Celebrity Jeopardy! is a series of sketches that aired regularly on the television comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live between 1996 and 2002, the years when Will Ferrell was a cast member. It parodies the same-named special event on the television quiz show Jeopardy! that features competition between notable individuals with all winnings going towards charitable organizations, and significant reductions to the game's level of difficulty. Fifteen sketches aired between December 1996 and February 2015: two sketches per season from 1996 to 2002, and one each in 2005 and 2009, when Ferrell returned to the show as host. The sketch was revived for the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special on February 15, 2015.

Ferrell portrayed Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek. Darrell Hammond also appeared in each sketch, usually portraying Sean Connery, Trebek's "arch-nemesis" who makes crass insults implying a sexual relationship between Connery and Trebek's mother.Phil Pirrello, Scott Collura (February 28, 2008). Top 15 Will Ferrell Characters . IGN. Norm Macdonald appeared as Burt Reynolds in six sketches. Jimmy Fallon also appeared six times, portraying a different character in each appearance.

On several occasions, Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches have been referenced during actual episodes of Jeopardy!.

Sketch The participants in each sketch consist of Ferrell, Hammond, the host for the episode, and a third cast member; after Norm Macdonald left the series, the third celebrity would be most frequently played by Jimmy Fallon. The sketch uses a mock-up of the first set designed for the real Jeopardy! by production designer Naomi Slodki (the "sushi bar" set), introduced one month before the first sketch; this set remains in use for all fifteen sketches, including the three return appearances of the sketch after Ferrell's departure, which were produced after the set's basis was retired.

The sketch often begins at the start of the Double Jeopardy! round. Trebek welcomes the audience and, occasionally, apologizes for an offense or incident that occurred before the break. He then introduces the celebrity contestants and reveals their scores, which are either $0, a negative score, or a very low positive score. Many times, the contestants refuse or fail to select an appropriate category and dollar value from the game board, grinding the game to a halt and often requiring Trebek to choose them himself. As the celebrities' growing ineptitude and lack of interest became apparent, the subject matter used for categories shifted from normal topics (such as "Movies" and "Popular Music") to more childish topics, categories with titles giving not-so-subtle hints as to the correct response without reading the clues (such as "Colors that end in 'urple'", "Countries between Mexico and Canada", and "Famous Kareem Abdul-Jabbars"), and those requiring no responses whatsoever (such as "Automatic Points" or "Tie Your Shoe"). Recurring Jeopardy! category "Potent Potables" appears in every sketch but is never selected, and when it finally is chosen, it results in an inadvertently offensive pre-recorded Video Daily Double involving Bill Cosby (played by Kenan Thompson).

Instead of buzzing in with the correct questions, contestants either give wildly incorrect responses or say things that have nothing to do with the game, frustrating Trebek, who does nothing to hide his contempt for the celebrities' performance. Trebek's mood is also exacerbated by Connery's pranks and antics, which include making sexual jokes at Trebek's expense, deliberately misreading or vandalizing the categories on the board to turn them into sexually suggestive phrases (such as "Let It Snow" as "Le Tits, Now" or "Catch These Men" as "Catch the Semen"; or in terms of vandalizing, "I Have a Chardonnay" as "I Have a hardon"), and implying that he has had sexual relations with Trebek's mother.

Trebek eventually grows exasperated with his inability to conduct the show and cuts it short by moving to Final Jeopardy!. He either discards the scripted category in favor of a much easier task (such as having the celebrities write and respond to their own questions), or announces a childishly simple category. Even though it appears impossible for the celebrities to fail, they invariably do. Connery occasionally provides a correct response, yet uses his wager to transform the text into a rude phrase or drawing (such as the letter V which is the Roman numeral for 5, until the V was revealed as part of the whole wager which reads "SucK it Trebek"). Sometimes Connery appears to have sympathy for Trebek until the wager reveal, which happens to be a rude drawing at Trebek's expense.

Trebek is the beleaguered straight man and is generally the only person on stage interested in the game. The contestants, who are either unaware of what the game is or uninterested in playing, will ramble incoherently, deliver irrelevant monologues, or openly antagonize the host. Whenever a contestant takes the game seriously, they prove utterly incapable of supplying the correct question. No contestant ever offers a correct response; however, two come close: Phil Donahue and Tony Bennett, who in their respective sketches, offer descriptions for the holiday of Christmas and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. When Reynolds, who had initially been the celebrity who appeared in each sketch, makes his return appearances, he misreads categories in the same manner as Connery and insists that he be addressed as "Turd Ferguson" because he finds that name funny.

At the end of almost every sketch, all three celebrities have scores in the negative thousands of dollars, and in most cases, a humorous, often sexual, Final Jeopardy! punchline is delivered by Connery. In one of his sketches, Reynolds is declared an unquestioned winner, even though he wins simply because he has the least amount of negative money, rather than actually earning a victory.On the second Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch, from the SNL episode aired on May 10, 1997, Trebek declared Burt Reynolds the winner and announced that a $10,000 check would be awarded to Reynolds' charity, the Palm Beach Golf & Tennis Resort. Please see this transcript When Trebek ends the show, he either states that money will be withheld or taken away from the contestants' charities due to their negative scores, or announces his intention to resign or kill himself.

