A little confused. A Jeopardy! contestant sent social media users into a frenzy when they hilariously confused Mick Jagger and Michael Caine.
“To honour his father, this star here was knighted in his birth name, Sir Maurice Micklewhite,” host Mayim Bialik read, as a picture of the Dark Knight star, 89, was shown on the screen, after contestant Mazin Omer took a shot at the “Knight After Knight” category. However, instead of naming Caine, he guessed that the person in question was the 78-year-old Rolling Stones frontman.
Omer didn’t manage to win $400 but his answer did earn him a place in the hearts of Jeopardy! fans everywhere, who couldn’t stop laughing over the mix-up.
“The Michael Cain/Mick Jagger response will live on as an [sic] historic bad answer,” one social media user wrote, while another stated that she was “Trying desperately to understand how you confuse Michael Caine for Mick Jagger.” A third Twitter user joked that they planned to “tell my kids” that Caine was the “Start Me Up” rocker when asked in the future.
“They just showed a picture of Michael Caine on @Jeopardy and the dude answers ‘Who is Mick Jagger?'” one fan wrote after the episode aired. “I’m sure he knows a million things that I don’t, but man I wasn’t ready for that 😂”
Omer — who finished the episode in second place and took home $2,000 — wasn’t completely off the mark with his guess, as both Caine and Jagger have been honored with knighthoods in 2000 and 2002, respectively. Like the Oscar winner, Jagger also noted that the honor meant a lot to his father Joe, who accompanied him to the ceremony. “The thing about honors is that you should never ask for them, and you should never really expect them, but I think you should accept them if they are given to you,” he told Rolling Stone in July 2002.
The Muppets Christmas Carol star, for his part, explained why he chose to be dubbed Sir Maurice when he was bestowed with a knighthood. “I was named after my father, and I was knighted in his name because I love my father. I always kept my real name – I’m a very private and family-orientated person,” Caine told The Independent in November 2000, adding that he planned on using both names going forward. “I’m both, but I will use Sir Michael Caine.”
He continued: “Being knighted is an extraordinary honour for me. It’s the recognition of a lifetime — this is the top one.”
Jeopardy! has become known for its fair share of flubbed answers and controversial choices, including the decision to have former executive producer Mike Richards take over as host following the death of Alex Trebek in November 2020. After a slew of guest hosts, the producer, 46, was announced as the new leader in August 2021, with Big Bang Theory alum Bialik, 46, slated to host the show’s primetime and spin-off specials.
Richards, who had been accused of discrimination during his time as a producer on The Price Is Right, stepped down as host and producer later that month, after The Ringer posted a piece including offensive remarks that he had made as cohost of “The Randumb Show” podcast in 2013 and 2014. During the episodes, he reportedly made comments about women’s appearances and weight. Bialik was subsequently announced as the full-time host of the beloved game show.
“I don’t wish ill on him, or anyone. But the complexity of these situations is not something that can be summed up easily,” she wrote in a blog for Newsweek in September 2021. “My first response, when all of this went down, was to say to the Jeopardy! team: ‘How can I help?’ Because I am part of this family.”
