SNL40: Celebrity Jeopardy

Will Ferrell reprises his iconic role as the long-suffering Alex Trebek for the SNL 40th Anniversary Special's Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. The game begins with Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond) already at a record-breaking negative score of -$230,000. Trebek attempts to maintain order while contestants Justin Bieber (Kate McKinnon), Tony Bennett (Alec Baldwin), Burt Reynolds (Norm Macdonald), and later additions Christoph Waltz (Taran Killam) and Matthew McConaughey (Jim Carrey) demonstrate complete incompetence at the game. Reynolds arrives on a mobile podium with a steering wheel, insisting on being called "Turd Ferguson." Connery continues his tradition of tormenting Trebek with inappropriate jokes about Trebek's mother and deliberately misreading categories into crude phrases. The sketch is cut short when a Video Daily Double under "Potent Potables" features pre-recorded footage of Bill Cosby (Kenan Thompson) mixing drinks - an uncomfortable moment given the Cosby sexual assault allegations that had recently surfaced. Trebek apologizes, clarifies it was filmed in June, and abruptly ends the game without reaching Final Jeopardy.

This was the 15th Celebrity Jeopardy sketch overall. The sketch uses the "sushi bar" set design from the real Jeopardy!, which was introduced one month before the first Celebrity Jeopardy sketch in 1996. Will Ferrell's Alex Trebek appeared in all 15 Celebrity Jeopardy sketches. Darrell Hammond's Sean Connery appeared in nearly all Celebrity Jeopardy sketches as Trebek's "arch-nemesis". The real Alex Trebek loved the sketches and told Lorne Michaels he appreciated them. The sketch became famous for categories with sexual double-entendres like "Le Tits Now" (Let It Snow) and "Catch the Semen" (Catch These Men). Steve Higgins' wife originally suggested the Celebrity Jeopardy concept. The sketch satirizes the actual Celebrity Jeopardy! special events on the real game show.