Shouts & Murmurs
Who Is Alex Trebek?
by Simon Rich August 16, 2010
Last month, Alex Trebek, the host of “Jeopardy!,” celebrated his seventieth birthday. It didn’t get much acknowledgment, and I’m worried that his feelings were a little hurt. Here are some clues that he read on last night’s show.
Category: TV Game-Show Hosts
$200: This game-show host has been on “Jeopardy!” for twenty-six years, and yet he never gets even the tiniest shred of respect from anyone.
$400: This game-show host is routinely asked to work ten or even twelve hours a day, even though the union maximum is eight hours. His doctors have given him a diagnosis of stress-related heart disease, but his producers couldn’t care less. They just keep heaping work on him like he’s some kind of pack animal.
$600: A lot of people think that this game-show host doesn’t know the answers to any of the questions and would be lost without his cards. But that’s not true. He knows a lot of the answers—he just can’t say them, obviously, because he’s the host and that would ruin the game for everyone.
$800: Even though he’s the public face of “Jeopardy!” and has devoted his life to it for years, this game-show host was not invited to last week’s annual softball game against “Wheel of Fortune.” When he confronted the producers about the slight, they laughed like it wasn’t a big deal and seemed surprised by how upset he was.
$1,000: This game-show host’s job has been described as “cushy.” How’s this for cushy? He’s missed only one day of taping in twenty-six years, and that was because he’d been in a major car accident. He also has to stand throughout the show (unlike some hosts, who don’t need to be named).
Double Jeopardy!
Category: TV Game-Show Hosts II
$400: Someone wrote on a blog that this game-show host is a “pompous jerk.” Would a pompous jerk volunteer for World Vision, a charity that raises money for Third World countries? Because that’s what this host does. He doesn’t talk about it a lot, because he doesn’t want to turn it into some big public thing, but he’s been volunteering with this organization for decades.
$800: Another person wrote on a blog that this game-show host “tries to speak in a British accent, to look smarter,” but what they don’t understand is that this host is from Canada and that’s just naturally how he talks. Can a man help where he was born?
$1,200: Last thing with the blogs: Someone called this host “smug” last week because he sometimes corrects contestants’ pronunciations. But what is this host supposed to do? Let the incorrect pronunciations stand? Then everybody would think he was a moron for not making a correction. It’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation for this host.
$1,600: This game-show host has been mocked by comedians for decades and made to look like a fool on national television in front of his family. He never complains, because he is a good sport, but, at the end of the day, he’s still a human being and obviously the mean impersonations sometimes hurt the feelings of this host.
$2,000: Little-known fact about this host: he can bench-press his own weight.
Here’s a hint: it ain’t Sajak.
Final Jeopardy!
This game-show host turns seventy-one on July 22, 2011. He has never been given a surprise party, but a gesture like that would probably make up for a couple of things. ♦
