Jeopardy Contestants Inexplicably Go 0-For-5 On 'In The Sport' Category Because They Are Nerds

Jeopardy is the pinnacle of modern nerdism. There, useless information on topics like 17th-century French painters and Arabian peninsula geography finally becomes useful. However, one of the show's latest crops of eggheads went 0-for-5 in a category about, of all things, sports.

Jeopardy host Mayim Bialik (you know she has a Ph. D in neuroscience? I think you have to add that any time her name comes up; it's some kind of weird rule) tried to guide three contestants through a gauntlet of questions about *gulp* sportsball.

It was called "In The Sport," and it was this simple: they gave a list of terms, and the contestant had to answer which sport it was in the typical Jeopardy format.

Easy enough?

It sure wasn't easy for these poindexters.

I'll give them a break on the first question. They went with the hardest one first — a classic strategy — plus who the hell outside of the Royal Family and Thurston Howell III knows anything about polo? If I were one of the judges I would've given points to the fella who said "horse racing." At least that nerd was in the ballpark (despite not knowing the meaning or origin of that idiomatic phrase).

Not a great look, but not egregious. However, things went south in a hurry.

The second sport was clearly hockey. I mean, maybe you don't know exactly what plus-minus is, but every other word should've been a giveaway. Instead, it drew a deafening silence. Quizzical expressions lined the faces of all three contestants.

Next was a selection of boxing terms including "8-count" and "cutman," though by the way things are going, no one would've gotten that one even if one of the terms had been "boxing glove."

It Got Better, By Which I Mean Worse For The Jeopardy Contestants

The $400 question was a gimme, which is coincidentally another term that would have flown by these nerds. "Best ball" should've at least helped narrow the list down to like 2 dozen sports. "Casual water" and "shank" should've made it click.

The contestant in the middle — Caleb — was determined not to get hosed by some kind of polo for a second time on national TV, and guessed water polo.

He was incorrect. It was golf... but you knew that.

Caleb decided to put himself and his fellow contestants out of their misery and cleared the dreaded sports category off the board.

"Inherited Runners." "Appeal Play." "Pickoff."

If you heard your neighbor screaming the word "baseball" at their TV between 7 and 7:30 last night, they were probably watching Jeopardy.

If you're checking out this website, you probably enjoy sports. While some people don't, it has always blown my mind how some people haven't picked up some sports information just by virtue of being alive. Informational osmosis.

I'm not into things like home renovation, veterinary science, or playing the oboe, but I could probably muster up one fact about each of those things. That's why I can't believe that a group of 3 people all whiffed on 5 questions about something as common as sports.

Although, our buddy Caleb did get one thing right: the Internet really is loving their bumbling performance.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.