Celebrity Jeopardy fans weren’t exactly buzzing over Hasan Minhaj‘s eccentric performance this week.
The Patriot Act alum has been on the receiving end of some stern tweets from the quiz show community after he hilariously and egregiously showboated his way through Monday night’s episode. Now Minhaj is attempting to make amends by issuing his deepest, most sincere apology… sort of.
“To the fans of Jeopardy, I want to take this moment to apologize,” he said on Thursday’s episode of The Tonight Show. “I’m sorry I desecrated an American institution. I’m sorry I ripped your 7 p.m. linear TV pacifier out of your geriatric mouth. And most importantly, I’m sorry for trying to make Jeopardy fun.”
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The comedian, who was raising funds for the International Relief Committee during the episode, explained that he was “just playing with vigor and passion” and that Jeopardy is an entirely different game when you’re playing in real life and not on your couch.
“When you’re playing Jeopardy at home in your sweats and you’re confident and you’re playing with the shampoo or the remote, you think you’re the [expletive],” Minhaj said. “But you don’t know what that game does to you in the arena.”
He also claimed that his buzzer was “janky” and that host Mayim Bialik didn’t help him in his time of need. “History will vindicate me,” he joked. “I go, ‘Mayim, my clicker, my buzzer! I’m buzzing in!’ She goes, ‘Your buzzer’s fine.’ I go, ‘You’re gaslighting me.’ She goes, ‘No, I’m not.’ I go, ‘You’re victim-blaming now.'”
So really, Minhaj’s overexcited antics — and repeated dunking on his fellow contestants Wil Wheaton and Troian Bellisario — aren’t his fault. “Jeopardy is like American elections,” he told Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. “There is no second or third place, so it incentivizes bad behavior. If you’re second or third, you gotta give all the other contestants the smoke. I’m sorry. I gotta kamikaze-mission you.”
While he was having a blast, fans of the show weren’t exactly in the mood for his enthusiasm, evidenced by the TV Insider article Fallon showed him that said fans had labeled him the most annoying contestant ever. “That one hurt because, you know, the show’s been on for over 58 years,” Minhaj said. “And they’ve had 15,000 contestants on the show. And Dr. Oz was a contestant.”
Tyler Golden/ABC Hasan Minhaj on ‘Celebrity Jeopardy’
So, what did he learn? “TV is all about expectations, and life is about expectations. And when people watch Jeopardy, they want to see a cerebral, quiet quiz show,” Minhaj said. “But I need to go to a place where I’m celebrated.”
“I need to go to a place where the unhinged are accepted. Where the eccentric are allowed. Where cocaine consumption is encouraged,” he jokingly continued. “Jimmy, that is why next summer, I, Hasan Minhaj, will be taking my talents to The Price is Right.”
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