Heather Ryan was a contestant on “Jeopardy!” in October.
She was seen competing on the Oct. 28 episode when she received a clue that has since been deemed as “sexist.”
After choosing “Complete the Rhyming Phrase” category for $400, the clue was “Men seldom make passes at…” The answer as “Who are girls who wear glasses,” referencing the infamous Dorothy Parker quote.
“Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings was quick to give Ryan, a woman who wears glasses, an apology.
Now, in an interview with Binghamton University’s student-run newspaper Pipe Dream, Ryan is speaking out about the awkward moment.
“It is definitely an odd choice,” Ryan said of the clue. “I think it made everybody in the audience and on stage, and Ken Jennings too, a little uncomfortable.”
“It was like, ‘Oh, that was unexpected,’” Ryan said of her initial reaction.
As for how Ryan would like to see the moment addressed by the show, she says, “Maybe we choose better rhyming phrases in 2024.”
“Unfortunately, there are still girls who are [in] middle school and they don’t want to wear their glasses and they’re losing out on their education,” she continued.
“So, I think it’s much better to be able to see than anything else.”
After apologizing, Jennings, who has been the host of the game show for just about a year, and the other contestants immediately called the clue “problematic.”
In a Reddit thread, a user revealed that the Parker quote “in some way or another, has been referenced 12 times on Jeopardy!, according to J! Archive. That includes last night, which was the first such mention since 2013.”
“Given that history and Dorothy Parker’s prominence as a literary figure, I don’t have a problem with that quote being used as clue material. What I do take issue with is Ken’s comment. If he really did think this was problematic, the proper venue to raise that objection would’ve been in the morning production meeting with the writers. If he did so and it was dismissed, he shouldn’t have renewed it on stage,” the commenter continued.
Parker was a renowned writer, who often wrote satirically about observations she made about the world around her.
Nonetheless, despite the “odd” moment during the show, Ryan told Pipe Dream that she “had a great time. Everybody there was very welcoming. It’s such a part of American culture that I definitely wanted to go on when I got the call for it.”
“It’s just a very special thing to play a small role in this big part,” she continued. “It’s been running for 40 years, and so I got to play my part in it.”