'Jeopardy' fans slam Ken Jennings as 'classless' after he made a contestant lick his own elbow

“Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings is usually very friendly and supportive towards contestants, but sometimes he tends to take a joke too far. The 51-year-old is a fan favorite since his days as a contestant on the show, but that doesn't mean they'll let him get away with problematic actions on the show. They were left disgusted after he asked a contestant to do something unusual on the show, and some even slammed Jennings for ruining the show.

According to a report in Uproxx, the contestant was a man named Andrew Knowles. It was revealed at one point in the episode that he had a really long tongue. Jennings even had it written on one of his cards. “Yeah, so I figured out at a young age I have a long tongue, and the whole nose-to-tongue thing was easy,” the contestant said. “And then one day I heard that, you know, touching your elbow, or licking your elbow basically, is impossible. And I tried it, and I was able to do it."

Having his curiosity piqued, the host asked the contestant to prove it. Knowles asked the crowd if they wanted to see that, and after a loud cheer, proceeded to lick his elbow. To be fair, it was impressive. “Wow, look at that,” the host said. “I can do the nose thing, but I didn’t know there was a whole Olympic level that I knew nothing of.” Fans of the show, however, weren’t too pleased about it.

“@Jeopardy has just jumped the shark into classless mediocrity when a contestant just licked his elbow with his tongue. Sad that the only intelligent game show on TV has stooped to this level. Thanks @kenjennings for lowering the standard of a once great show,” one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter). The clip was uploaded to the platform by the show’s official handle, and some fans expressed their displeasure there as well.

“Ken Jennings brought Jeopardy to a new low by asking this contestant to touch his elbow with his tongue. Alex Trebek must be rolling over in his grave. This is not the Gong Show!” one user commented. Some fans, however, found the segment to be a good bit of fun and came to the host’s defence. “Better show with Ken,” one fan commented. “This dude totally stole my thing to talk about if I am ever on Jeopardy,” wrote another.

“Jeopardy!” fans can be quite vocal on social media, and they have proven this multiple times in the past. On another occasion, none of the three contestants were able to name a music icon, and fans weren’t happy about it. The artist was Gordon Lightfoot, one of the most iconic Canadian musicians of all time.

Fans once again took to X to make their displeasure known. “Gordon Lightfoot! Tonight's first scream!” one user posted on the platform. "Gordon Lightfoot cmon!" quipped a second user. "Nobody knew Gordon Lightfoot!?!" a third fan wrote. Lightfoot had become a global success in the folk-pop genre during the ‘60s and ‘70s.