Friday, August 27, 2021

They look them up before hiring them, right?

This Jeopardy! host thing is just, as the kids would say, a goat rodeo, isn't it? Huh? What, don't the kids say that? Like, when something is just an unmitigated disaster, it's a goat rodeo. No? Fine, would you prefer shit show?
Pictured: Basically Jeopardy!

Is it just me or does Richards have a
punchable face? Even before I knew about
him, I kind of wanted to punch that face.
In the seemingly unending quest to fill the un-fillable shoes of late host Alex Trebek, nothing, like, nothing, has gone right. They went through a series of guest hosts including everyone's favorite and objective best choice LeVar Burton, but then chose Mike Richards, pleasing no one. Then suddenly noticing Richards's list of problematic comments and actions that everyone else had been pointing out all along, they did an about face. Richards stepped back and agreed to sensitivity training which I'm sure is definitely going to happen and which I'm also sure he's going to take super seriously and reevaluate his own behavior.

And thanks to billionaires selling rides
on their dick rockets, I guess "this isn't 
rocket science it's _____" is out too.
Ok, fine. In the short term, Mayim Bialik, the other host Sony announced for Jeopardy! specials is going to take the reins. Cool. Except she has a history of espousing anti-vaxxer nonsense, blaming Harvey Weinstein's victims for dressing too sexy, and promoting creepy, survival of the fittest views on parenting and child birth. Which is super-disappointing because, I mean, she's a scientist. A neuroscientist in fact. Like, that's the go-to branch of science we bring up when we want to say something's easy. Like, we say" "this isn't brain-surgery it's whatever is way less difficult."

Pictured: the exact amount of
research Sony needed to do.

So a scientist with a passion for pseudo science and debunked crackpot theories about vaccines and autism is maybe not the best choice for hosting a gameshow all about knowledge. "But whatever, bring on LeVar Burton!" you say. Weeeell, here's the thing. LeVar Burton was--oh! No! Don't worry, he's fine. He's not like secretly a flat-earther or a MAGA goon or anything. As far as we know he's great. The problem is that apparently he wasn't even in the running, and that Sony was only every considering Bialik and Richards. So now what?

Ken Jennings was the original front runner, but he's also someone who doesn't know when to shut his tweet hole. So LeVar Burton, right? He was the next favorite on that poll. Ahead of Bialik even. The studio apparently felt he just wasn't a good fit, but we know how good their judgment is, so maybe it's time to give him a second look?
"Nah...Hey, what's Pharma Bro doing? Is he still in prison?
-Some Sony exec

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