in for) was Bodoni.
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8 Nov 2007 — 7:20am
What was the question?
8 Nov 2007 — 7:51am
Something like, "This font is named after an Italian printer who pioneered the style in the late-18th century." The clue was set in Bodoni, too.
8 Nov 2007 — 7:57am
Ah... so the Type ID board should have been called in. I guess Bodoni is too obscure for the masses. Do you remember any of the other questions/answers?
8 Nov 2007 — 8:43am
One was like "The name of this typeface comes from the Latin for 'Swiss'", and the clue was set in Helvetica.
Another was "Sans-serif types, sometimes called grotesques, are also known by this spooky architectural term". Another showed Wingdings and asked what the typface was. And I think the first one asked something about cursive fonts.
8 Nov 2007 — 8:46am
Theoretically all the clues from the show will appear at some point at J! Archive.
8 Nov 2007 — 9:06am
The first one was something about Latin from "flowing" to describe this handwriting font style.
I think my response to the $2000 clue was, "oh crap, Bodoni".... ;-)
Kinda fun though.
8 Nov 2007 — 10:48am
I saw that show and thought, "Fonts"? they should have said "Typefaces" instead :-)
I got them all right like the rest of us here but we didn't get a dime for our efforts :-P
ChrisL
8 Nov 2007 — 11:36am
Not a lot of money in Type IDing, as Yves will no doubt confirm.
8 Nov 2007 — 1:43pm
Glory, we do it for glory.
Money is so, so, ah, venal.... ;-)
8 Nov 2007 — 2:09pm
No, Linda, you have to phrase it as a QUESTION:-)
"What is Glory?"
ChrisL
8 Nov 2007 — 2:27pm
I thought it was interesting that they broke style and presented the Helvetica and Bodoni clues in those respective typefaces. They don't usually break style in clues. (In category headings, they will occasionally break style for special "sponsored" or "partnered" ones -- like the NYT categories).
The last clue referenced the face, of course, "This font ..."; but the Helvetica clue was not dependent upon being set in Helvetica, and yet it was. (Good thing they didn't set the entire Wingdings clue in Wingdings -- à la Carson ;-)
-- K.
8 Nov 2007 — 2:33pm
Reminds me of an old rock tune by Chuch Berry called, "My Ding-a-ling"
ChrisL
PS: Kent, can I call you on an old matter that still gives me grief?
8 Nov 2007 — 2:35pm
Kent, weren't you a grand champion of the TypeCon quiz a few years ago?
How many thousands (of fonts, that is) did you win?
9 Nov 2007 — 5:12am
A few years ago . . . ? Like seven, I think. What year was Toronto?
That was the first year of the quiz. The prize was the Monotype Classics collection on CD. How many fonts? . . . Or how many *useful* fonts? ;-) Prizes have gotten a lot more interesting since then.
-- K.
Chris, go ahead and contact me. I think I know what this is about and it gives me grief, too. I don't really have any news, but at least we can commiserate.
12 Nov 2007 — 9:52am
We should play our own jeopardy game. I bet it would be fun coming up with super obscure trivia to test each-other one.
Though thats kind of like every thread in here sometimes...
12 Nov 2007 — 9:55am
Yves had a type quiz going on his site for a while back there. Maybe something in that vein.
12 Nov 2007 — 11:52am
Thinking of the Helvetica thread, maybe a good quiz would be to choose a typeface like Helvetica and see who can make the best use of it. Or something like that.