You could just as easily interprest Trebek’s answer as “It’s good that you don’t have people saying horrible things about your work.” It’s way too ambiguous and off-the-cuff a remark to read as much into it as the OP is.
I found Trebek to be… well, normal. He knows his role, and he pretty much sticks with it. During my show he engaged in some Q&A between shows, and even fielded a question about Sean Connery.
You have to prepare three stories, one of which Alex will ask you to expand on after the first commercial break. He picked the lamest of my stories (being a Bruce Lee film fanatic) and instead of asking me to recite some lines (which I thought would have been funny) he asked me about the philosophical side of his work. I was like, “Dude, it’s all about Bruce beating the shit out of Chuck Norris in the Coliseum!”
Now Ben Stein is the ultimate game show host. He stayed in his trailer during most breaks on the day of my show, but I filmed last and he hung out during all of the break. We had a little small talk - his sister attended the same grad program as I did - and he was quite effusive in his praise. (He said that I had scared him to death and he needed the money - I tied him in the end.) Nancy Pimental, who was the new Jimmy Kimmel at the time, sucked pretty bad. Her jokes were totally random. Trebek’s okay with me, but I wonder why he looks so fuckin’ miserable in my commemorative Jeopardy! picture - like someone shit in his cornflakes!
It was an NPR correspondant, but I don’t remember which one.
:shrug: Like many other Dopers, I’ve been there and done that.
Do you also find it hard to believe that he reads the clues ahead of time? He does that too. And he does know a few things in his own right; give him a little credit.
I DVR Jeopardy! every day and catch up when I can. This morning, I watched a few episodes from a week or two ago, and was pretty well floored by something Trebek said.
Two of the contestants were men and one was a woman. When Trebek announced the Final Jeopardy category was “Pro Football Geography”, he added in quick comment along the lines of “Ooo, Susan won’t be happy with that category”. My wife was understandably pissed at his assumption that a woman would have trouble with a football question.
Hal Briston
Maybe, there was more to Trebek’s “slight” than is first apparent.
Yes, maybe he implied that women were not as knowlegeable or interested in football as men are. However, couldn’t he also be implying that women are not as good as men concerning geography? Heck, I wouldn’t put it past him. :mad:
He’s been insufferable ever since he and Jesse Ventura began their work with the Men in Black.
Can you think of a gameshow host in the History of Man who is/was deep, multi-dimensional and thoroughly witty?
Stephen Fry, the host of QI.
I was trying to quote Rigamarole there. Pretend I did.
Hey, the whole point of Jeopardy! is to fire off 61 trivia questions (well, answers) in ~22 minutes. If Trebek had more of a personality, it’d just be an annoying time-waster and get in the way. Frankly, I’d be content if they did away with the whole “chat with the contestants” bit, though I can understand the purpose; it helps puts contestants at ease, making for better games.
Besides, Trebek’s put in his dues, hosting game shows as far back as 1966. So he doesn’t like violent video games? Duh, he’s old.
No, I’d say there are two reasons that people enjoy Jeopardy. The first is that they like hearing and trying to answer the questions, as you say. The second part is that they like watching the contestants (especially the returning ones), rooting for the ones they like and seeing how they react under pressure. Now admittedly Jeopardy is much more about the questions then the contestants (as opposed to Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which is almost entirely the other way),but people still enjoy knowing something about the people playing (witness the intense interest in Ken Jennings).
This is where Alex falls flat. Those interviews are somewhat important to at least part of the viewing audience, and making them the awkward snooze fests they are now seems deterimental to the show as a whole, especially since it doesn’t seem like it should be that hard to draw in someone with a little more skill in this area, given the salary I imagine Trebek pulls.
On the other hand, Jeopardy has pulled in viewers for about a bajillion years, so I guess it isn’t holding them back too much.
I dunno how intense it was in him personally, rather than just seeing how long he could keep his streak going. Beyond the fact that he was from Utah, I can’t say I remember anything about him. He had an episode on A&E’s Biography immediately after his loss, but beyond being a trivia question for Jeopardy! fans, who will recognize him a few years from now?
I don’t know if he was trying to imply that women know less than men about football or geography (neither is universally true, anyway), but as I recall, no-one on the show got the question right.
The answer was something along the lines of: The only state on the Mississippi River to have two professional football (or NFL) teams.
One guy guessed “Florida.” The other guy (IIRC) and the woman both guessed “Minnesota”.
The answer (which I got, while knowing next to nothing about football) was “Missouri”: St. Louis and Kansas City. I remember the teams as the Cardinals and the Chiefs, which probably isn’t true anymore; but it was the first state on the river that struck me as having two teams. Florida isn’t even ON the Mississippi.
[Matt Groening]
“Those prizes are rightfully mine!”
[/MG]
Sure enough, although it’s now the Rams and the Chiefs.
My wife and I both got it, and even gave the answer before the commercial break, when Trebek gave out the category – Missouri is always the stumper answer in one of our favorite football trivia questions…“Name all six states with more than one NFL team”. Judging by the wording of the category, we both figured they’d go somewhere along those lines.
The other 7 of 8: CA, NJ, MD, OH, PA, FL, TX. [/nitpick]
We already have a thread going on about this. It’s quite obvious Jennings is writing in jest.
And I realize that I overreacted a bit in my OP. It was just my mood at the time. When I heard Alex say “Good!” I said out loud to my TV “Fucko off, Trebek!” (Yes, I actually said “Fucko”- that’s how much the SDMB has affected me.) I now realize that maybe, as some of you have stated, Trebek was at a loss for words and couldn’t think of anything else to say about video games at the moment. I hereby follow Ken Jennings’s advice to “quit with the Trebek-hatin’” and formally apologize for my comments. I never expected it to be moved outside The Pit- I’m just glad it led to an interesting debate about Trebek’s mannerisms.
Lets see, he’s introverted and has difficulty making small talk, yet he’s intelligent and is familiar with languages other than English.
Yep. He’s Canadian. 
Yep, when I posted the link I hadn’t seen the seperate thread. (Hey, I was only an hour behind )
Well now, let’s not be so quick to judge. For all we know, Susan might have made some off-screen comment about how she doesn’t like football (or maybe geography). We can’t just assume that Trebek was jumping to conclusions based on her gender.
Besides, after all these years of hosting Jeopardy!, I’m sure that he’s seen his share of female sports aficionados.