# Alex Trebek...Alex Trebek **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 15, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503 "2011-04-15T16:30:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/1 "2011-04-15T16:30:02Z")
Why does Trebek so often repeat the correct response when correcting a contestant? It always sounds a bit dickish to me. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/2 "2011-04-15T16:48:09Z")
I know. I heard him once correcting a contestant who incorrectly identified a Dutch painter as Breugels. Trebek says “Breugels, of course, was Flemish”. What a dick. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/3 "2011-04-15T16:49:56Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Why does Trebek so often repeat the correct response when correcting a contestant? It always sounds a bit dickish to me. I think you answered your own question. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/4 "2011-04-15T16:51:12Z")
Apparently, many people who have interacted with him over the years say that he is indeed very full of himself and an all-around smug asshole. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/5 "2011-04-15T16:51:15Z")
Trebek isn’t a dick. He is a condescending bastard. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/6 "2011-04-15T16:54:32Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > I know. I heard him once correcting a contestant who incorrectly identified a Dutch painter as Breugels. Trebek says “Breugels, of course, was Flemish”. What a dick. And then he _should_ have said it twice, once for ‘the Elder’ and once for ‘the Younger’. Not “was” but, instead, “were”. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/7 "2011-04-15T16:59:54Z")
He may be stalling while the producers say something in his earpiece? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/8 "2011-04-15T17:01:27Z")
That’s why Celebrity Jeopardy, while dumbed down so much, is fantastic - the celebs refuse to kowtow to him. Up yours Trrrebek! ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/9 "2011-04-15T18:10:06Z")
Another vote for smug and self-satisfied. I remember sitting through one of the commercial breaks when Trebek was taking audience questions, and he brought up the fact that he always filed an income tax extension request and never fully settled before November. He noted that he thought it was odd that very few people in the audience did the same. It was really difficult to hold my tongue that most of us had automatic deductions and expected refunds instead of being in the top 0.1% of the top 1% of earners with a diverse portfolio of holdings. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/10 "2011-04-15T18:12:56Z")
A lot of things Trebek does annoy me. Like when he is giving the answer he has to add an extra bit of info, to show off what he knows. And he always tries so hard to get foreign pronounciations right. Just the other day the answer was “Saladin” and the contestant said it the way that every normal English speaker pronounces it, but Trebek had to show off and go with his fancy Arabic “Sala-a-din” or something like that. Just one example, but similar things are common. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/11 "2011-04-16T08:52:51Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > That’s why Celebrity Jeopardy, while dumbed down so much, is fantastic - the celebs refuse to kowtow to him. > > Up yours Trrrebek! On that note, has Sean Connery ever actually been on Celebrity Jeopardy!? ---
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/12 "2011-04-16T09:05:10Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > A lot of things Trebek does annoy me. Like when he is giving the answer he has to add an extra bit of info, to show off what he knows. And he always tries so hard to get foreign pronounciations right. Just the other day the answer was “Saladin” and the contestant said it the way that every normal English speaker pronounces it, but Trebek had to show off and go with his fancy Arabic “Sala-a-din” or something like that. Just one example, but similar things are common. He annoys me too. However, one thing that has occurred to me is that he does this all day every day (or whatever - whenever they tape), so for him it is probably not that hard to start getting the accents right in the various languages. Once you do know how to say it “correctly,” it’s probably annoying to say it the genericized way. For example, I am not a native Spanish speaker, but I am fluent with a good accent. It’s very hard for me to call someone on the phone with an obviously Spanish name like “Jorge” or “Roberto” and not say it with a Spanish accent. Spanish words and names sound only about 100 times better with a Spanish accent. However, it also sounds funny to drop a Spanish pronunciation into an English sentence. It’s like this battle. But in sum, I agree - he seems to be pretty impressed with himself. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/13 "2011-04-16T14:24:11Z")
EvilTOJ writes: \> On that note, has Sean Connery ever actually been on Celebrity Jeopardy!? No. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/14 "2011-04-16T14:58:03Z")
All right, now HOW can I not do this at a dinner party tonight? I swear, if someone asks: “Mmm… is this basil in the souffle?” I’ll just have to answer: “Oh, I’m sorry… the correct answer is tarragon. Tarragon.” ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/15 "2011-04-16T18:44:28Z")
> [@tesseract](#): > > He annoys me too. However, one thing that has occurred to me is that he does this all day every day (or whatever - whenever they tape), so for him it is probably not that hard to start getting the accents right in the various languages. Once you do know how to say it “correctly,” it’s probably annoying to say it the genericized way. For example, I am not a native Spanish speaker, but I am fluent with a good accent. It’s very hard for me to call someone on the phone with an obviously Spanish name like “Jorge” or “Roberto” and not say it with a Spanish accent. Spanish words and names sound only about 100 times better with a Spanish accent. However, it also sounds funny to drop a Spanish pronunciation into an English sentence. It’s like this battle. But in sum, I agree - he seems to be pretty impressed with himself. You know what, I hadn’t thought of it like that. But now I realize that I do the same thing when I speak a sentence with a foreign word in a language I do. So I guess I can forgive Trebek for doing the same thing while reading a clue. But I am still annoyed with him in other ways. But it was unnecessary for Trebek to say Saladin, he could have just said “correct” and not try to one-up the contestant. But now I am just nitpicking things that annoy me. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/16 "2011-04-16T18:54:01Z")
I think it’s just supposed to allow a few seconds to pass and clear the air for the next question. It’s almost a rhythm thing. > [@PSXer](#): > > A lot of things Trebek does annoy me. Like when he is giving the answer he has to add an extra bit of info, to show off what he knows. Heaven forfend we learn something while watching Jeopardy, right? 😉 > [@](#): > > Trebek had to show off and go with his fancy Arabic “Sala-a-din” or something like that. Just one example, but similar things are common. He tries to pronounce any foreign word in the appropriate accent. I call that Trebekking. During Friday’s episode it was pretty funny to hear him try to do a Borscht Belt accent for an entire category. He should stick to French. ---
**Author:** ![whereismymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/49beb7/32.png) [@whereismymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whereismymind)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/17 "2011-04-16T19:06:14Z")
you are just NOW realizing this?? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/18 "2011-04-16T19:56:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > He tries to pronounce any foreign word in the appropriate accent. I call that Trebekking. During Friday’s episode it was pretty funny to hear him try to do a Borscht Belt accent for an entire category. He should stick to French. Oh, I wish I’d seen that. I haven’t caught a lot of Jeopardy since cutting cable. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/19 "2011-04-16T20:14:28Z")
I don’t find it annoying, but then I haven’t watched Jeopardy! much in years. I would think the sort of person who plays Jeopardy! appreciates hearing the correct answer. And sometimes I like hearing things twice, gets it in the mind more. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b77776/32.png) [@The\_Jay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Jay)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503/20 "2011-04-19T15:48:01Z")
Yeah, fuck people that know stuff. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alex-trebek-alex-trebek/578503.md?page=2)