Episodes # Original airdate Episode Celebrities impersonatedNotes 1 December 7, 1996 S22:E08 Jerry Lewis Burt Reynolds Sean Connery 2 May 10, 1997 S22:E19 Phil Donahue Marlon Brando 3 October 4, 1997 S23:E02 John Travolta Michael Keaton 4 May 9, 1998 S23:E20 Minnie Driver Jeff GoldblumSean Connery 5 October 24, 1998 S24:E04 Tom Cruise Adam Sandler 6 March 20, 1999 S24:E16 Nicolas Cage Calista Flockhart Nicolas Cage finishes with $8 7 October 23, 1999 S25:E03 French Stewart Burt Reynolds Only episode with the four people (Ferrell, Fallon, Macdonald, Hammond) who appeared more than once. Reynolds starts with the highest score on any of the sketches: $14. Macdonald, now hosting, reprises his role as Reynolds. 8 April 15, 2000 S25:E17 Keanu Reeves Hilary Swank Ricky Martin (Chris Kattan) appears in the Video Daily Double and Swank's then-husband Chad Lowe (Chris Parnell) appears in the audience, who is crying to his wife's acceptance speech, a la the 72nd Oscars. 9 December 16, 2000 S26:E08 Robin Williams Catherine Zeta-Jones 10 February 8, 2001 SNL Primetime Extra 2 Ozzy Osbourne Martha Stewart Writing on the sketch originally began the week before it aired.Levin, Gary (February 8, 2001). . USA Today. Accessed from June 1, 2013. The real Martha Stewart competed on the real Celebrity Jeopardy! the following Tuesday. 11 September 29, 2001 S27:E01 Chris Tucker Anne Heche The real Alex Trebek shaved off his mustache starting with Jeopardy! episodes airing the previous week, but Ferrell's version of Trebek maintained the mustache. 12 May 18, 2002 S27:E20 Dave Matthews Björk Rock & Roll Edition; Connery had recorded an album of "filthy limericks" about Trebek to be eligible. The real Alex Trebek made a cameo appearance at the end of the sketch. Dean Edwards appeared as Boyd Tinsley for performing Matthews' song "Ants Marching" during one answer. The last episode with Ferrell as a regular cast member. 13 May 14, 2005 S30:E19 Bill Cosby Sharon Osbourne Ferrell, now hosting, reprises his role as Trebek. 14 May 16, 2009 S34:E22 Kathie Lee Gifford Tom Hanks A fourth lectern for Reynolds appears for only one round, then he and his lectern mysteriously vanish while no one is paying attention, only to reappear at the end of the sketch; however he has Hulk Hands to revisit the studio. Hanks appeared as himself. Hammond's last episode as a regular cast member. 15 February 15, 2015 40th AnniversarySpecial Justin Bieber Tony Bennett Reynolds (who arrives by "driving" his lectern, which has a steering wheel, steer horns and four car horns on it), Christoph Waltz (Taran Killam) and Matthew McConaughey (Jim Carrey) appear in the middle of the sketch, replacing Bieber and Bennett, respectively. Trebek quickly ends the game without advancing to Final Jeopardy! after a Video Daily Double under Potent Potables features footage of Bill Cosby (Kenan Thompson) preparing a cocktail; in light of Cosby's sexual assault allegations, Trebek apologizes and clarifies that it was filmed in June.

Cast

SNL cast members

A typical Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch featured three cast members (two as contestants and Ferrell as Trebek), plus that week's host as a third contestant. The thirteenth edition of the sketch (Cosby, Sharon Osbourne, Connery) featured three members of the SNL cast as the three contestants and Ferrell, now hosting, reprising his role as Trebek. The episode with Connery, Ozzy Osbourne and Martha Stewart featured cast members in all four roles.

Dean Edwards as Chris Tucker Jimmy Fallon as Adam Sandler, Nicolas Cage, French Stewart, Hilary Swank, Robin Williams and Dave Matthews Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek Ana Gasteyer as Martha Stewart Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery, Phil Donahue and John Travolta Taran Killam as Christoph Waltz Norm Macdonald as Burt Reynolds Kate McKinnon as Justin Bieber Amy Poehler as Sharon Osbourne Horatio Sanz as Ozzy Osbourne Molly Shannon as Minnie Driver Kenan Thompson as Bill Cosby Kristen Wiig as Kathie Lee Gifford

SNL hosts Thirteen of the fifteen sketches included the episode's host, usually as a contestant. The tenth sketch was one of two not to feature a host, as it was part of an SNL primetime special that did not feature a guest host. The 40th anniversary special also did not have a host. Both Ferrell and Macdonald were previous cast members who reprised their Celebrity Jeopardy! role upon their return. Notably, two hosts appeared as actual contestants on the real Celebrity Jeopardy!: David Duchovny (in 1995 and 2010) and Martin Short (in 2006).

Alec Baldwin as Tony Bennett Drew Barrymore as Calista Flockhart Jim Carrey as Matthew McConaughey David Duchovny as Jeff Goldblum Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek John Goodman as Marlon Brando Tom Hanks as himself Lucy Liu as Catherine Zeta-Jones Norm Macdonald as Burt Reynolds (who changed his name to Turd Ferguson in several sketches, claiming "it's a funny name"). Tobey Maguire as Keanu Reeves Matthew Perry as Michael Keaton Winona Ryder as Björk Martin Short as Jerry Lewis Ben Stiller as Tom Cruise Reese Witherspoon as Anne Heche

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