Jennings’ end does clear up one controversy: although his number of appearances and amount won were clearly records for “television game show” appearances, there has been a rival claimant to the all-time game show record.
Mr. Hamil Humilde, 27, of Peshawar, Pakistan, has announced through his lawyer that he is challenging Jennings for the title of “longest-running game show contestant.” Mr. Humilde has been appearing almost daily to answer questions at the U.S. interrogation facility at Guantanamo Cuba since his capture near Kandahar, Afghanistan in late 2003.
“No offense to Mr. Jennings,” said the lawyer, Khalil Khontumli. “But Jennings has answered no more than 7,000 questions. My client has answered, at last count, nearly 12,000. In addition, Mr. Jennings gave correct responses only 80% of the time. My client, on the other hand, once he dropped his original story of being an unemployed Feng Shui artist, has a near-perfect 98% accuracy record, including 1,200 repetitions of the ‘You’re a terrorist, aren’t you?’ question.”
Mr. Khontumli also suggested that Jennings had faced easier categories than Humilde. “Anybody can answer clues about World Capitals and Opera,” he said. “But Mr. Humilde has been challenged with such categories as ‘Places where explosives are hidden,’ ‘Co-conspirators’s names’ and ‘Ringleader Rhyme Time,’ which are all much harder to answer when you are an innocent opium smuggler.”
Nonetheless, most critics are reluctant to compare the two quizzer’s experiences. “For one thing, Humilde isn’t playing against anyone else,” said Washington Post TV Critic Tom Shill. “How hard is that? It doesn’t take a genius to win when you’re playing by yourself.” Khontumli vigorously disputed that assertion, noting that the guards at Guantanamo have repeatedly urged Humilde to “talk before somebody else does” and assured him that “only the first guy to ‘fess up gets extra rations.” As for the contention that the proceedings are not telecast, the lawyer notes that they are videotaped, which is close.
Asked how much his client has won during his reign, Khontumli said “well, he got a blanket once for saying his cousin might be Taliban. And when he accused his high school teacher of running a fundamentalist indoctrination center, they let him have an extra hour of exercise each day for a week.”
Asked if there were any differences between “Jeopardy” and the interrogation center, Khontumli replied “Well, the role of Alex is played by a staff Sergeant named Blinky. And the ‘buzzer’ is different. On Jeopardy, the contestants use it to signal their readiness to answer a question. In Gitmo, the ‘buzzer’ is a pair of alligator clips attached to hand-cranked generator, and they use it to induce your willingness to answer. But you still have to respond in the form of a question.”
The lawyer finally noted that, like Jennings, Mr. Humilde was famous for his amiability and good humor during what can be a stressful exercise. “The guards love him! If he had a serious contusion for every time he heard a guard say ‘this hurts me more than it hurts you,’ well… actually he does. But he never complains. Well, he starts, but he never finishes, because they usually fire up the buzzer in mid-sentence.”
Mr. Humilde is reportedly looking forward to competing against Mr. Jennings in the “Jihad of Champions.”
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