Temporary Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik is off for the next couple of weeks, so in the meantime, Ken Jennings has once assumed duties. If many fans had their way, the longest winning streak record holder would be installed as the full-time permanent host, and a slightly off-color joke only cemented that fact on Monday’s new episode.
At the end of the Double Jeopardy round, the only category left on the board was “Active Bible Verses, which contestant William Chou, a research fellow from Austin, chose the $2,000 slot.
“Since no one had done this for 40 years, God told Joshua to get a knife and do this to male Israelites,” read Jennings. After Chou buzzed in and whiffed it, his fellow contestant Erica Weiner-Amanchi, a fourth-grade teacher from Philadelphia, pounced.
“What is: circumcise,” she correctly guessed, to which Jennings quipped: “That is correct. A painful $2,000 for you!”
Get it — because circumcision done with a knife is likely very painful!
But it’s exactly that sort of off-the-cuff sense of humor that endears Jennings to fans, who came out on Twitter in full force to make their case that the 48-year-old should be given the job over Bialik.
“Ken Jennings just made a circumcision joke on Jeopardy!, Make him the official host already,” tweeted Men’s Health editor Evan Romano.
Journalist Gregory Anderson couldn’t help noticing that “circumcision” was one of a few answers that seemed to have racy context or double entendres.
Meanwhile, plenty of others expressed why they prefer Jennings to Bialik.
While walking the red carpet at the Critics Choice Awards back in March, Bialik expressed her interest in being named as permanent host.
“I would love that… I like to say, I’ve lived season to season, since I was about 13 years old,” she said. “So, what I know is I’m hosting until May 6, and beyond that, hopefully, I’ll know more before May 6.”
“I mean, I think being female is its own mark, you know, my grandparents were immigrants to this country, and, you know, escaped pogroms and World War II,” she added. “So, for me, in two generations, to be in a position to be able to be a woman and a host in that iconic role is — it blows my mind.”
There’s certainly a case to be made for both hosts. But with the saga of replacing Alex Trebek coming up on two years now, they’ve got to make a decision eventually. May the best man (or woman) get the job?