It seems there’s a Portal fan working for Jeopardy. Monday night’s episode included a set of Double Jeopardy categories that mostly seemed to be not-so-subtle references to Valve’s classic puzzlers.
First up was “Composers,” which doesn’t seem to be a reference on its own (although Portal and Portal 2 certainly had memorable soundtracks thanks to composers Kelly Bailey and Mike Morasky). “Science Time,” however, is the first step on the Portal stairway. Both Portal and Portal 2 take place in Aperture Science, a mad-science lab where technological advancements far outpaced humanity’s abilities to control it–hence GLaDOS, for example.
The category “Strange Bedfellows” is a reference to the chapter in Portal 2 where GLaDOS gets installed on a potato. It’s also the name of a fairly popular Portal fanfic.
“You Can’t Have Just One” refers to the portals themselves, where they always come in pairs, while “Port’L” is pretty on the nose. “The Cake Is A Lie” brings the whole Portal theme home with a series of answers based on everything having to do with the word “cake” without actually being about the delicious confection.
Sadly, the gag wasn’t extended into Final Jeopardy, which was about The War Of The Worlds. A shame, that.
