JANUARY 12 • 2023 | 49

CELEBRITY JEOPARDY,
EXPLAINED; A JOYOUS
JEWISH MOMENT
The Celebrity
Jeopardy Tournament,
hosted by Mayim Bialik,
47, is broadcast live on
Thursdays on ABC at 8
p.m. (Also available via live
streaming or on-demand on
many channels, like Hulu).
Sadly, the tournament
website is terrible. It doesn’t
make it easy to find out, in
advance, when a particular
celebrity will appear on
the program, and it really
doesn’t explain how the
tournament is organized. As
I write this, even Wikipedia
is “confused” and has some
wrong info.

Amazingly, neither the
website nor Wikipedia say
what I finally figured out.
The 27 contestants were
divided into three groups
of nine players. Two groups
of nine have finished their
play. The winners of these
two groups, Wil Wheaton
(Star Trek: Next Generation)
and comedic actor Ike
Barinholtz, 45 (The Mindy
Project), will appear in
the final championship
game. Here’s what has hap-
pened to date with the
Jewish celebs (four out of
27) and what will happen,
overall, in the near future.

The first round (called
a “quarterfinal”) aired on
Sept. 25. Three non-Jewish
celebs played. The second
round (all new contestants)
aired on Oct. 2. Comed-
ian Iliza Shlesinger, 39,
won. The third round (new
contestants) aired on Oct.
7. Barinholtz won. The Oct.
16 episode was styled a
“semi-final” and Barinholtz
won. He beat Shlesinger
and actress Constance Wu.

The Oct. 23 and Oct.
30 episodes had “new”
non-Jewish contestants.
John Michael Higgins
(10/23) and Wil Wheaton
(10/30) won their rounds.
The Nov. 6 episode con-
testants included Big Bang
Theory actress Melissa
Rauch, 42. Actor Joel Kim
Booster won. The Nov.
13 episode was another
“semi-final.” Wil Wheaton
won.

Eighteen players had
played a first round as
of Nov. 13. Then, without
warning, the show “went
dark” and didn’t air any
more games until Jan. 5.
As I write this, I don’t know
who won the Jan. 5 game.
I do know that none of the
(new) Jan. 5 players are
Jewish. Likewise, the Jan.
12 episode features three
new players, and none are
Jewish.

The Jan. 19 game
has three new players,
including comic actor and
writer B.J. Novak (The
Office). The last semi-fi-
nal game will air on Jan. 26.
The “championship” game
will air on Feb. 2. If Novak
wins his “group,” two Jews
will be in the final game.

As you probably
know, Jon Stewart, 60,
has an interview program
on Apple+ titled The
Problem with Jon Stewart.
You may not know that

he has a podcast of the
same name. The podcast
is filmed and posted on
YouTube. The guests are
remote but appear on the
screen.

I recently came across
his Dec. 19 show. His
guests were Marisa Ressa,
a journalist who won the
Nobel Peace Prize (2021)
for her work defending free
expression; Mark Cuban,
64, the well-known billion-
aire businessman (Shark
Tank); and Julia Ioffe, 40, a
prominent journalist (New
York Times, Politico, the
Atlantic), who was born in
Russia and came to the
States when she was 7.

The panel began with
discussing Elon Musk and
his banning of some jour-
nalists from Twitter. Ioffe
said that many editors
would be secretly happy
if journalists were banned
from Twitter. Ioffe explained
that what journalists posted
on Twitter often conflicted
with their editors’ wish that
their newspaper (etc.) be
perceived as unbiased.
Ioffe colorfully remarked
that these journalist Twitter
postings gave editors
“shpilkes genechtagazonk.”

Shpilkes, of course, is a
Yiddish word that means
being highly agitated. (The
second word I will discuss
below).

When Ioffe issued
her shpilkes line, the cam-

era caught Cuban and
Stewart breaking into real-
ly loud, joyous laughter. As
he was laughing, Cuban
said, ”I thought my grand-
parents jumped on and
said something.” Stewart
had the whole panel laugh-
ing when he said that
Ioffe’s comment was
a “beautiful tribute to
Chanukah” (which was just
about to start).

Genechtagazonk? Was it
a Yiddish word I had never
heard of? I looked it up.
It is faux Yiddish. It origi-
nated in a Simpsons epi-
sode in which Krusty the
clown, a Jewish character,
said that mobsters beat on
his body parts, including
his ”genechtagazonk.” It’s
unclear what body part he
was referring to.

Bottom line: It is a made-
up, Yiddish-sounding slang
word whose exact meaning
is unclear. Several sources
say that many people have
incorporated it into their
vocabulary. They almost
always use it in a joking
way. Do watch this podcast
on YouTube. A joyful Jewish
moment like this is very
rare in mainstream news
programs.

Correction: In my last
column, I said that Justin
Chazelle (Babylon) was
nominated for a “best
score” Golden Globe. I
meant to say that Justin
Hurwitz was nominated.

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

BY GREG2600

Ike Barinholtz

MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL

Jon Stewart

YOUTUBE

Julia Ioffe