You Don't Know Jack
You Don’t Know Jack (stylized in all caps) is a series of trivia games from Jackbox Games (previously Jellyvision, Inc.) that is characterized by its tendency to blend high culture and pop culture in its questions, snide humor, and fart jokes. Its tagline is The show where high culture and pop culture collide.
As of 2023, there are two entries that support Phontrollers: You Don't Know Jack 2015 and You Don't Know Jack: Full Stream. Both of these games are hosted by the character Cookie Masterson, voiced by Tom Gottlieb.
For information on the YOU DON'T KNOW JACK series as a whole, see the article on the Jackbox Games Wiki.
Common game mechanics
Question types
Most questions in You Don't Know Jack (internally called "shorties") are multiple-choice questions with 4 options. There are certain special question types that recur between games:
DisOrDat
The DisOrDat first appeared in YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Volume 2, and is a rapid-fire round in which players are tasked to distinguish seven items between two categories (for example, if a name is of a Roman Catholic Pope or of a song by Britney Spears), sometimes both.
In its earlier entries, only one player could play the game, but this is not true of the entries that support Phontrollers.
Gibberish Question
The Gibberish Question tasks the players to figure out the secret phrase whose syllables each rhyme with the given "gibberish phrase". (For example, "Forge trouble, a tush" could be the gibberish phrase for "George W. Bush"). The Gibberish Question appeared in most versions on platforms that support keyboard input.
The question value for the Gibberish Question reduces as the time runs out, but three helpful clues gradually reveal themselves as it does.
Jack Attack
At the end of each game, there is a final round called the Jack Attack, where players buzz in to match the given "call" to the correct "response" according to the given clue. (For example, if the call is "Fred Flintstone", the correct response may be "Bedrock" if the clue is about where the character is from, but the correct response may be "Mr. Slate" if the clue is about who the character's boss is).
The gameplay mechanics of Jack Attack are the same in all versions until YOU DON'T KNOW JACK: Full Stream.
Screws
The Screw is an item given to each player at the start of the game (and on Question 11 on 21-question games). When used, it forces another player to answer, but if that player gets the question right, the player who deployed the Screw will pay for the winnings. Since YOU DON'T KNOW JACK Volume 4: The Ride, if the player targeted by the Screw answers incorrectly, the player who used the Screw will also get the money they lost.
In YOU DON'T KNOW JACK: Full Stream, the Screw received a complete overhaul, and affects all players who have not already submitted an answer.
You Don’t Know Jack 2015
You Don’t Know Jack 2015 is one of five games in the first Jackbox Party Pack. It contains 50 episodes of 11 questions each.
Phontroller
The phontroller for YOU DON'T KNOW JACK 2015 is a port of the JackPad app. On the screen appear four icons corresponding to the face buttons of the controller on the given platform (or a generic graphic in the Xbox layout on PC, Mac, and Linux), which each correspond to an option. There is also a pink "SCREW" button on the lower part of the screen, which, as the text suggests, deploys the Screw.
The phontroller is optional for singleplayer games, but required for multiplayer games.
Point values
As with its prequel YOU DON'T KNOW JACK 2011, the prize money for each question is determined by how soon the player buzzes in. In Round 1, each question is worth a maximum of $2000, decreasing by $1 per centisecond. In Round 2, the value is doubled.
Wrong Answer of the Game
As with its prequel YOU DON'T KNOW JACK 2011, each episode hides a prize behind one wrong answer. The wrong answer is always related to the humorous "sponsor" introduced at the start of the game. The Wrong Answer of the Game is worth $4000 in Round 1, and $8000 in Round 2.
Special question types
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK 2015 retails all special question types from YOU DON'T KNOW JACK 2011.
DisOrDat
As with YOU DON'T KNOW JCAK 2011, the player with the lowest score plays the DisOrDat, with other players playing along. If the player gets a question wrong, and another player has already submitted the correct answer, they "steal" the money. The prize money is divided equally among every player who stole.
The player gets a time bonus depending on how much time is left on the clock after answering all seven questions.
Who's the Dummy?
Who's the Dummy? is a question type accompanying a skit with the host's ventriloquist puppet, Billy O'Brien. Due to being a ventriloquist puppet, Billy cannot pronounce the B, M, or P sound, which is also reflected in the on-screen captions. (For example, a question about where he can go without a passport has the options "The Dahanas, Guan, Cuba, or the Doninican Retudlic".)
Order Question
The Order Question (short for "It's the Put the Choices into Order then Buzz In and See If You are Right Question") is a question where three or four items are given in the question text, and the player must choose the option out of the four that puts them in the correct order according to the given criterion. This question is worth an extra $1000.
