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Comment by Andrenid | Hacker News Reader

Not being from the US (and not getting Jeopardy in my country), i've never heard of this guy. He's incredibly entertaining in this interview, definitely caught me off guard considering how serious and straight-faced he seemed throughout the Watson matches (Thanks, YouTube).

This interview is the funniest thing i've read today (3 hour work commute, I read LOTS.)

Oh, and did anyone else keep wanting to upvote his answers?

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Ken Jennings got famous as being the longest-lasting Jeopardy contestant ever. He remained undefeated in Jeopardy for over 70 games, and won over 2 million dollars. He was very likeable on the show as well, especially given that we were able to enjoy so much of the show with him on it, which is unusual for contestants.

He's somewhat notorious in the IT industry because his day job (not sure if he still holds it) was a programmer, which at least endeared him to me.

Notorious?

Notorious: publicly or generally known, as for a particular trait

It's an acceptable usage, though I freely concede I overuse it when 'famous' would be more easily understood.

Ah, OK. Given the negative connotation (at least for its more common usage) I was wondering if there was some Ken Jennings backlash out there that I'd missed.

You might be conflating notorious with "nefarious," which is used when someone is notorious for something bad.

I hate to be one that argues about definitions, but:

generally known and talked of; especially : widely and unfavorably known

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/notorious

You don't have to be famous to be nefarious.

flagrantly wicked or impious : evil

Origin: Latin nefarius, from nefas crime

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nefarious

As in the Duran Duran song

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