Best Answer Ever? Jeopardy Contestant Goes Out In Style

Is the best answer ever the wrong answer? For Ari Voukydis, it appears to be.

According to buzzfeed.com, Voukydis, a former teacher at University of California, Berkeley, and current Buzzfeed writer, reached the final round of the television game show Jeopardy, amassing $8,800 along the way. Voukydis and his fellow contestants were given the final answer: “In 1891 this European said ‘Perhaps my factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses.'” Voukydis and the two other contestants now had 30 seconds to come up with the answer, which will be revealed later.

Voukydis realized he could use all 30 seconds and still not know the answer. He was determined not to put a question mark down, or leave the space blank, according to the Examiner. He said:

“As soon as I realized I wasn’t going to be able to win no matter what I said for Final Jeopardy, I figured I may as well use the 30 seconds of ‘Jeopardy’ think music to come up with a joke. So at least I could lose on my terms.”

You can see his answer above.

The “Handsome Gentleman’s” answer, along with the arrow pointing up to him, elicited laughs from the audience and his fellow contestants, not to mention a hands-in-the-air gesture from Voukydis. Even Alex Trebek, the normally stoic host of Jeopardy, made a flippant comment (“Good for you, Ari!”) to Voukydis, acknowledging his answer, though incorrect, was memorable.

Credit must be given to Voukydis, who was able to be clear-minded enough to come up with his amusing, off-the-cuff answer. Voukydis, who is also a comedy writer, finds himself in select company when it comes to clever, if incorrect answers.

Ken Jennings, perhaps the most well-known Jeopardy winner, competed against Watson, IBM’s Supercomputer of the future. Though Jennings lost that match, his final question to the final round answer, “William Wilkinson’s ‘an account of Wallachia and Moldavia’ inspired this author’s most famous model.” Jennings wrote “Who is Stoker,” which was the correct answer. He then added a response aimed towards his opponent, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords,” according toParade.

Tom Kunzen, a five-time winner, could not give the correct question to the answer, “Harpo Marx was among this group when it met in NYC’s Rose Room for the final time, in 1943, and found there was nothing left to say.” Though the answer was the Algonquin Round Table, Kunzen did not know the answer, and expressed his frustration with the drawing of a “rage face” which he would later mimic.