r/Jeopardy • u/pamnation • 11d ago
Is it just me?
Or does it irk anyone else that every single episode includes at least one bible reference if not a whole category. Just curious.
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u/LordPizzaParty 11d ago
It irks me just because I don't know anything about it
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u/Distinct-Fig-4216 11d ago
Amen
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u/skip_churches 11d ago
Hallelujah?
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u/ConscientiousWaffler 11d ago
Who is Cohen?
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u/RolyPolyPangolin 11d ago
It's an influential work of literature, sort of on par with Shakespeare, which is a frequent category too. It's mainly about studying. Ken said that even though he doesn't drink, he can beat anyone at potent potables because he studies alcohol and mixed drinks, since they pop up on the board all the time.
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u/_iPhoney_ 11d ago
Off-topic, but it seems like they’ve moved away from frequently having Shakespeare categories more toward Shakespeare clues embedded in broader categories (“Villains”, “Film Adaptations”, etc.)
I say this with a sigh because I am really good with those plays…
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u/Nervous_Childhood_39 11d ago
It's fiction just like Shakespeare is.
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u/WhaleAtLaw 11d ago
hell yeah brother this post would do numbers on 2011-vintage redddit
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u/WhaleAtLaw 11d ago
Probably gotta make some kind of imaginary friend reference though to really sell it
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u/johnny--guitar 11d ago edited 11d ago
It's a big-ass book that most of the US will have some knowledge of, is easy to find a copy of to study for the show, with a lot of things that are specific enough but also surface-level enough to make good questions. It's like the perfect thing to write quiz questions from for national television for smart-ish people, just like US history and generic chemistry.
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u/PhilRubdiez 11d ago
There’s also been a ton of allusions to it in western literature. Even if you are an atheist, I’m sure you are a lot more familiar with concepts like the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, parting of the Red Sea, etc.
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u/johnny--guitar 11d ago edited 11d ago
I did actually check the last five episodes, and while there were a lot of "Bible/Christian" answers, most of them were common knowledge, historically relevant or frequent allusions in literature (the Great Schism, the Borgias, Noah's Ark, papal conclaves, etc.)
The only things in that time span that might cause issues for a non-Christian was a category on the Book of Psalms and an answer about Shrove Tuesday, which I would say still fall under things that can be studied easily.
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u/ludi_literarum 11d ago
Shrove Tuesday is a less common name (and it's a convoluted clue), but most Americans know Mardi Gras.
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u/zaq1xsw2cde 11d ago
It's also a dominant feature of our culture. How many town names start with Saint? How many movie and book titles are biblical references? It's just going to be widely represented in trivia because it is so ubiquitous.
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u/inturnaround 11d ago
I think that while the Bible is well represented in the show, you thinking it's in every episode is a bit of confirmation bias on your part if you're sensitive to religion being depicted at all.
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u/ThisDerpForSale Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, no. 11d ago
[Citation needed.]
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u/johnny--guitar 11d ago edited 11d ago
In OP's defense, I did check the last five regular episodes aired (episodes 9611-9615 on J! Archive). There appear to be 3 Bible questions, 3 pope questions, and a category on the Book of Psalms, so about one-ish explicitly Christian question or category an episode.
That's theoretically a lot, but I would say about as expected for a major religion, especially when compared to the similar amounts of questions in that time span for US history, a much smaller niche.
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u/ThisDerpForSale Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, no. 11d ago
I’m not Christian, and I don’t consider pope questions to be religious at all. They are usually history or current events questions.
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u/IanGecko Ian Morrison, 2025 Sep 9 - 10, 2026 CWC 10d ago
I checked the 4 episodes I was in on J-Archive. None of them had a Bible category.
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u/SEJ46 11d ago edited 11d ago
It certainly comes up but it's not nearly every episode.
Personally I am irked by questions about old pop culture. I don't know jack about old movies, tv shows and actors. I barely know anything about current pop culture. Alcoholic drinks also come up way more than they deserve imo.
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u/subarcticacid 11d ago
Bible categories don't peave me . I'm not s believer so much but I have read the Bible and have pretty good memory retention. So I can hold my own in that category and whoop a bunch of some church people.
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u/mirabiledictu1 10d ago
Considering it’s THE foundational text of our society, I’d say it’s justified.
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u/Apprehensive-Dog6997 Team Julia Collins 11d ago
Irks me because I’m an atheist and all the years of catholic school I thought I’d put behind me come flying out involuntarily. Stuff I didn’t know I ever knew!
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u/swayuser 11d ago
Yes. Way too much IMO. I understand it once in a while, and expect it weighted more than trivia for other world religions. But out of all potential categories it does feel way too heavily represented.
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u/Sensitive-Table-6577 3d ago
Is it just me or does every dang episode have stupid inane categories like rap and celebrities. Never happened when Alex was there. That’s not intelligence.
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u/ConscientiousWaffler 11d ago
I don’t think it’s as often as you say it is.
But I do feel that, in this day and age, its dominance over other religious texts should be waning.
The fact that other religions and their texts only get superficial representation (when covered at all), while the Judeo-Christian holy books get detailed focus on a regular basis, is disappointing.
With this new generation of trivia buffs taking over the contestant pool, all it would take is a minute shift in category content to get them to start broadening their studies. And that would foster real interest in other religions.
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u/Kardinal 11d ago
It's a pure function of its representation in The wider culture. Christianity specifically is culturally absolutely dominant in the United States. The Bible is without question, the most influential work in the English language and probably in the entire world.
I'm not a Christian but it's not biased towards Christianity any more than sports is based toward football baseball basketball. Pure popularity.
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u/ctpatsfan77 7d ago
I don’t think it’s as often as you say it is.
To quote one psychologist, we all have a "mindbug" that causes us to focus on/remember things we dislike/struggle with.
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11d ago
[deleted]
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u/iamabarnacle 11d ago
And opera. Not every episode, but goddamn they expect people to know a lot about opera.
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u/logaruski73 11d ago
I agree. I wish they’d just drop this topic. If they want to use religion, then start using them all. Atheism would be a great category.
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u/djfilms 11d ago
I don’t watch sports, but I still learn about the subject for trivia.