MIT Graduate Program in Comparative Media Studies

Studying Media and Making Media

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Podcast: “The Spiciest Memelord – An Interview with Jeopardy Champ Lilly Chin”

Lilly Chin and Alex Trebek. Image credit: Jeopardy Productions

In early 2017, Lilly Chin won the Jeopardy College Championship. The MIT senior and Comparative Media Studies minor took home a check for $100,000, but with her Final Jeopardy response “Who is the spiciest memelord?”, she also earned a spot in the same internet lore she studied.

We talked to Lilly about that Jeopardy experience and discovered that sudden fame, in a digital world where anyone can reach you on forums or Facebook, isn’t always pretty. But Lilly showed us that the right education, whether the enlightening kind you get as a CMS student or the self-guided (or self-inflicted) type you get through years of trawling the darker corners of the internet, can help anyone prepare for their 15 minutes of uninvited fame: or as she put it, for the surreality of becoming other people’s media object.

About Andrew Whitacre

Andrew directs the communications efforts for CMS/W and its research groups. A native of Washington, D.C., he holds a degree in communication from Wake Forest University, with a minor in humanities, as well as an M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College.

His work includes drawing up and executing strategic communications plans, with projects including website design, social media management and training, press outreach, product launches, fundraising campaign support, and event promotions.