Last night, James Holzhauer’s historic Jeopardy! run finally came to an end, as the gambler was officially dethroned by Emma Boettcher, a librarian from Chicago. After winning over $2 million and coming within $70,000 of Ken Jennings’ all-time record, it was shocking to see Holzhauer get taken down and people had strong feelings about watching him go down. And when people have strong feelings in 2019, there’s only one place they can go to truly express themselves to the world around them: Twitter. And while Holzhauer’s devastating defeat may have been a colossal upset, it’s almost worth it to get to see the hilarious reactions on Twitter.
So, we rounded up 11 of the funniest, emotional, and most over-the-top ridiculous Twitter responses to Holzhauer’s loss last night. Of course, plenty of the responses were simply paying tribute to James and the amazing run of dominance he was able to put together over the last few months.
So happy that @KenJennings retained his #Jeopardy crown, but man — shouts to @James_Holzhauer for a streak that was crazy fun to watch. pic.twitter.com/0qAIhfByZc
— shauna (@goldengateblond) June 4, 2019
A few wondered what Jeopardy would even be like after James.
Let’s pour one out for our main man James, #jeopardy will never be the same pic.twitter.com/3vZRCc3h8Y
— Shannon Douglass (@Shann_Douglass) June 3, 2019
And for die-hard trivia fanatics, it was hard watching their beloved nerd hero go down like that.
This is like that time Bambi's mom died, but for trivia nerds like me. #Jeopardy #JamesHolzhauer pic.twitter.com/tfk1I4E5gP
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) June 3, 2019
And a couple people couldn’t resist comparing the whole thing to sports. Would this make Emma’s Final Jeopardy the equivalent of LeBron’s chase-down block?
Jeopardy James revolutionizing the game + obliterating every single-game record on the books + losing on the night he was gonna break Ken Jennings' record = the Warriors winning 73 and losing Game 7
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) June 4, 2019
Others gave props to Emma, noting that her background gave her competitive leg up.
#jeopardy
james holzhuaer: "i got a lot of my knowledge from non-fiction children's books at the library"emma boettcher: pic.twitter.com/QD1xE0cdWu
— d (@_TimeTraveler33) June 4, 2019
Others just imagined how excited she must have been to take down James.
emma walking into her hotel room after beating the 2nd best jeopardy contestant of all time #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/1cbLL92t3s
— faith 🌈 choerry day!! (@faithmario_o) June 4, 2019
Still, others just got emotional thinking about Jeopardy! on the whole.
We pretend Jeopardy! is a slow game show you watch at your grandparents' place but many episodes feature Olympic-level trivia experts duking it out at a top level. Cried watching tonight's episode because everyone was so amazing and this show is so amazing.
— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) June 4, 2019
And, of course, there were a few conspiracy theorists out there.
James didn’t want to play any more. His final wager was so low that even if Emma had bet $0 he still would’ve had less money. Then the get well card?? He was saying goodbye. #Jeopardy
— BaeWatchPodcast (@PodcastBae) June 3, 2019
Ken Jennings paid tribute to the man who nearly took him down with a classy Avengers reference.
Actual photo of James Holzhauer walking off stage at Jeopardy, his reign of destruction completed. pic.twitter.com/Xdf5PFR3QD
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) June 4, 2019
And James was humble and humorous in defeat, even teasing a future Jennings-Holzhauer showdown. How soon can we make that a reality?
To @KenJennings : You win this round. But if Jeopardy ever gives me 43 second chance games, look out!
— James Holzhauer (@James_Holzhauer) June 4, 2019
But, it doesn’t get much better than getting props from Weird Al!
I like your new Twitter avatar, James! pic.twitter.com/VeoaAxiMVs
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) June 4, 2019
