Things got totally out of control on an episode of Jeopardy this week (or was it a televised drag ball?) when show host Alex Trebek started speaking in tongues usually reserved for drag queens and their admirers.
The ancient early-evening game show is usually a pretty tame, safe space for people who don’t necessarily speak in modern gay vernacular. Its acknowledgement of the term “shade” is surely a sign of impending doom.
“One term for talking trash about someone is ‘throwing’ this, like a big elm tree might do,” Alex asks.
“What is shade?” responds a white teenage girl named Kat.
How about we take this to the next level?
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The end is near.
JennyFromdabloc
This made my day
Geoff B
Well done Kat! That should have been a Daily Double.
tardis
I have no idea what “shade” stands for. Fill me in, what does shade imply?
NoCagada
@tardis: I know what it means and I still don’t know what this article was about or why it exists.
Ben Dover
Technically it should be, “What is shade? – BITCH!”
Ben Dover
It figures this was the Teen Tournament. I can’t imagine Ken Jennings or Arthur Chu getting this one right! Maybe Brad Rutter.
lcandela123
I count Alex as a gay ally. Jeopardy has many excellent questions that tip their hat to gay culture. I was amazed one day when a question alluded to David Sedaris’ modern classic, “Me speak pretty one day”.
Don M. Robinder II
As Corey Craig commented earlier today: Shade 1986 – 2014. R. I. P.
Corey Craig
@GayJeopardy did it first, actually… http://instinctmagazine.com/post/are-you-gay-jeopardy-champion
asa1973
Alright – I know I’m about to start a firestorm – but “throwing shade” was a concept and term used by the black community (especially black woman) long before the gay community picked it up. But whatever, I’m so used to this…
IvanPH
So happy about this. I’m a huge fan of Jeopardy and i never fail to watch it every night.
QJ201
Someone telling your secrets, It’s not coffee talk it’s…
drivendervish
I didn’t know that throwing “shade” is considered “Gay” or part of gay lingo. I thought everybody used it. Is it really just gay people?
Aromaeus
Yeah throwing shade was a term coined in the black community, specifically black female which black gays incorporated and white gays appropriated because they are white and that’s what whites do.
Rococo89
To those of you saying that ‘throwing shade’ is black female slang, or even specifically black slang, you need to EDUCATE yourselves. Gay people of color (that’s right, Hispanics too, not just blacks), specifically those who were part of the ball culture in the 80’s and even earlier, were using terms like ‘throwing shade’, ‘reading’, and ‘spilling T’. Just because your straight black girlfriend heard NeNe Leakes use those terms does not make them so.
I’m tired of hearing the same uneducated, instigating bullshit over and over again.