I lost on JEOPARDY!.. baby!
Song: I Lost On Jeopardy
Running Time: 3:43
Year: 1984
Album: In 3-D, Greatest Hits 1, TV Album, Al-In-The-Box, The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic
Parody of: Jeopardy by The Greg Kihn Band
Genre: Power pop, pop rock
Guitar tuning: D standard
Lyrics: Lyrics
Video: Yes
Download/Listen: Mp3
Forum: Forum Discussion Page
Alternate Versions: I Lost on Jeopardy (2022 Version)
Trivia[]
- The song refers to Jeopardy!, a trivia game show that originally aired from 1964 to 1975 with host Art Fleming and announcer Don Pardo. A revival of Jeopardy! with Alex Trebek as host premiered only a few weeks after the "I Lost On Jeopardy" single was released, and still airs to this day. Don Pardo himself plays the announcer on the song's recording.
- Several people have cameos in the video:
- The scene where Weird Al's head spins is a reference to the 1973 film The Exorcist.
- Art Fleming and Don Pardo appear as themselves.
- Dr. Demento is one of the crew members in the control room.
- The original "Jeopardy" singer Greg Kihn is the driver of the car, Al is thrown into at the end. In an interview, Kihn claimed the woman dressed as a bride sitting next to him (whose face isn't shown) went on to be a famous rock singer, but said he wasn't allowed to say who.
- Al's parents appear as themselves.
- The answer shown under the "Potpourri" category in the video is a garbled version of the equations for a Lorentz transformation in Einstein's Theory of Relativity.
- The categories in the music video consisted of the following: "T.V. Themes", "Nuclear Physics", "World Geography", "Food", "Potpourri", and "Famous Accordion Players".
- The answer shown under the "World Geography" category in the video is: "Number of bricks in the Great Wall of China". The number is "~4 billion".
- The answer shown under the "Food" category in the video is: "Secret ingredient found in both Cheez Wiz and Crazy Glue".
- The answer shown under the Daily Double in the video is: "This German baroness could suck the chrome off of a Fender". The person is Jeanette Schmid aka Baroness Lips von Lipstrill.
- Years later, Al appeared as a contestant on Rock and Roll Jeopardy!, and lost.
- The car at the end of the video is an Alfa Romeo Spyder, with the license plate reading "LOSER".
- One of the contestants is an architect. Al has a bachelor's degree in architecture.
Music video[]
The music video was directed by Jay Levey, and produced by Robert K. Weiss. The video opens with the crew getting ready to start the show. Then, Don Pardo introduced the contestants; Millard Snopkin, Leroy Pinkelstein, and Alfred Yankovic. He finds himself pitted with a PhD. After host Art Fleming enters, the curtain reveals the game board, and its six categories: "T.V. Themes", "Nuclear Physics", "World Geography", "Food", "Potpourri", and "Famous Accordion Players". The two contestants gave the correct response, but Weird Al couldn't. Pardo tells Weird Al he did not win, such as a 20 volume set of Encyclopedia International, a case of Turtle Wax, and a year's supply of Rice-a-Roni. Pardo tells Weird Al that he disgraced to the audience and his family. Weird Al's podium breaks down, and Pardo announces that he will not come back the next day, and he's a complete loser, as the game board shows the cards reading "complete loser". Fleming raspberries and gives two thumbs down to Weird Al, who tears a piece of wood off as two stagehands come to kick him out from the studio. Weird Al says that he'll do better on The Price is Right. At the end, Weird Al lands in the backseat of an Alfa Romeo Spyder, with the license plate reading "LOSER".
Reference to Greg Kihn's "Jeopardy" video[]
- As two stagehands forcibly grab him from the studio, Weird Al tore a piece of wood off from the contestant podium. In the original "Jeopardy" video, Kihn tore a piece of wood off from the church's pews, where the monster pulled him into the center of the church.
- Weird Al lands in the backseat of an Alfa Romeo Spider driven by Greg Kihn, with the license plate reading "LOSER". In the original "Jeopardy" video, Kihn drives away with a female bride in an MG MGB convertible, with the license plate reading "LIPS".