Has been on the air, in one form or another, since the 1960s. The modern Alex Trebek-hosted incarnation of the show—whose famous theme song is now in your head (sorry!)—began in 1984 and still airs about 230 episodes every year. There is an art to a Jeopardy!

• Jeopardy Generator
• Jeopardy Meme Generator

Its answers-in-search-of-questions exude a certain tone and tenor that’s different from trivia offerings from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, HQ, The Weakest Link, or even a throwback like You Bet Your Life. But the writer’s room is also a factory, one that must churn out 61 clues per episode, which adds up to aired during the show’s long run. “There’s a saying in quiz shows,” Wisse says, “that a good question has to get one of three reactions: ‘I knew that,’ or ‘darn I should have known that,’ or ‘I didn’t know that, but now I’m glad I do.’ That’s basically what we’re looking for.” He oversees a staff of eight writers. Another eight researchers to double-check the facts.

Researchers ensure that the facts are independently verified, and that spellings and other details are correct. This usually requires two or more independent sources per question. Both the researchers and writers work on what is called “pinning” in the jargon of Jeopardy! Pinning means sorting out that there is for sure only one possible answer.

Of course, sometimes as we’ve seen in the show, the judges will accept one of two answers, but that’s the upper ceiling of multiple choices. “If you find that there are half a dozen other rodents also acceptable based on that description you gave of that one squirrel, then you need to rewrite the clue and tighten it up so it’s just the one squirrel,” Wisse says. “Pinning is really a tricky thing. in my experience, I would not have thought it was such a problem, but there are an amazing number of facts and qualities and assertions that apply to many different kinds of the same thing.” The spark of an idea might come from anywhere—current events, a chance event—but once it does, the writer is responsible for writing that out into a whole category.

Jeopardy Generator

Thankfully, there are thousands upon thousands of books in the Jeopardy! Library, stretching back to the Art Fleming era, though Wisse admits there’s still plenty of Internet research that goes into your average question. Still, travel guides and textbooks are regularly updated to ensure they aren’t too out of date.

Jeopardy Meme Generator

Wisse oversees the order of the questions, though the writers d.