TRUTH IN JEOPARDY

"Jeopardy," the TV show, is a pop culture American phenomenon, and as such reflects the concept of presenting fiction as truth. During the break from answering questions, in what is meant, I suppose, as a way of getting to know the contestants, each contestant relates a biographical anecdote or adventure. How many of these little snippets are actual events. do you think. Lately, even Mr. Trebeck seems to doubt the truth, even though he's probably responsible for that segment being included. Some of the stories are obviously embellished, some seem totally contrived, and a few I recognize as lifted from late night talk show interviews with celebrities, some of whom no doubt have writers to help them with their appearance interviews. So much of it is at least loosely scripted. One Jeopardy contestant repeated a celebrity's story about running in a marathon almost word for word. I guess everybody's doing it, but I wonder why. Sometimes everyone on Jeopardy seems to be embarrassed to have to do the bit.