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Jeopardy! A salute to Alex Trebek


Rhom

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Turns out the other topic was archived.

With the announcement yesterday of Trebek’s Pancreatic Cancer, I wanted to start a new thread in appreciation of the greatest gameshow host ever.

Answer:  A survivor.

Questiom:  Who is Alex Trebek?

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47 minutes ago, DMC said:

Watching Trebek and Jeopardy is probably unmatched in giving me that nostalgic safe feeling you used to feel as an innocent child.  Loved his statement on it:

https://twitter.com/Jeopardy/status/1103416223331569664/video/1

Yup. If it’s 7pm I know exactly what my dad is doing. I still watch it with him every time I go over there for dinner. That was a great and touching message Trebek put out and I really hope he beats this(I had to hold off from watching it at work because I knew I would tear up). 

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I was so upset to hear about this. Alex Trebek, in his capacity as Jeopardy! host, has been a fixture in my life for nearly all of it to date, and I watch it nearly every night, the only show I do that with. I really hope everything goes well for him.

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Fond memories watching this with my brothers when I was a know it all teen and having this show humble me. For us it was Wheel of Fortune at 7pm and feeling smart, Jeopardy at 730, and feeling smart until the second round! Then feeling like a functioning lobotomized person.

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My grandfather and my uncle dies of pancreatic and bile duct cancer.

Fuck cancer beyond the farthest star, fuck it to oblivion.

 

I loved Jeopardy! since I was a kid when I'd watch it with my grandmother. I always liked it when Trebeck would show up in a cameo as himself on shows like Golden Girls and Mama's Family. Then there was the legendary Jeopardy! episode of Cheers that established "Who are Two People who are not in my kitchen" as a go to answer when you don't know what else to write as well as coining pulling a "Cliff Claven" - if a contestant "couldn't be caught" during the first two rounds so is assured winning that episode but makes a foolish wager and misses the answer in Final Jeopardy.

Then just this last season on Orange is the New Black Trebeck had a great cameo.

I also remember as a kid in the late 80's whenever I stayed home from school there was a new version of the game show "Classic Concentration" that I'd watch in the morning and Trebeck hosted that. I always thought it was funny how on Jeopardy! he always wore a suit and on Concentration he was always in a sweater, like they were trying to set a more casual atmosphere.

I've been trying out for the show for twenty years now. Never getting farther than getting called to D.C. or Baltimore to test there and meet some of the "clue crew" Still I take the online test whenever it's being given. I was just starting to feel like I found my groove to get on the show. So yeah, Alex you better fight this off.

More power to you!

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15 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

First, fuck cancer.

Second, I mean to toot my own horn. I actually got the final jeopardy question the other day, (which I almost never get) Art of War for the win.

I couldn't believe it when they were having the All Star Championship the last couple weeks, one episode no one got final jeopardy and I did! I was so full of smug that day.

"Kipling echoed a poem from a century earlier with this title of a chapter in The Jungle Book"

Spoiler

Tyger, Tyger

 

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For decades, Jeopardy has probably been the single most unifying cultural phenomenon for me with both my parents. They never, ever miss an episode, and whenever I call or visit they usually have an interesting Final Jeopardy question or two to throw my way. 

Related - is there another Canadian more universally beloved by Americans than Trebek? Offhand, I can't think of one. Hell, I can't think of many native born Americans that measure up to him in that regard. I really hope he can beat the odds.

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8 hours ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

For decades, Jeopardy has probably been the single most unifying cultural phenomenon for me with both my parents. They never, ever miss an episode, and whenever I call or visit they usually have an interesting Final Jeopardy question or two to throw my way. 

Related - is there another Canadian more universally beloved by Americans than Trebek? Offhand, I can't think of one. Hell, I can't think of many native born Americans that measure up to him in that regard. I really hope he can beat the odds.

Michael J. Fox?

