I think this is an interesting view into the mind of Alex Trebek.
I was on Jeopardy in 2000. I was only on for one day, and came in second place. At that time, though, there was the possibility that you could win five times consecutively.
Therefore, before you competed, you had to fill out a little sheet with five short stories or facts about yourself for your short interview portion of the show. You also had to bring changes of clothing with you, since five episodes of the show were taped daily in Culver City.
I filled out a few stories, but had a hard time coming up with enough interesting ones. Finally, in desperation, I mentioned in the fifth one that I had met Alex Trebek once before, when he had visited the Navy base I was stationed at in Sigonella, Sicily on a USO tour. (I had passed the test on that visit, too, but hadn’t been invited on the show.)
Wouldn’t you know, that’s the story he chose to use.
I don’t watch Jeopardy! that often, but I remember watching several years ago and hearing him read an answer that referred to the Brazilian newspaper Jornal do Brasil. He pronounced it as if it were Spanish (horr-NALL doe bra-SEALL) which is almost nothing like it is pronounced in Portuguese (zho-NAO doo bra-ZEEO). I thought it rather silly that he was apparently pretending to know how to correctly pronounce a foreign phrase when he clearly didn’t.
Wow - now I KNOW my annual subscription to the SDMB is well worth the price of admission !!! I thought I was alone in my dislike of Alex Trebek.
When he first appeared as host (1984?), he was clumsy, he let people get away whithout phrasing responses in the form of a question, and was generally inept. As the years passed he went from inept bumbling host to an (ersatz) erudite, urbane, conceited “scholar”. His personality went from something I disliked to something I despise.
Now all of a sudden he revels in the fact that no one was able to figure out that the 3 Fates were
[obnoxious sneering Trebek voice]
“Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos”.
[/obnoxious sneering Trebek voice]
He dishes out those “answers” (well they are really questions) as if he KNEW everything. And let’s not forget that when he has to pronounce a foreign language answer, he does so in his “here’s looking down at you” attitude proudly proclaiming that The Little Prince was written by “Antoine de St Saint-Exupéry”. (stated in an accent so thick you can HEAR the acute sign over the ‘e’).
I’d say my evaluation of Trebek is similar to that of Nutty Bunny’s assessment. And Sampiro, I must admit that Trebek did not personally inflict any tragedy into my life and I am sorry for your loss. However, I am currently doing research into linking Trebek with the Hillside Stranglers.
“I’ll have SWORDS for $800”
“That’s ‘S-WORDS’ Mr Connery. ‘S-WORDS’ !!!”
And in memorium, a mention should be made to Art Fleming. The only host of “Jeopardy” as far as I’m concerned.
**Art Fleming ** (1924 - 1995)
May he rest in peace.
He does come off as a bit pretentious, but I don’t mind. Hey, it’s Jeopardy, it’s not your average game show - and when it tries to be (such as today, when they did College Jeopardy and had a WHOLE CATEGORY about The Matrix), it doesn’t quite work.
He does come off as a bit pretentious, but I don’t mind. Hey, it’s Jeopardy, it’s not your average game show - and when it tries to be (such as today, when they did College Jeopardy and had a WHOLE CATEGORY about The Matrix), it doesn’t quite work.
Yeah, he’s always seemed really wooden at times and overly pretentious in others. The foreign-word pronunciation bugs the hell out of me too.
There was one bit where he was chatting with the contestants, and one of them mentioned that he/she was in medical school, and Alex replied with “Yes, so many people go through medical school and it’s such a grueling, life-draining experience and still so many people make sacrifices and still fail. Good luck to you on that.” The audience started laughing, and he really didn’t get how he’d said anything inappropriate. So that knocked him down a peg for me, from pretentious to just goofy.
But I have to give him credit: he was awesome in the best episode of “The X-Files” ever made, “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”, as one of the Men in Black. And he’s got a good sense of humor about the SNL Jeopardy sketches – he showed up in Will Farrell’s last episode.
I can’t stand this guy. From his “funny input” which isn’t remotely funny to his foreign pronunciations to his COMPLETELY STUPID ACCENTS STUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF ENGLISH SENTENCING, to his drivel and stupid time wasting comments that cause players not to be able to get to all questions!!
For every time he condescending says… “oh no…” I remind everyone that he would probably do HORRIBLY on the show without his cards.
Yesterday’s shit-o-the-day comment: “Oh no… it was the handsome president John Tyler”. What is… “I hate your commentary Alex, retire already?”
I watch Jeopardy every night, and when I see Alex Trebek, I’m reminded of Stephanie Weir of MadTV doing her Leona Campbell character. She called Miss Cleo, and the conversation turned to Jeopardy. Leona says to Miss Cleo, “You know that Alex Trebek? He sure looks like he smells good!”
I always thought it would be fun to get through the contestant search, get on the show in a formal tie and jacket, but give every resonse as “What is my penis, Alex?” Just to see his face. I would buzz in for EVERY answer. I wonder how many responses I’d be able to give before they stopped taping and brought in a backup contestant.
I do love the show and have met the man twice. I have nothing against him or his on-air persona. I just don’t think he’s actually very bright, and wonder how he would respond to an unexpected situation like that.
I’m glad this thread was resurrected. It’s interesting to see the change - a lot of the things people disliked about AT in 2004 seem to have gone away, or at least, they’re not as pronounced. He seems less obnoxious, less condescending, I think these days. And less likely to react badly to jokes from the contestants. I guess even game show hosts can change with time.
And, rather than start a new thread, I’ll ask here: is the “suck it, Trebek” parody of Sean Connery based on a real thing, or was it just wholly made up?
" In Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Hammond says when he first did Sean Connery, “I had a really accurate Sean Connery. Now what I do is really a bastardization of who he is, because it just seems funnier to me and it’s funnier to the writers and it gets more of an audience response. Sometimes they just don’t want to see accuracy, they just want it to be funny.”"
and good lord, is Will Ferrell capable of playing anyone other than himself?
You would be my hero if you did that.
I don’t like the guy (he corrected my grammar on national television (Hey! I was nervous!)), but I don’t hate him.
I do hate him read things in French. I learned Parisian French, and his French Canadian accent, c’est ridicule! And the less said about the word “zharrnnrrrrhhh” the better.
One thing that has happened since this thread was opened, though, is that he’s gotten old. I have nothing against old — I’m getting there myself. But he’s been messing up a lot. A fictional but representative example:
The correct response is, “What is the book of Revelation?”
The contestant says, “What is the book of Revelations?”
Alex says, “The book of Revelation is correct. Pick aga— What? Oh. Sorry, Joe, I misheard you. You said ‘Revelations,’ but book is called 'Revelationnn.”
So Joe loses the points, rightly, but now neither of the other two players can get them.
I think I read that he’ll be retiring after this season. It’s time.
