'Jeopardy!' host Ken Jennings infuriates trans activists with sarcastic joke over NY Times games boycott
"Jeopardy!" host Ken Jennings sparked online debate Thursday after using sarcasm to dismiss calls from transgender activists to boycott The New York Times' word games.Jennings sarcastically claimed he received "express permission from the trans community" to keep his games subscription, taking aim at demands that readers boycott all New York Times products.The joke has since sparked pushback from transgender activists online, who accused him of trivializing their concerns.The exchange began on the social media platform Bluesky, where Jennings posted screenshots of the New York Times' game Spelling Bee.
He wrote, "My wife and I have a game where we try to invent the day’s grossest-sounding word on NYT Spelling Bee."NY TIMES TORCHED FOR FATHER’S DAY ‘TRANS DAD’ ARTICLE CRITICS SAY SHOWS PAPER IS ‘CORRUPTING OUR CHILDREN'Ken Jennings appears as host of "Jeopardy! Masters" during the semifinal rounds of the competition.(Christopher Willard/Disney via Getty Images)In response, a user on the platform reposted his comment, saying, "I wish people who care about trans people could understand that playing nyt games is still an insult to trans people."In response to the user's comment, Jennings replied, "This may be true of others but I actually got express permission from the trans community to keep NYT games and recipes.
I also have a news subscription, which is arguably worse, so I had to specifically send in a written request.Took 30 days but I got approved."Jennings added, "They were like ‘Trans people are not a monolith’ and ‘Like-minded allies may disagree on specific media boycotts’ and stuff like that.
It was a huge load off my mind!"The user responded, "I was being sincere and serious, but thanks for turning it into a joke.that feels great." On Friday, the user noted that Jennings had not contacted them since and made "no effort to apologize or acknowledge that he was an a--hole about trans people.
No lessons learned it seems.I was really hopin...