 

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9 hours ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

For decades, Jeopardy has probably been the single most unifying cultural phenomenon for me with both my parents. They never, ever miss an episode, and whenever I call or visit they usually have an interesting Final Jeopardy question or two to throw my way. 

Related - is there another Canadian more universally beloved by Americans than Trebek? Offhand, I can't think of one. Hell, I can't think of many native born Americans that measure up to him in that regard. I really hope he can beat the odds.

Lorne Greene, William Shatner, Michael J. Fox for starters. We are just a loveable bunch. 

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9 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Lorne Greene, William Shatner, Michael J. Fox for starters. We are just a loveable bunch. 

I thought of Shatner but he's more polarizing than universal, I think.

I know he's passed on but, John Candy? 

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4 hours ago, maarsen said:

Lorne Greene, William Shatner, Michael J. Fox for starters. We are just a loveable bunch. 

 

4 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

I thought of Shatner but he's more polarizing than universal, I think.

I know he's passed on but, John Candy? 

Shatner is a no. A lot of people can't stand him. John Candy is a good one. 

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As a Brit unfamiliar with Jeopardy or Trebek, could someone explain the SNL skits where he isn’t portrayed by Will Ferrell? As in, what is the deal with the weird Sean Connery stuff, etc. 

And, indeed, fuck cancer

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Trebek is far more beloved than Lorne Michaels or William Shatner. Michael J. Fox is well-liked but I don't think to the same level as Trebek.

 

19 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

As a Brit unfamiliar with Jeopardy or Trebek, could someone explain the SNL skits where he isn’t portrayed by Will Ferrell? As in, what is the deal with the weird Sean Connery stuff, etc. 

And, indeed, fuck cancer

I'm having trouble parsing this but I think you mean the SNL skits where he is played by Ferrell? I don't think there is a lot to explain that you won't have gotten from context. Jeopardy! is a quiz show where contestants are given "answers" in various categories and are expected to respond with the "question" that matches ("Who is Bill Gates?" for example). Originally this was done in an attempt to beat attempts to rig the game. Trebek is the current host and has been for decades, and he's genial and well-liked by basically everyone.

The SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skits are what they sound like. It's not uncommon to have special episodes of real game shows like Jeopardy! or Family Feud or whatever where celebrities compete for money to benefit charities, instead of the more usual normal people competing for money for themselves. Trebek (Ferrell) is generally the straight man for the contestants, who are almost invariably stupid, malicious, or both. Darrell Hammond's famous Sean Connery character was a more or less completely invented persona whose schtick was that he loved to torment Trebek, as was Norm McDonald's Burt Reynolds, but many other contestants were just crude caricatures of their real-life analogues whose purpose was to mimic some easily-recognized trait of the person they were imitating while missing very easy questions answers. The Connery character was very popular and Hammond reprised the role repeatedly.

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19 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

As a Brit unfamiliar with Jeopardy or Trebek, could someone explain the SNL skits where he isn’t portrayed by Will Ferrell? As in, what is the deal with the weird Sean Connery stuff, etc. 

Yeah like Inigima said they basically just served as a convenient template to make fun of celebrities - which obviously is a large part of the conceit of a show like SNL.  And Ferrell was able to play Trebek as the straight man, because Trebek is a pretty perfect straight man (comedy-wise, if that needs clarification).  Most of those sketches are really funny, and Norm was particularly great as an asshole Burt Reynolds.

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They have to dumb the questions down for celebrity jeopardy is the main joke.  Because celebs are dumb.  So dumb.   Connery must have inspired the SNL character somehow, right?  Maybe by going on the real show and making a single mild joke at Trebek's expense.

I Watched this yesterday for the first time in a couple years, because Trebek..   

My score goes way up if i'm allowed to pause the show for 20 seconds to ponder each clue.  There should be a separate taping of the show for the slow- info- retreival crowd like me.  Sort of like how they have separate kids and celebs tourneys.   Same format, only they'd play the final jeopardy theme after every clue.

