Jeopardy! Gave Fans Two Unforgettable Contestant Moments This Week, And One Calls Back To Ken Jennings’ Most Infamous ‘Hoe’-ment

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Television)

The game of Jeopardy! hasn’t changed much over the past four decades, with a formula that makes it one of the best game shows of all time. In fact, there’s plenty to keep it from going stale, as Season 41 continues on the 2025 TV schedule, and this week alone has gifted us with two unforgettable moments. In addition to possibly one of the biggest coincidences in Jeopardy! history, we also got a fantastic callback to one of Ken Jennings’ most viral moments as a player.

Champion Reveals Unbelievable Connection To Final Jeopardy! Clue

This week started off wild, as Emily Croke secured the win on June 23 after correctly responding to the Final Jeopardy! clue that read: “In 1896, the Vassar-educated wife of this man wrote, ‘Thousands of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare.’” The answer was Henry Clay Folger, and home viewers saw Croke get the win and advance to the next day’s game.

What audiences didn’t see was Ken Jennings’ post-game interview with the champ, where Emily Croke revealed that the “Vassar-educated wife” referenced in the clue was Emily Folger, or — as revealed on Jeopardy!’s Instagram page:

That was my great-great-great aunt Emily.

In fact, not only was Emily Croke related to the couple in the clue, she was actually named after the distant relative. What are the chances that that specific clue would show up on her very first game? I’m even impressed that Croke was so knowledgeable about her lineage (I certainly don’t know about my own great-great-great aunt’s accomplishments).

It’s kind of a mind-boggling, this-is-all-just-a-simulation occurrence, but that’s not where the fun ended.

Ken Jennings Hilariously References His Viral Playing Moment

Ken Jennings may be the venerable host of Jeopardy! now, as well as one of Jeopardy!’s biggest winners, but back in 2004, he suffered a pretty embarrassing moment on the quiz show, when he responded incorrectly to a clue by saying, “What is a hoe?” That moment made an amusing comeback in the June 25 game.

In the category “This Is Not a Drill,” the $400 clue read: “A tool with an angled blade to get unwanted plants out at the root is called a Cape Cod type of this.” Yeah, you can see where this is going. Contestant Micah Fritz buzzed in with the response:

What is a hoe?

Unfortunately, the answer Ken Jennings was looking for was “What is a weeder?,” but even funnier than the unexpected repeat of history was the former super-champion’s reaction. Jennings told Micah Fritz:

It seems like ‘What is a hoe?’ is never correct out here.

Two decades ago, when Ken Jennings made the mistake, he was responding to the “Tool Time” category clue: “This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.” Alex Trebek was looking for “Rake,” not “Hoe.”

It actually wasn’t that long ago that the writers executed some A+ trolling of Ken Jennings by referencing this very viral moment in a clue that featured a man wearing a sandwich board. The stock image had been modified to include the phrase “What is a hoe?” on the board.

It seems like this could serve as a cautionary tale to future Jeopardy! contestants to never guess, “What is a hoe?,” but I feel like the writers are definitely biding their time and waiting for the right moment to insert the gardening tool into its field of trivia.

Stay vigilant, Jeopardy! viewers, and it also might not be a bad idea to brush up on your extended family history. Check your local listings for when the game show plays in your area, and starting this fall, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune will be available to stream the next day with either a Hulu subscription or a Peacock subscription.