‘Jeopardy!’ Player Responds To Fans Who Mocked His Kids’ Names

Larry Wellington on Jeopardy! | YouTube

During the Jeopardy! shows, the players are often asked questions about themselves so the audience can get to know them during the games. On a recent episode, one man offered his Q&A and gave his family a sweet shout-out. However, fans trolled him online, saying his story “wasn’t unique.”

However, many Jeopardy! players personally read the Reddit comments, and in this case, the player responded to the people saying he wasn’t unique enough. Here is what he had to say.

Jeopardy! Fans Mock Contestant For Kids’ Names

On Wednesday’s episode, Larry P. Wellington, an entrepreneur from Madison, Mississippi, came onto the show. He did well and finished in second place with $16,801, but he lost out to Isaac Hirsch, who is in the middle of a huge Jeopardy! winning streak.

Ken Jennings - Jeopardy!
Ken Jennings – Jeopardy!

However, fans decided to poke fun at Larry based on his Q&A answers as he let fans get to know more about him. Larry said that his kids have “themed names.” He said they wanted a unique name and chose Harper, named after author Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird). This led them to name their second child, Beckett, after Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot).

It was a sweet callout, and Larry seemed pretty happy about his kids and naming them after respected literary figures. Ken Jennings joked, “Writers and family…I guess if you have any more kids, you have to read more books.”

This led to fans mocking Larry for thinking his kids’ names were unique.

Jeopardy! Contestant Claps Back At Fans Mocking Him Online

Jeopardy! fans took to Reddit, and they were not kind when they began to bash Larry for his kids’ names.

The main comments just focused on how Harper and Beckett weren’t unusual or unique names.

  • “MY KIDS HAVE WEIRD NAMES!’ Sir, they sound like normal names.”
  • “Harper is literally the 11th most popular girl name right know, lmao”
  • “I thought he was going to say he named his other kids Jem, Dill, and Boo,” as in To Kill a Mockingbird”

However, as with many Jeopardy! contestants, Larry pays attention to the daily Reddit threads that focus on the individual episodes. That led him to respond to several of the comments with his own thoughts.

“And it was the 120th most popular name when we decided to name her that,” Larry said before joking, “Sorry that I’m a trendsetter,” with a smiley face emoji. He then went on to say, “We actually settled on her name in the early part of 2011, when Harper was far more uncommon than it is now. I knew that I may only get one shot at an anecdote, so I shouted out my kids.”

What are your thoughts on people trolling Larry for calling out his kids on Jeopardy!? Was Larry gracious in his response, or should he have just ignored the trolls? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Shawn Lealos
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2 Comments

  1. My comment is regarding Larry’s kids names, if I were him I would have ignored all the comments about his kids names. I like his kids names very much. As long as his family’s happy with their names thats all that matters.

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