7 years later, Alex Trebek’s unimpressed response to a Bane impression is still funny
Aux Features Jeopardy
There are corners of the internet worn down, softened with use—too much use, some of them. (Seems like we as a global community may have overdone it during the “two girls, one cup” era; if you are young enough that such a phrase means nothing to you, please, do not google it.) There are corners impervious to such wear and tear, moments that never age—your blinking white guys, your Washington, Washingtons. But there’s a third kind of internet immortality, a category comprised of moments and images that burn bright then seem to vanish, only to reemerge somehow stronger, brighter, funnier. All that is to say that yes, this clip of a Jeopardy! contestant correctly responding to a question while also doing a Bane-from-The-Dark-Knight-Rises impression is from 2013, but now it lives again, as if for the first time.
In this clip from an episode of the show that aired in the way way back olden times of 2013, contestant Craig enthusiastically responds to a question about the “masked villain” of The Dark Knight Rises and gives his answer in the form of both a question and an impression. Alex Trebek is charmingly unimpressed. A quick side-bar: Isn’t Catwoman also a masked villain in The Dark Knight Rises? Would Craig’s streak have continued if he answered, “Who is Catwoman, meow?” and then whispered “It came true” to his buzzer?
But the point is not the answer nor the impression, which are, respectively, at least mostly correct and a delightful and weird surprise. The point is the response, which perhaps not coincidentally has a certain air of blinking white guy about it.
Think about the applications. The next time your weird uncle busts out his Donald Trump impression (especially if that uncle is Alec Baldwin), you’re good to go. It’s even more useful when someone is recounting a conversation they had with someone and it suddenly gets a little racist. Also very useful if someone’s being a condescending prick and trying to, I don’t know, teach you how to hold a hammer or something when you are a grown-ass adult human woman and have somehow successfully managed to hang a goddamn photo on the wall once or twice in your life. The mind boggles.
The point is, the world has changed in so many ways, but somehow Bane impressions are still funny, even when lackluster, and Alex Trebek still rules and will forever rule.
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39 Comments
Start putting the headline above the photo, I thought he was dead before I scrolled down.
I’m seeing the headline first. Are you on a phone or something?And I would hope AV Club would pick a much better photo should they be reporting such devastating news.
And I would hope AV Club would pick a photo of his dead body
Suck it, Death!
Entire world’s burning down and we’re still doing this shit about “you almost made me think a celebrity was dead and I almost had a panic attack omgggg”?
Alex is a special case. It’s not like he’s a Kardashian
I’ve seen more hours of Jeopardy than I’ve put in honest hard work in my life. But still.
Same, but it’s possible this impression gave him cancer.
“Isn’t Catwoman also a masked villain in The Dark Knight Rises?”
Have you seen the movie? It’s a mess, but it’s watchable, and watching it is where you find out key plot points like “No, Catwoman wasn’t a fucking villain in The Dark Knight Rises.”
I see by your pixel avatar and your expectation that AV Club writers know anything about movies that you’re new here.
Not new. Just a pit of seething resentment and vulgarity.
No, she was more of an anti-hero, but not a villain in this movie.
Better yet, she doesn’t wear a mask as Catwoman.
I don’t think it gets really messy until the final quarter of the film, but I agree with you that it should be obvious that Catwoman is not a villain, and by the end definitely an ally of the protagonist. Did she miss that part where Catwoman helps him beat up a bunch of henchpeople, and then later save the entire day? I know Catwoman sold Bruce out like once, but in the end it helped him become a better superhero. So yeah, dunno what type of cute bullshit the article writer was trying to get away with.
I mean, the rich steal from everyone else everyday. Is stealing from the rich really considered ‘villainy’?Well, I guess to the rich.
Didn’t you know the rich are the only ones who matter? They do make the rules after all.
“What I love about these impressions is the timeliness.”— Scott Aukerman, “12 Guests of Xmas III”, Dec. 19, 2012, Doug Loves Movies
For the host of a show that’s kind of inherently nerdy, Trebek never seems to have any patience for nerd crap.
Auralnauts updated their classic “Bane Outtakes” for the COVID era.
Eight years on, I feel like Bane has become the new Arnold – everybody’s got an at-least-adequate impression of this guy in their back pocket. But he’s fresher so he’s still kinda funny.
Lost me with that last sentence. (Mostly because at least Arnold had/has funny characteristics about him both as a person and within his roles to pull from. Bane is just . . . one evil dude from one movie.)
Great blog internet
The answer is technically Talia Al Ghul. She wore the facade of being an ally, as her mask, and was the ultimate “mastermind” of the whole affair.
Hell, I’m just happy he’s still around and able to be unimpressed by anything.
Between Trebek doing Jeopardy! until the day I die and having Pat Sajak doing WOF, I’ll always take Trebek. I may be American, but Trebek is the best Can-Am ever. I’d be all for Ken Jennings taking over as host (obvious choice) but he just lacks personality. Trebek does as well, but his lack of personality IS his personality.
I know Ken Jennings seems to be the heir apparent but I really want someone more personable for sure. I follow/ed Ken on twitter and his sense of humor was more miss than hit
Yeah, great. Jinx it, why don’t you?
Actually a correct impression would have been: “Whmg imdhg bmmaughh?”
I will never try to take away Trebek’s tradition of making fun of contestants and being hilarious whilst doing so, but to be fair, he does a lot of bad impressions as well. Some of them might be purposefully bad, but I’ve heard Trebek imitate Bela Lugosi, poorly, every time a clue has to do with vampires and that’s just one example. I know it is his show and I love it when he burns contestants, but there is a bit of a pot and kettle situation when it comes to acting things out.
Is it odd that I long for the days when goatse.cx was the most shocking thing on the World Wide Web?
Still not funny
For some reason I have to crank out like 20 push ups before doing my Bane impression. Harder to understand in that movie, Batman, Bane or Talia Al Ghul ?
I stopped by here to demand that LeVar Burton takes Jeopardy hosting duties when the time comes. That is all.
Not sure how funny this clip is. I feel like this was an excuse to subject another generation to “2 girls 1 cup” which is actually pretty funny though. Enjoy
Wait. Am I to understand that you’re writing a story on a seven-year-old episode of Jeopardy? What the actual hell…
It’s going around reddit again. Everything old is new again (repeat.)
So, what you’re telling me is that reddit is as good a “news” source as AVClub. At least reddit doesn’t use slideshows!