Jeopardy! Champ Is Getting Compared To Hitler By Fans
A recent Jeopardy! contestant was bullied online for supposedly looking like Adolf Hitler.
A new champion of Jeopardy! is getting the third degree on Twitter as ruthless fans compare him to the leader of the Third Reich. As reported by OutKick, Jeopardy! fans are calling out Brian Henegar for his comb-over and mustache, saying the look makes the Tennessee man look like Hitler. Henegar has clapped back at the criticism, trying to distance himself from the World War II dictator and repair his tarnished image.
Brian Henegar has won Jeopardy! twice this week to the tune of more than $43,000 dollars. But after a stream of callouts on social media, Henegar’s victory became bittersweet. He went to Twitter to process the bullying.
“Right now, I’m feeling every emotion under the sun, reliving my Jeopardy! Appearance,” Henegar wrote. “And I’m seeing what a bunch of Jerks on Twitter are doing because all they can focus on [are] my looks… So I’m going to be leaving Twitter for a while, see you soon.”
Henegar’s absence from Twitter was short-lived. He returned the next day to inform his harassers that he intended to shave the mustache he had been perfecting for the past decade. According to him, the upkeep on the controversial facial hair had become too much for him to justify.
The Jeopardy! champ amended his shaving resolution later that evening to go in the opposite direction: more hair. “So I decided rather than to shave off my mustache, I’m just gonna grow it out into a goatee,” he wrote. “I admit that I run the risk of making myself look like my evil twin from a parallel universe, but that’s just the risk I am willing to take :-).”
Brian Henegar shared a selfie debuting his new look and concluded the mustache saga by addressing the “jerkolas” who had shamed his appearance and pledging to donate a portion of his Jeopardy! winnings to the Anti-Defamation League.
Odd as it may seem, Jeopardy! has been a magnet for drama since the passing of its longtime host, Alex Trebek. Scandal ended the run of Trebek’s successor, Mike Richards, after less than two weeks as the show’s host. Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings have since been instated as the show’s hosts, taking turns handling stretches of the show.
The personnel shuffle at Jeopardy! has thrown the long-running show out of the rhythm it built over the course of nearly 40 years. Fans have criticized Bialik and Jennings’ hosting styles, calling out minor mistakes, technical errors, and other grievances without mercy on social media. Jeopardy! is built on detailed trivia, and mistakes as innocuous as mispronunciations often elicit backlash from the show’s fanbase.
Brian Henegar is the latest to take heat from Jeopardy! fans. This time, however, the only grievance is Henegar’s appearance. For Henegar, the attacks crossed the line from constructive criticism and the airing of grievances to bullying.
Henegar returned from Jeopardy! to his home of Tennessee a richer man, and he is rocking a new style to go along with his new cash. Some lift in his hair and a goatee to support his mustache have Brian Henegar looking like a whole new man, ready to tackle his position as a guest service agent with gusto – he was headed to work when he shared the photo of his new look with the world.
Jeopardy! may have been the last show expected to bring drama to the table, but it has done just that at nearly every turn in recent months. The series has the power to continue dialing in its rhythm, but controlling its increasingly vocal fans is a task that would leave anyone clueless.