I feel sorry for the regular contestants, it's their one big moment to be on TV and they have to spend it doing that awkward conversation segment with Trebek about the most obscure detail in their life history.   The one thing they'd least like to be remembered by, so they tell the nation.   "Yes, i briefly collected spores molds and fungus during the 80's because of the line from Ghostbusters.   No, Alex, it wasn't a hit with the ladies like i thought it would be."     Alex.  Making nerds feel worse about themselves one at a time since around 1980.   (This may be the real reason the SNL bit is so popular.  Fight the power, Sean Connery!)

Best of luck, cannuck.

 

 

 

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47 minutes ago, The Mother of The Others said:

They have to dumb the questions down for celebrity jeopardy is the main joke.  Because celebs are dumb.  So dumb.   Connery must have inspired the SNL character somehow, right?  Maybe by going on the real show and making a single mild joke at Trebek's expense.

Aye, that's a big part of the schtick - it's the first series of jokes when Ferrell-Trebek introduces the topics.  Could be wrong, but I don't think Connery was based on anything other than Hammond does a really good Connery.

49 minutes ago, The Mother of The Others said:

There should be a separate taping of the show for the slow- info- retreival crowd like me.  Sort of like how they have separate kids and celebs tourneys.   Same format, only they'd play the final jeopardy theme after every clue.

Wouldn't that just devolve into a competition of who's the fastest at google?

50 minutes ago, The Mother of The Others said:

I feel sorry for the regular contestants, it's their one big moment to be on TV and they have to spend it doing that awkward conversation segment with Trebek about the most obscure detail in their life history.

To me this is one of the best parts of the show.  The fact so many of the contestants have so much difficulty coming up with one generalizably interesting anecdote about their entire life.

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9 hours ago, Inigima said:

Trebek is far more beloved than Lorne Michaels or William Shatner. Michael J. Fox is well-liked but I don't think to the same level as Trebek.

 

I'm having trouble parsing this but I think you mean the SNL skits where he is played by Ferrell? I don't think there is a lot to explain that you won't have gotten from context. Jeopardy! is a quiz show where contestants are given "answers" in various categories and are expected to respond with the "question" that matches ("Who is Bill Gates?" for example). Originally this was done in an attempt to beat attempts to rig the game. Trebek is the current host and has been for decades, and he's genial and well-liked by basically everyone.

The SNL Celebrity Jeopardy skits are what they sound like. It's not uncommon to have special episodes of real game shows like Jeopardy! or Family Feud or whatever where celebrities compete for money to benefit charities, instead of the more usual normal people competing for money for themselves. Trebek (Ferrell) is generally the straight man for the contestants, who are almost invariably stupid, malicious, or both. Darrell Hammond's famous Sean Connery character was a more or less completely invented persona whose schtick was that he loved to torment Trebek, as was Norm McDonald's Burt Reynolds, but many other contestants were just crude caricatures of their real-life analogues whose purpose was to mimic some easily-recognized trait of the person they were imitating while missing very easy questions answers. The Connery character was very popular and Hammond reprised the role repeatedly.

Thank you. And yes, autocorrect doesn’t like me to type “is” for some reason and i dont always catch it. 

I do love the Joepardy skits, I was just curious if there was something more to them

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On 3/10/2019 at 5:04 AM, The Mother of The Others said:

I feel sorry for the regular contestants, it's their one big moment to be on TV and they have to spend it doing that awkward conversation segment with Trebek about the most obscure detail in their life history.   The one thing they'd least like to be remembered by, so they tell the nation.   "Yes, i briefly collected spores molds and fungus during the 80's because of the line from Ghostbusters.   No, Alex, it wasn't a hit with the ladies like i thought it would be."     Alex.  Making nerds feel worse about themselves one at a time since around 1980.   (This may be the real reason the SNL bit is so popular.  Fight the power, Sean Connery!)

Best of luck, cannuck.

I saw this exchange on Twitter last week and it couldn’t be more relevant to what you say. :rofl: 

 

 

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