If you thought Alex Trebek was shocked at Ken Jennings‘ “What is hoe?” response, just wait until you hear the new revelation that just came out about the Jeopardy! game. Jennings shared more about the story during a fan Q&A and shared a shocking detail about his opponent.
“You can find this on YouTube, a clip where I’m asked for a word that’s both a ‘long-handled garden instrument and a loose seeker of pleasure,’” Jennings said in the clip posted to Instagram on August 29 during a Jeopardy! Masters game.
“Unfortunately, I said, ‘What is a hoe?’ And I realized after I buzzed in, and right before I said it, I was like, ‘This is not going to be What is a hoe?’ but it was like the train had already left the station,” he said.
“It was at the top of the board,” Jennings shared. “So, I don’t know, 200 bucks, 400 bucks. A small price, right? to be able to ask Alex Trebek, ‘What is a hoe?’”
However, the funniest and most shocking part about the whole thing was what Jennings revealed next. “The postscript of the whole thing was the guy at the end in that game was a Lutheran minister,” he shared. “During the break, he was like, ‘Boy, am I glad you beat me because I was going to say….”
“With Ken saying it, it’s arguably the funniest moment in Jeopardy history. But in an alternate timeline where the Lutheran minister winds up saying it, is it even funnier?” a fan commented.
“I still stand by it being the correct answer,” many fans said.
“How is it possible that every instance of Ken talking about this is funnier than the last?” a third added.
“LMAO every time I watch this. But I love that he beat the minister,” another fan laughed.
The audience cracked up as Jennings mimicked the man and shook his head. During that game, Jennings played against a man named Al, supposedly the minister, and a woman named Aimee.
The clue in question came during an October 2004 game. The $200 clue in “Tool Time” was “This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.”
With $14,800 in his bank, Jennings answered, “What is a hoe?” The correct answer was “rake,” which Al responded.
Trebek joked, “Whoa! They teach you that in school in Utah, huh?”
Jennings got to relive that moment during a June 2025 game. This time, he was behind the host’s podium.
Micah Fritz, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, answered, “What is a hoe?” to “A tool with an angled blade to get unwanted plants out at the root is called a Cape Cod type of this.” The correct response was weeder.
After letting the silence fill the air, Ken Jennings said, “It seems like ‘What is a hoe?’ is never correct out here.”
Jeopardy!, Season 43, weekdays, September 2026, check local listings