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On October 8, 2004, Ken Jennings answered a Jeopardy! clue about a gardening tool with “What’s a hoe?” The accepted response was “rake.” Jennings later said he realized just before speaking that his answer would not be the expected one—but felt committed after buzzing in.
What Jennings said—and what the clue asked
The clue, in the “Tool Time” category, read: “This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.” The Washington Post identifies the episode as airing October 8, 2004, and reports that Jennings responded, “What’s a hoe?” The show’s accepted response was “rake.” The Washington Post’s 2022 account gives the episode date and clue wording.
The clue value is reported as $200 by TV Insider, while Jennings later recalled it approximately as $200 or $400. Those accounts do not establish a single exact value, so the amount is less certain than the clue and response. TV Insider’s August 31, 2026 report recounts Jennings’s later comments.
Why the moment caught him off guard
Jennings’s later account adds a qualification to the familiar clip: he said he recognized just before speaking that “This is not going to be What is a hoe?” But he had already buzzed in, and, as he put it, “it was like the train had already left the station.” The moment was not simply a case of his failing to understand what he was saying; he described a split-second realization followed by an answer he felt committed to give.
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In the clip, host Alex Trebek began with “No.” The audience laughed, and Trebek followed with: “Whoa. Whoaaaa. Whoa. They teach you that in school in Utah, huh?” The Washington Post recounts the exchange and the audience’s reaction.
The opponent’s reaction, as Jennings recalled it
TV Insider reported another detail from Jennings’s later fan Q&A: he said his opponent was a Lutheran minister, who told him, “Boy, am I glad you beat me because I was going to say…” The anecdote suggests the wording had also crossed another contestant’s mind. The opponent’s full identity and denomination are not independently established in the cited account, so this remains Jennings’s recollection as reported by TV Insider.
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A later contestant repeated the answer
In a separate June 2025 exchange, a contestant gave the same “What is a hoe?” response to a different gardening clue. Jennings, by then the host, joked: “It seems like ‘What is a hoe?’ is never correct out here.” That was a callback to the 2004 moment, not a repeat of its original clue. TV Insider reports the later exchange.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How this differs from another famous Jennings-era moment
“A unique Jeopardy! moment” could refer to more than one event from Jennings’s run. The hoe response is the moment associated with the caught-off-guard framing and the later recollection. A separate episode was Jennings’s 75th game, when Nancy Zerg ended his streak; Jeopardy!’s retrospective discusses the production booth recognizing her win before the reveal and the camera shot fans called “The Zerg Cam.” Jeopardy!’s retrospective on Jennings’s last Final Jeopardy! describes that distinct event.
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