When “Stay Woke” showed up as a category in Friday’s screening of “Jeopardy!,” progressives on social media were elated, thinking that it would advance their ideology and promote social justice to a nationwide audience.
Their hopes were dashed to pieces when the game show revealed the term to be nothing more than a play on words — which should be expected, given the show’s fierce love of puns.
The term “woke” arose to public prominence during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2015, when its proponents would encourage others to “stay woke” to the “realities” of living under a system of “white supremacy.” The definition of “woke” was even recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary, following years of use.
Given its status in the lexicon, it’s no surprise that some progressives would be under the mistaken belief that the long-running game show would be using the term exactly as they (the progressives) do.
As with everything else on Jeopardy, the term was meant as a play on words, to be taken in literal terms to refer to staying awake.
The first question that popped up reads: “This substance many use to stay awake can lead to tremors & anxiety at 500 mg/day; the average American consumes 300.”
It was at that point that progressives, realizing the ruse, expressed anger and outrage at the show for making light of their cause.
Feminist vertical The Mary Sue condemned Jeopardy for what it considers to be a very problematic low blow against their ideology.
“We all know Jeopardy is going to go for a pun where it sees one, but perhaps ideologies centered around fighting racism and other social injustices shouldn’t be their target,” wrote Vivian Kane. “As is, the show’s take on wokeness is anything but.”
But commenters weren’t impressed by the site’s attempt to virtue signal, with many calling out Kane for being too readily offended.
“I’ll be honest, whenever I think of Jeopardy, I think of Will Ferrell’s impression. Also, in my personal opinion, this really isn’t bad at all. Jeopardy constantly has puns,” wrote one reader.
“I’ll take “Trolling” for $600, Alex,” said another.
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