Reception
Steve Craig from the University of North Texas called Cliff Clavin a 'buffoon' "to be ridiculed and pitied for the standards of hegemonic masculinity". Wendall Wittler from NBC News website called Cliff a "classic" character but found his friendship with Norm Peterson "superficial" and nothing compared to Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and Ed Norton (Art Carney) from the television sitcom The Honeymooners.
According to the April 1–4, 1993, telephone survey of 1,011 people by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press (now Pew Research Center), Sam Malone was voted a favorite of 26%; Cliff Clavin was voted a favorite of 2%. For a question of having a spin-off of a character, 15% voted Sam, 12% voted Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson), 10% voted Norm Peterson, and 29% voted no spin-offs. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), whose own spin-off Frasier debuted in September 1993, was voted 2% to have his own show.
Cliff's appearance in Jeopardy! in "What Is... Cliff Clavin?" was reviewed by real-world sources. Andrew Razeghi from his book, Hope, described Cliff as a poster child of Joy Paul Guilford for a response to the "Final Jeopardy!" clue that Razeghi considered neither right nor wrong. Jeffrey Robinson from DVD Talk found category topics, such as post office and beer, related to Cliff and Cliff's appearance in Jeopardy! a "riot". In the Jeopardy! fan community, his losing $22,000, which he scored in two rounds, in Final Jeopardy! round inspired the name, "Clavin's rule", and the future contestants to avoid doing the same thing Cliff did in Jeopardy!. Hot Springs Village Voice considered his know-it-all nature a cause of his own mishap at the game show.
Read more about this topic: Cliff Clavin
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