Andy Richter is known for his role as longtime sidekick to Conan O’Brien on late night shows, but did you know he’s a Jeopardy! record-holding champ? The comedian won big when he appeared on a season of the Jeopardy! Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational.
Richter’s Gameshow Success Secrets
Richter won $68,000 in a first-round game of the Celebrity Invitational, making him the biggest winner in Celebrity Jeopardy! history. He spoke about the experience for an A.V. Club video, sharing his secrets about how he became a gameshow champ. “Well, it is an athletic competition,” he joked. “In terms of just, your thumb. Like, you’ve got to be quick with it…I don’t know how you practice it.”
Richter described how the show works when it comes to buzzing in with an answer, saying that if you ring in before the lights go down, “you get locked out. You can’t push your button again for a minute or two.”
The comedian credits his ADD for helping him take home the champion title. “I do have the ability to hyper-focus,” he explained. “[Competing] takes this kind of hyper-focus to…formulate your answer while you’re watching [the lights] go down and getting the time unit beep. It’s a pressurized moment.”
However, we all know it takes more than quick reflexes to earn money on the gameshow; you also have to know the answers to the super-specific questions. So, how did Richter do it? “I have a lot of incredibly shallow knowledge about a lot of things,” he explained.
“There’s a lot that are just…almost kind of association things,” he continued. “Being that great on Jeopardy! Doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart. It just means you have a ton of Post-It notes of bullsh*t floating around your head.”
Will We See Richter And O’Brien Together Again? ‘Certainly’
Even though Richter and O’Brien are no longer appearing on our screens, the two are “certainly” going to team up again, Richter promises. “I just know that life is too short for us to not do something and get together again,” the comedian said.
“I had people reaching out to me asking like, ‘What is it?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ It’s basically like saying, there’s too much time between now and the end of his and my career for us to not find something else to do,” he continued.
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