“Jeopardy!” producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss is speaking out about that controversial clue.
On Monday’s episode of the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast, Foss was joined by former champion Buzzy Cohen to discuss the moment on the game show last week that was deemed “sexist” by viewers.
During the Oct. 28 episode, the players had to complete the rhyming phrase “Men seldom make passes at…” Contestant Will Wallace correctly answered “Girls who wear glasses” — but things got awkward because female contestant Heather Ryan was wearing glasses at the time.
Host Ken Jennings was apologetic about the phrase first uttered by famous poet Dorothy Parker.
“A little problematic, sorry Heather,” he said.
“Very,” Wallace agreed.
Fans responded to the incident on X (formerly Twitter) and slammed the game show for using the sexist clue.
“Still angry about this. She’s used her intelligence to get on here, only to be insulted by a sexist and rude comment,” one person wrote.
In a Reddit thread for the episode, one person said about the clue, “It was a weird choice. There are plenty of other rhyming phrases to choose from that don’t make your contestants, your host, and your audience visibly uncomfortable.”
Foss, who has been working on “Jeopardy!” since 2001, explained on the show’s podcast how the offensive clue ended up in the episode.
“I think many people out there thought the ‘Jeopardy!’ writers wrote this, or thought this,” she said. “But in fact, Dorothy Parker wrote this, about 100 years ago, in a 1926 book. We were just simply filling in the category.”
Foss then noted how many major publications covered the incident, as Cohen shared that he even heard about it in person.
“Can I tell you, someone ran up to me in a coffee shop and was like, ‘what was this going on with the glasses, making fun of the glasses?’ ” Cohen said. “I was like ‘What are you talking about?’ Wild. We gotta read more.”
Foss added, “And Ken in the moment was like, ‘Oh gosh, woah that’s harsh’ to Heather, because he was just being a host in the moment.”
Cohen noted that Jennings, 50, was “having a little fun” by calling out the clue right away on the show.
“But I really think that people out there are convinced that ‘Jeopardy!’ writers pinned this because they think ‘men seldom make passes…’” said Foss. “I don’t know! Sometimes the clickbait, it’s too much.”
“Jeopardy!” airs weekdays at 7 p.m. ET.
