Yahoo Finance Jeopardy! Star Ken Jennings Apologizes for Past ‘Insensitive’ Tweets: ‘I Screwed Up’
Eric McCandless/abc Ken Jennings
Ken Jennings is owning up to his past mistakes.
The Jeopardy! star shared a series of tweets Wednesday apologizing for old social media posts, including some that have been criticized for making fun of people with disabilities.
“Hey, I just wanted to own up to the fact that over the years on Twitter, I've definitely tweeted some unartful and insensitive things. Sometimes they worked as jokes in my head and I was dismayed to see how they read on screen,” he began in a lengthy thread.
“In the past, I'd usually leave bad tweets up just so they could be dunked on,” Jennings continued. “At least that way they could lead to smart replies and even advocacy. Deleting them felt like whitewashing a mistake.”
Hey, I just wanted to own up to the fact that over the years on Twitter, I've definitely tweeted some unartful and insensitive things. Sometimes they worked as jokes in my head and I was dismayed to see how they read on screen. 1/x
— Ken Jennings (@KenJennings) December 30, 2020
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“But I think that practice may have given the impression I stand by every failed joke I've ever posted here. Not at all!” another tweet from the 74-time Jeopardy! champion said.
In one of his old tweets from 2014, Jennings wrote, “Nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair.”
Jennings has been serving as a guest host on recent filmings of Jeopardy! since the death of longtime host Alex Trebek in November, and joined the competition series as a consulting producer in September.
When Jennings was named an interim host, actress Yvette Nicole Brown spoke out on Twitter, simply responding “nope” to the news.
Nope. https://t.co/lUkziAsYUK
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) November 24, 2020
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“I don’t hate that dude,” the Community star added in a later tweet. “I hate what he thinks is funny and I know that he is not a worthy successor to #Trebek.”
Jennings continued in his Wednesday thread: “Sometimes I said dumb things in a dumb way and I want to apologize to people who were (rightfully!) offended. It wasn't my intention to hurt anyone, but that doesn't matter: I screwed up, and I'm truly sorry.”
“If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that we should be kinder to one another. I look forward to heading into 2021 with that in mind,” he concluded.
Trebek's final Jeopardy! episodes will air next week, Jan. 4-8, and Jennings' first episode is Jan. 11.
