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You Don't Know Jack Volume 4: The Ride is the ninth installment in the You Don't Know Jack series, and the fourth general knowledge edition. Unlike previous entries, the game is broken up into individual episodes that focus on a certain theme, and all questions asked relate back to that theme.
Story[]
While there isn't a story of sorts, there is an overarching plot that plays out across the episodes. At the start of the second episode, Buzz replaces Cookie as the host of the game, but is then dropped down a trap door by Cookie mid-introduction. Helen phones in and tells Cookie that the trap door leads to The Bottom and that there was a change in the line-up, hence the reason Buzz was in the booth and not Cookie. After Cookie protests, Helen reluctantly allows Cookie to resume hosting duties.
Eventually, Buzz returns and confronts Cookie, but is dropped down the trap door again. Guy suddenly appears and tricks Cookie into falling down the still-open trap door before taking his place in the booth. A few episodes later, Guy is suddenly dropped down the trap door mid-introduction by Buzz, pretending to be Guy in his place. Schmitty steps in and, despite Buzz's protests and stating that he hadn't had his turn, drops him down the trap door before taking over as host.
Once Buzz returns again, he intimidates Schmitty and claims that he was supposed to be the replacement for Nate after Vol. 1, but got pushed out by the other hosts. However, Buzz accidentally ends up dropping himself down the trap door. While Schmitty is distracted by Buzz's mistake, he is suddenly dropped down the trap door himself by the return of Nate, who takes up the role of host one last time.
In the episode "Games", Buzz calls Nate from The Bottom—along with the other hosts—and protests how he wants to host his own episodes but was constantly declined. Nate the offers to let Buzz ask 'the buzz game question' as a Guest Host Question. Once done, Nate ends the call and gets back to hosting. Once the final episode is complete, Nate and the player/s take the elevator to The Bottom. Once there, the player/s have a choice of four options on how they want to end the game.
If A Touching Sentimental Wrap-Up is chosen, Nate, Cookie, Guy and Schmitty will all comment on their hosting duties. Despite the name of the ending, they talk poorly of the boring and monotonous nature of their jobs.
If A Wrap-Up That's Unsentimental and Tasteless is selected, the hosts will abuse each other before lining up to moon the player/s at once. The phrase "THE BOTTOM!" is written across their butt cheeks, and they all say in unison, "You Don't Know CRACK!"
If Reveal Old Man's Identity is picked, a figure made from pipe-cleaners appears in front of a picture of a field as Old Man talks.
Finally, if the option Play the Mother of All Fart Sound Effects is taken, true to it's name, a minute-long fart sound effect will play.
Regardless of which ending is chosen, the game will close down upon each ending's completion.
Features & Question Types[]
The Ride is unique from previous installments in several ways. For a start, before even signing in, players are shown a question and two possible options they can select. Depending on their choice, the theme of the episode will change. After that, it's normal sign in and play as usual. However, games are now 13 questions long; even if the game asks you if you want to play a 7 question or 21 question game, the unseen option of 13 will always be chosen. Because questions are all predetermined based on the theme you chose, players instead choose the amount of money a question is worth.
Additionally, the function of the screws has been changed slightly. Players who choose to 'Screw Their Neighbor' are tasked with pressing the 'S' key as many times as fast as possible, firing screws into the screen and obscuring the question and answers before forcing another player to answer the question. This variation of the "Screw Your Neighbor" system is known as Flack-Jack. No other JACK game would change the screw system like this until YDKJ: Full Stream in Jackbox Party Pack 5.
Trivia[]

The German exclusive Gift Box varient of You Don't Know Jack: The Ride's retail box
- If the player types "Fuck You" as their name to the elevator lady, she'll kick you out of the game.
- The game can sometimes prevent the first player from entering their own name at the sign-up screen, or deactivate all letters except for specific ones (vowels only, "Y" only, "S" only, etc.) If the player types a name with more numbers of the same letter for example: "Ssssssssssssss". She will react to these names, she can also trigger if they submit "Tricky Dick" as their name and announce that they picked one of the credits names.
- Possible sources for the fonts used in the game are:
- A modified version of “Device” by Dan X. Solo, for question text, options, and miscellaneous UI text. This font is no longer sold online. The lowercase letters in the original are used for both uppercase and lowercase letters, and the lowercase letters are shrunk to 90%. In addition, some symbols are from a different font, e.g. quotation marks, #, %, +, @ (which is missing from Device), £, €.
- “Housebroken” by House Industries, for the subtitle “THE RIDE” (inverted to remove the background), BINGO letters, and the “JACK ATTACK” header.
- “FF Dynamoe” by Just Van Rossum for the embedded label font. Modified to not have the black background behind it.
- The Moral Dilemma question, response, and comment text likely use some version of Franklin Gothic Condensed.
- “Mason Serif” for the player numbers and the Moral Dilemma response numbers (“1” is taken from Times New Roman, however).
- The German version of You Don't Know Jack: The Ride (known colloquially as You Don't Know Jack 3: Abwärts) has an exclusive gift box varient of the game's packaging¹.
- The rendition of "Bingo" in Dodo Re Mi is a cover of the background music for the Jack BINGO question.