Fortune Cookie Fortunes
Cookie's Fortune Cookie Fortunes with Cookie "Fortune Cookie" Masterson is a question type where the question is related to the fortune written inside a fortune cookie.
Funky Trash
Funky Trash is a revival of the occasional questions about trash from a celebrity or a fictional character in the earliest entries. The host lists a handful of items supposedly from a certain person's trash, and the players must choose who the trash supposedly came from.
Kangaroo, Peanut, Albert Einstein, or Uranus?
Kangaroo, Peanut, Albert Einstein, or Uranus? is a question type where the options are always these four. This is a sequel of "Elephant, Mustard, Teddy Roosevelt, or Dracula?" from the Facebook version, and was succeeded by "Octopus, Coffee, Queen Elizabeth, or Frankenstein?" in Full Stream.
Foggy Facts with Old Man
Foggy Facts with Old Man is accompanied by a skit with the old stage hand Old Man, and the player is tasked with helping him remember what he's thinking about based on his confused ranting.
You Don’t Know Jack: Full Stream
You Don’t Know Jack: Full Stream is one of five games in the Jackbox Party Pack 5. Each game is 11 questions long. It is hosted by Cookie Masterson alongside the Voice of Binjpipe, voiced by Alyssa Davis. It is the first game in the series to support 8 players and the first to support an audinece.
Premise
Following the events of 2015, the You Don't Know Jack show was acquired by the streaming service Binjpipe, which is obsessed with collecting user data and feeding the Algorithm. However, while they are sinister and dangerous, they are also incompetent.
Phontroller
The phontroller for YOU DON'T KNOW JACK: Full Stream has been renewed and work much similarly to the other Jackbox Party Pack games. The questions and options are shown on the phontroller, which gets messed up in one way or another when someone uses a Screw.
Screws
The gameplay mechanic for the Screws was changed completely. Instead of every player getting one at the start of the game, the worst-performing player in Question 3, which is always the DisOrDat, receives a Screw. The worst-performing player at the end of Question 5 also gets a Screw, which deploys a stronger effect than the Question 3 Screw.
When deployed, the Screw affects all players who have not submitted an answer. It changes how the question is displayed on those players' devices, for example by turning all the text upside down, removing all the vowel letters, or making the player scroll down to the bottom of an insanely long text box in order to dismiss a modal. If a screwed player answers incorrectly, the player who deployed the Screw gets a $500 bonus.
Audience
Up to 10,000 players can join the Audience. Based on the percentage of audience members who got a question wrong, the players gain more prize money as a bonus.
Special question types
Special question types are as follows:
DisOrDat
For the first time, the DisOrDat allows all players to participate on equal footing. The DisOrDat is always the third question of the game, and every episode has a DisOrDat as the third question. As stated above, the worst-performing player (or players, depending on player count) gets a Screw, as long as that lowest score is 4 of 7 or worse. The DisOrDat is worth $300 per item, with a maximum value of $2100.
Gibberish Question
The Gibberish Question returns to the series for the first time since the Facebook version. For the first time, all players simultaneously type and submit their own response. The Gibberish Question has a maximum value of $3000.
Binjpipe Recommends
Based on "usage history", the player must recommend one of the four given shows to "watch next".
Players' Choice
Players choose which of the two questions to play next. (For example, the game may ask whether the players want "a loud question or a quiet question".)
Octopus, Coffee, Queen Elizabeth, or Frankenstein?
Octopus, Coffee, Queen Elizabeth, or Frankenstein? is a question type that is a continuation of "Kangaroo, Peanut, Albert Einstein, or Uranus?" from 2015. The last option may refer to "Frankenstein's Monster" or "Frankenstein—the doctor, that is", as clarified by the question theme song.
Data Mining
Players are given three "search terms" related to a celebrity or fictional character and must determine who the queries supposedly came from. This is a spiritual sequel to "Funky Trash".
Jack Attack
The gameplay mechanics of the Jack Attack have been altered to fit the new phontroller. Each of the seven items now have a set of 6 options, more than one of which may be right. The value for each option decreases with time, from $1000 to $500 then finally to $100. If the option is correct, the player gains money, while if the option is incorrect, the player loses that same amount of money.
Fangames
You Don't Know Jack has a handful of fangames, some of which support phontrollers.
Fangames supporting phontrollers
- Salty Trivia with Candy Barre
- You Don't Know Jack: The Re-Ride (based on Volume 4: The Ride)
Fangames not supporting phontrollers
- You Don't Know Cock (Parody by the band Primus)
- You Don't Know Jack: Game Over Edition (Flash, video game themed)
- You Don't Know Jack: The Rise (Scratch, singleplayer only)
- You Don't Know Jack: Fan-Archy (unreleased)