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For decades, I tuned in to the trivia game show “Jeopardy!” by the facts. On Sunday, the show lost its judicious leader, Alex Trebek, who died at age 80 after a battle with cancer.
Trebek had introduced “Jeopardy!” for all of my life. It began in 1984 and has hosted every episode since, except for April Fool’s Day in 1997, when he and Pat Sajak from “Wheel of Fortune” traded places, more than 8,000 half-hour shows in all. For many, watching Trebek was a ritual – the way a day ends and a night begins. It was also a way to get real facts, a brief respite from the “alternative facts” so prevalent in recent years.
Trebek and the show, both hard to divorce now, were a beacon of democratic ideals, flattening the world for all to consume. Tall and short, popular and dark, new and old, holy and profane, Trebek put them all on an equal footing. Look no further than the episode of “Jeopardy!” which aired last Friday, for example. It featured clues about Rihanna, Madonna, and Katy Perry, and clues about the city of Vaduz, the Russian navy, and the German chancellor. They were all on the same playing board, although Gene Wilder and Cook Strait were worth more money than either of them.
“Danger!” and Trebek have been a haven for events while monuments of truth have collapsed in the public sphere. The country’s highest office holder now unsubstantiated disputes Legitimate election results, supporters of unfounded and dangerous conspiracy theories are elected to Congress, and fact-checking is a booming industry.
Trebek’s performance hasn’t changed to combat the falsehoods of recent years, in part because he was already something of a totem of factual value. Since 1984, he has been in a suit every day of the week behind a podium with a note sheet and delivered more than 400,000 tracks, each of which is a minor daily inoculation against the advance of lies, or however you like. call them.
“Alex was much more than a host” tweeted James Holzhauer, who set a series of unrealistic records on “Jeopardy!” Last spring. “He was an impartial arbiter of truth and fact in a world that needs exactly that.”
The show’s eclectic and unpredictable theme is the result of an unpretentious wide-angle lens projected onto a large and complicated world. We call the material delivered by Trebek “trivia”, but few things are less trivial than taking a generous look at the world – in all its strange and diverse splendor – and calling things by their correct names.
Trebek’s 2014 big profile headline in the New Republic declared him the “Last King of the American Half-Eyebrow.” This is true not in a pejorative sense but in a statistical sense, as in the average between high and low. Trebek’s essential behavior and therefore “Jeopardy!” himself – is stripped of pretense and pretext.
The show’s archive shows his various interests, each of which was presented on the show’s giant whiteboard in a simple way and equally in iconic white capitalized text on a blue square. The knowledge of the former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is worth the same as that of the actor of “The Office” Steve Carrell, that of the toy Mr. Potato Head. Playwright Shakespeare is equal to runner Walter Payton. The element helium is as valuable as Heathrow Airport.
Trebek’s performance as host emphasized this egalitarianism. His affection was constant and his pronunciation, the most famous in French, was impeccable, and he took pre-show notes with diacritics to make sure he got it right. And at the same time he was, among other things, an underrated rapper, as Holzhauer joked with enthusiasm. commit to repertoires by Lil Wayne, Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
“I’m not very good at it, but I was getting into it,” Trebek said after saying the verses, and I believed him.
Furthermore, Trebek’s performance was not only devoid of pretense, it was anti-pretentious. He once famously rebuked three contestants, who had responded correctly to clues about Molière and Thor Heyerdahl, for not knowing enough about soccer. “I have to talk to them,” Trebek said disapprovingly before going to the commercial. The democratic nature of the platitudes had become unbalanced and Trebek had to correct it.
By all accounts, Trebek embodied these trivial ideals while also being a genuine and kind human.
“Alex was not the best at what he did”, tweeted Ken Jennings, the most famous contestant on the show, who won a record 74 times in a row. “He was also a deeply decent and charming man, and I am grateful for every minute I was able to spend with him.”
It was in this same spirit of decency and calm that Trebek announced, in March 2019, that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He said that he “wanted to prevent me from reading or listening to some exaggerated or inaccurate reports on my health.” The rest of the short statement was full of facts and he promised to fight cancer and keep working. “Truth told, I to have “he said, with a dash of characteristic humor.” Because under the terms of my contract, I have to present ‘Jeopardy!’ for three more years. “
I wish I could. The show may go on, but it’s hard to imagine someone embodying its ideals as well as Alex Trebek did. Of course, the contestants on “Jeopardy!” just ask the questions. Trebek had all the answers.
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