Ken Jennings takes us home to ‘regular Virginia’ in a great Jeopardy! callback

polygon.com:

It takes a particular set of skills to be a Jeopardy! writer. The beloved quiz show’s clues are full of clever wordplay and read-between-the-lines hints, and just as important are the category titles, which themselves nudge players in the direction of the correct responses. The writers love to have fun with those titles, and in Thursday’s episode, they threw in a callback to a hilarious moment from recent Jeopardy! history — drawing laughs and appreciation from the show’s fervent fan base.

In the July 28 game, the penultimate one of Jeopardy!’s 38th season, the sixth category in the Jeopardy round was “West Virginia & Regular Virginia.” That pairing didn’t actually come from the writers themselves, though — they were drawing on words uttered by players on an episode that had aired months earlier.

Alex Trebek was fond of saying that Jeopardy!’s contestants, not its host, are the stars of the show. As such, being smart enough (and fortunate enough) just to make it to that stage is the achievement of a lifetime, regardless of whether you can manage to win a game. And of course, there are other ways to become immortalized in Jeopardy! lore.

[Ed. note: The author appeared on Jeopardy! in 2021.]

Feeling Regular Virginia today, might West Virginia later. pic.twitter.com/MGhawgAc6G

Let’s take a drive back in time. In the March 2 episode of Jeopardy!, the $400 clue in the Double Jeopardy round’s “Road Trip” category mentioned a scenic Appalachian highway: “The Blue Ridge Parkway connects the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with this state’s Shenandoah National Park.” Third-podium player Ujal Thakor buzzed in first with Tennessee — incorrect. Next up was Christie Baugher, who went with West Virginia. That was unfortunate for