When the responses contain Henry Kissinger or Angela Merkel or Barack Obama, they should be embarrassed. They won’t be living that down. I’ll cut slack to the contestant who wrote “Who are Mandela and Gandhi?” since Gandhi did live in South Africa
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If they have no idea what the correct answer is they should just write a question mark.
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I’m sure that contestant will be ever so grateful for you cutting them slack. 
I think you don’t really understand the difference between knowing something and being able to produce that answer under the pressure of gameplay. You could learn, though. I encourage you to try out, and I look forward to seeing your game(s)!
That is in no way a winning strategy.
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Why? I am just curious on your philosophy on this one. A ? gives them a 0% chance of a right answer. Putting something down at least keeps the door open. Contestants are usually reasonably well-rounded (trivia-wise), bright individuals, so any guess has a shot at being correct, even if it is only a guess.
This is the way.
And indeed, those guesses can often be correct, products of subconsciously firing neurons.
A better strategy is to overcome any potential embarrassment of an incorrect answer and get something, anything out. A player’s goal is to optimize the chances of getting a correct answer under less than ideal circumstances, not to satisfy the sensibilities of viewers.
Players are contractually bound to perform at their best, and leaving blanks doesn’t actually fulfill that obligation.
Umm, I think skieurope would do very well on Jeopardy. 
Obama?? Really? Yes I think it would have been better to put a question mark.
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I’m sure you’re correct! And it would likely be a great learning experience.
Better for whom?
I actually didn’t know the pine tree. 
You were in good company! 
The contestant.
Oh, well, then I take back my comment. 
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Tough crowd.
As mentioned, it’s absolutely a better and more appropriate strategy for a contestant to guess. With the goal being to win, it serves a contestant no good whatsoever to leave a blank.
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If “strategy” means knowingly putting down a wrong answer, they should have just written “Who are Mandela and my mother? Hi Mom 
”
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This quote from Mark Twain applies when you know you’re wrong: It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.
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Yeah, that’s not “strategy”. Unless their mom has won a Nobel Peace Prize, thus hitting the secondary “pin” of Nobel winner. Could be!
If not, no, that’s not good strategy.
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And Mark Twain never played Jeopardy!
Imagine the hubris of thinking contestants should cater to your concept of decorum as opposed to, you know, winning the game!
Yeah, I have a lot of hubris. 
I think the problem with FJ yesterday is that Soweto is in South Africa but none of them got that clue, hence the Obama guess.
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I guess I thought that was common knowledge. Maybe I’m just old.
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