Politics, Alex Trebek and JEOPARDY!

It could be that I’m STILL ticked off that Alex Trebek ruined my picture with him.

alex-trebek-jeopardyIt’s no great secret that many game show hosts in the United States are politically conservative. Here are articles from the Daily Beast and Salon.

This list of MCs includes Alex Trebek, host of JEOPARDY, a show I’ve been watching in one iteration or other more than half of my life. I’m not suggesting a political litmus test, so the fact that he speaks approvingly of the Tea Party is disappointing to me but doesn’t alter my appreciation of the game.

However, his comments on air are cumulatively starting to irritate. As Salon suggests: “In Trebek’s universe, when a woman wins, a battle of the sexes begins, whereas when a man wins, the universe is in accord.”

The show itself got dinged for its recent sexist “what women want” category. Trebek doesn’t write the questions, but after 30 years, certainly has enough sway that if the category or the questions therein (which you can read HERE) bugged him, they’d likely be altered.

So I took some odd pleasure from this recent gaffe during the interview section, made available by the show’s producers.

Of course, it could be that I’m STILL ticked off that he ruined my picture with him. After I was on the show, taped in September 1998, I received a photo, but it was just of me with no Trebek. I’m sure it was because when I posed for the photo with him, I could see on a monitor that he did the rabbit ears thing behind me like an eight-year-old.

In any case, I imagine the now appropriately mustachioed host will probably retire in a couple of years. And the show still interests me, so that trumps whatever irritation I have with the host for enjoyment, so far.
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Here’s one of those recent Jeopardy! Hometown Howdies.

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

One thought on “Politics, Alex Trebek and JEOPARDY!”

  1. Some of the hosts of Dutch talk shows are downright rude and annoying. The guests on the show are sometimes humiliated and offended and yes: the hosts are rightwing.
    Thanks for visiting my entry.
    Wil, ABCW Team

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