Jeopardy! Contestant Flips the Bird in Front of Alex Trebek and Viewers: "Damn Right I Did"

He later took to Twitter to respond to questions about his obscene gesture

By Corinne Heller Feb 23, 2017 4:31 PMTags

We'll take "obscene gestures" for 1,000, Alex.

Stanford University math and computer science major and Texas native Viraj Mehta got away with flipping off host Alex Trebek—and the viewers—while competing on Jeopardy!'s annual College Championship competition, in an episode that aired Wednesday. He did it for about seven seconds while talking about...pizza.

Trebek had asked Mehta about a formula he created in his math classes.

"You took a class in differential geometry, which helped you analyze another food product," he said.

"Yeah, there's a theorem in differential geometry that explains really, well, why, if you fold a slice of pizza, the tip stays in the air so you can eat it easily, and that was really cool to work out in class," Mehta explained.

"So you came up with a formula that explains that," Trebek said.

"Yeah," the contestant replied.

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Flipping the Bird
Sony Pictures Television

Mehta ended up winning the game and moving on as a College Championship finalist.

It is unclear whether he intended to flip the bird. Viewers certainly took notice of his gesture. He later took to Twitter to answer some queries about it.

"This kid on Jeopardy just finessed his way into flipping off the camera for a good 3 seconds #jeopardy," one person wrote, to which he responded, "Damn right I did." 

"Yo viraj, what did America do to make you flip us all the bird #jeopardy," another person asked.

"America did 2016," he replied.