At this point in Jeopardy!'s long run on TV, it gets more and more amusing to see and hear host Alex Trebek going through some motions that viewers had never witnessed before. We love the anti-cool way he lays out rap lyrics, and other examples of that nature, but it's arguably most fun to watch Trebek offer up on-the-fly responses to contestants, as he'll sometimes unwittingly deliver pure comedic gold. Such as this moment from a recent episode where he says "dick tree." Check it out below!
That. Was. Pure. Brilliance. It would have been amazing had the prolific Jeopardy! champion Austin Rogers actually intended for Alex Trebek to say "dick tree" on television, the way that some others have guided Trebek's words, but it appears as if this epic clue-and-answer combination was made possible by the gods of chance and chaos. I suppo-o-ose it's possible that the irreverent Rogers did intend this, while only appearing to be innocent, considering he'd easily proved himself to be one of the more knowledgable Jeopardy! champions of all time. But I like to think that sometimes, such magic can happen randomly, and sometimes magic involves dick trees.
For those who didn't watch the clip, or weren't able to, Alex Trebek read out a clue for the category "Starts Or Ends With A Tree," which had the answer "Slang for a detective." Austin Rogers rang in first, but clearly without the correct question in mind. His confidence in saying "dick" was more rooted in the word being known slang for detectives, while not so much considering any words that come from tree names. (I'd like to say "rooted" was a pun there, but it wasn't.) And while Trebek could have come up with any number of ways to just offer up the right answer (Gumshoe) with or without referring to Rogers' guess, he chose to say, "I know nothing about a dick tree, but there is a gum tree." And it's not even clear from his own reaction if he realized the hilariousness of his admission.
Austin Rogers certainly did grasp the amusement after the fact, as he had a hearty laugh when Trebek was saying the right answer, and even humorously stated that he'd "seen one before." Now, would a tree like that be all trunk? Or would it have a lot of branches bearing some questionable-looking fruit? And how big would it be? Maybe this was the tree being depicted on that episode of Maya the Bee that got pulled off of Netflix. (That sentence also contains a would-be pun.)
Sadly for fans of Austin Rogers, the champ's run came to a close on Thursday, though we'll definitely be seeing him again for the Tournament of Champions. Perhaps we can hope to see him eking some more ridiculous turns of phrase from Alex at that time? Even if not, there are still more seasons yet to come from Jeopardy!, so we're confident more hilarity will ensue in the future.
To catch Alex Trebek saying more of the darnedest things, be sure and watch Jeopardy! every weekday afternoon (or evening), but you'll have to check out your own local listings to see when it airs. And, of course, you can then hit up our fall premiere schedule to check out all the other new and returning shows hitting TV in the near future.
