How did Mehta manage to get away with throwing up the obscene gesture on national TV? According to E! News , the contestant was talking about pizza. For those who haven't tuned into the show or have forgotten all about it because of Netflix and reality TV, Trebek steps away from his host lectern and interviews the episode's contestants after each commercial break. It's one way to get to know the competitors and lets them show a bit of personality. Mehta used his interview as an opportunity to talk about what he's doing at Stanford and give Trebek a middle finger. That takes some guts.