Featured J!Buzz

The award-winning writing team behind Pop Culture Jeopardy! shares the inside scoop on how some of their favorite clues came to life in the new spinoff of America's Favorite Quiz Show hosted by Colin Jost. All episodes are now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Amy Ozols

Backstory: During the pandemic, my niece and I had a bizarre ritual of playing "Gilmore Girls" quietly in the background while working from home. On Pop Culture Jeopardy!, I got to write a category called "Pop! Go the Gilmore Girls," which meant all those hours of Lauren Graham as background noise finally paid off.  

Is there any other job where I could write a question about Rory Gilmore's great-grandmother renting her house in Hartford to the band Korn, and actually expect people to know the answer? (That's a rhetorical question. There definitely isn't.) Such a fun show to work on.

Billy Wisse

Backstory: I don’t have any illusion that CarDel and GisBun will catch on for Cara Delevingne and Gisele Bundchen, but I think the made-up squishnames helped lead the contestants to a supermodel known similarly. That one worked as the contestant actually said “Who is EmRata?” 

Honestly, it’s just fun to feel like you’re coming up with an original way to solve a problem. Plus, I misanthropically enjoy the conversations with exasperated researchers trying to fact-check a clue [that is] not entirely in English.

Buzzy Cohen

Backstory: My kids were really into the Taylor Swift song with Florence + the Machine this [past] summer. So, I felt like while I was walking around the house, all I heard was "FLORIDA!!!" 

As [the show's editorial producers] Billy [Wisse] and Michele [Loud] can attest, the [writer's] style guide can have a steep learning curve, so I liked any chance I had to buck it.

Jeopardy! would never allow three exclamation points but since I was referencing Ms. Swift, I got away with it.

Chip Dornell

Backstory: Among my favorite clues that I wrote for Pop Culture Jeopardy! was in the category "LET'S JUST GO WITH IT." I was going for Catherine O'Hara in stating that this actress came up with the idea for her "Schitt's Creek" character to pronounce "baby" as "bay-bay." 

I liked it because it was about someone who has been making me laugh for years and continues to make me laugh.

Debbie Griffin
 

Backstory: I really enjoyed writing the "Friends" category, and, in particular, this clue. 

I can just hear Ross/David Schwimmer saying it, and visualize him saying it on more than one occasion. It's classic "Friends."

John Duarte

What he loved most: It was a sparingly-seen movie, but it played well with the contestants, who all got it right.

Louis Virtel

Backstory: This is one of the few Final Jeopardy! clues to contain a pun within the category title (i.e. "running" like a train). If the series birthed an awards show by 1987, the contestants should be thinking back to buzzworthy shows of the '70s and '80s for a correct response. 

I love finding ways to modernize older pop culture in my clues, and using the Soul Train Music Awards as a way back to Soul Train seemed fair and just challenging enough.

I'm also a huge Jody Watley fan and love all her old appearances on Soul Train, so in a way, this is my tribute to her.

Marcus Brown

What he loved most: I thought [the category] HERR DOKTOR BRAUN'S THOUGHTS ON MOVIE SCIENCE played pretty well and it was fun to cosplay as German and a doctor, both of which is what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Mark Gaberman

Backstory: [This] was the first clue I wrote for the category. I love that moment of, "'Oh wow, I never thought of it THAT way!'" you get after hearing the response. 

This is the sort of category that I get nervous about before it plays because it’s a little off-center, and if the players don’t get it and it’s a bunch of stand and stares, it can look like we’re trying to be a little too cute with our writing. 

But it played great with the contestants, Colin, and the studio audience. Colin even shouted it out at the break, which was really nice for me to hear. I have a ton of respect for him as a writer as well as being our host, so that meant a lot to me. A very nice day at the office, for sure.

Michele Loud

Backstory: I preferred the original version that didn’t include the Oscar count, but it definitely sounds more pop culture this way. It might have played too easy (everyone got it quickly), but I bet most people didn’t know the origin of the company’s name and were able to figure it out. 

The story behind the clue was me wondering, “Why is that film company called A24?” and then finding such a cool fact that I thought made a great Final.

Traci Mack

Backstory: The Xhibit [clue] from CELEBRITY MEMES [is one of my favorites] because it’s so goofy.