Today's episodes will air December 17 and 18.

The change:

The categories are now written in a more comical fashion (in somewhat the same style as a lot of J! cats), rather than flat-out providing the ACTUAL subject of the question.

For example, the category "Full Frontal" carried a question about "All Quiet on the Western Front".

"Your Teens" involved the numbers 13 to 19.

And so on.

In other words, completely neutering any strategic value the menu might have.

Weird, though I wonder if it was intended as an audience-holder more than it was a strategic tool. As in "Hmm, I gotta stay tuned because I'm curious to know what "Hung Low" is about."

"Massive tool Former "American Idol" auditioner William Hung somehow skyrocketed to fame after famously butchering what early-2000s pop hit?"

/WLHUNG
//Oh, you a big William Hung fan?
///Why does everyone keep asking me that?!
////Obscure?

I dunno if I agree with that. I submit for example the categories on Pyramid (namely the 70s and 80s versions). The categories were a clever spin, but you could often make an educated guess what they'd be about. That in and of itself might add another dimension that the previous Millionaire Menu lacked. "Well, if the next category is what I think it is, then I'm golden...but what if it's something else?"

And you're willing to guess on a question you might not be sure on on a "maybe"? 'Cuz I'm not.

Of course I'M not. But keep in mind that what rational people are willing to do does not always equal what some game show contestants are willing to do.

Which does not change the fact that the Menu no longer has strategic value. It just emphasizes that the average American is a moron.

Basically. I was pretty disappointed to see it during the taping. Some other categories were "Oh, Boy!" , "Got Milk?" and "Burn After Reading".

Oh, and by the way: Joel Stein is a moron. Question for anyone else who's been in-studio for the new season: has the audience ever protested to the staff about the credibility of the "expert"?

Well played!

You just have to make sure it's a "Taxi" question, and not a math question.

Then you walk. Besides, it's not like you have to commit to the question based on knowing the category.

Okay, but the point is, by then it may be too late.

The strategic advantage people here were suggesting was that one might look at the next question on the Menu and say "hey, I'm really good in 13th Century Enema Technology, so it might be worth my while here to take a guess on this current question that I'm not sure about, where I would be walking if I didn't know what the subject of the next question was." Now, they say "Okay, I'm stuck, do I want to guess? Well, let's see what the next category is..."Sit On My Face." Hmm. Could be about chairs, could be about facial features, could be about Monty Python. No freakin' idea. Walk." The strategic advantage is gone, which makes me wonder if it was ever intended to be there in the first place.

Question -

Are all 15 categories disguised? Or, is there a mix. If mixed, I'm curious if there's consistency as to which questions are masked. I'm guessing $25k and $50k would be quite regularly.

"Got Milk?" was the $25,000 question. "Your Teens" was for $2,000. "Burn After Reading" was a $125,000 question. "Oh, Boy!" was for $500,000. There doesn't seem to be any deliberate mix of serious/funny categories.

For some unknown reason, this one made me laugh uncontrollably.
Got Milk? How silly. Why do they do this? Why, I ask?
I agree with Chris L. Seeing these alleged witicisms disguised as categories don't help you at all in determining the area of the impending questions. Someone was watching too much Match Game '98 and decided, "Hey! Got an idea!".
I find it neither clever nor creative. Been there, done it on too many other shows.
Burn After Reading, for crying out loud. Fahrenheit 451? Mission: Impossible? Not helpful in the least.

The question was "How many numbers between ten and twenty end with the suffix '-teen'?" Five, six, seven, eight.

"Why does milk appear white?" It contains myosin, it contains opsin, it contains casein, it contains calcium.

Coincidentally, "Burn After Reading" is exactly what I wanted to do upon reading this thread.

Thank you sir. :-)

Oh, so it's actually about milk. I was expecting it to be about Harvey Milk. Or people who've appeared on milk cartons.
Or cows. Or famous people who've been breast-fed.

Or mothers I'd like to...kiss.

Yeah, kiss.

Approves.