A&Q about Mike Richards, selected (and de-selected) to host Jeopardy!

A: A seabird in the genus Sula, part of the family Sulidae.

Q. What is a booby?

A. He is being criticized for referring to "boobies" on an open mic in 2013.

Q. Who is Mike Richards, the new host of Jeopardy!?

A. Reverse racism, "toxic white masculinity".

Q. What are the real reasons Mr Richards' selection is being panned by the usual suspects?

A. Yes.

Q. Will the SJWs, BLMers etc succeed in getting Mr Richards fired?

Indeed. Mike Richards, the executive producer of Jeopardy! who was tapped to host the show in the upcoming season announced this morning that he won't be doing that, after all. "[O]ver the last several days it has become clear that moving forward as host would be too much of a distraction for our fans and not the right move for the show," he said in a press release. "As such [Why do people include that ungrammatical phrase in statements? Ed.], I will be stepping down as host effective immediately. As a result, we will be canceling production today."

Just a few days ago, Mr Richards was named permanent host of Jeopardy!, succeeding the late loveable Canuck Alex Trebek. For the sake of gender equity, actress Mayim Bialik was tapped to helm primetime specials and spinoffs. 

Mr Richards was in trouble from the minute his appointment was announced, because of a number of "issues" related to political correctness or lack thereof. He was forced to respond to allegations of "pregnancy discrimination" made in a lawsuit that started ten years ago. 

Earlier this week, he had to issue another apology after The Ringer uncovered a number of derogatory comments he made between 2013 and 2014 about women, Jews, and people receiving unemployment on the podcast, The Randumb Show. Apparently he used the word "boobies", not meaning the seabirds.

The real reason for the disapproval of the media elites, however, is that Mr Richards isn't LeVar Burton. Mr Burton, who is of the coloured persuasion, appeared to have the puck nailed to his stick [Will non-hockey fans get that? Ed.] because... errr, BLM, George Floyd, errr, you know....

Unfortunately, Mr Burton's performance in the role of Uncle Tom on a recent stint as guest host didn't go very well. While the erudite Alex Trebek appeared to understand what the correct answers (in the form of questions!) should be, Mr Burton as all wide-eyed, gee-whiz innocence. IMHO he lacked the gravitas to be permanent host. 

Viewers seemed to agree. Mr Burton's episodes drew the lowest average viewership numbers out of all of the recorded guest hosts. His turn behind the podium, from July 26th to 30th, saw an average rating of 4.4, according to Nielsen. This was lower than Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, who guest hosted Jeopardy the week before and garnered an average rating of 4.7, or CNBC's David Faber, who hosted from August 2nd to 6th.

A: Jeopardy! GOAT champion Ken Jennings.

Q: Who got the highest ratings as guest host?

Mr Jenning's week on the air had an average rating of 6.0. I dare to suggest that's because Jeopardy! is basically a quiz show for nerdy white guys who know a little about a lot -- like my goodself! The three Greatest Of All Time champions, who competed in a special GOAT tournament in January of 2020, were Mr Jennings, Brad Rutter, and the annoying James Holzhauer -- all white guys.

Over the years, white men have dominated Jeopardy!. South and east Asian men do pretty well, white women less so. BIPOCs lag well behind. You can draw your own conclusions about the correlation between race, gender and intelligence, but the fact remains that Jeopardy!, like hockey, is a white man's game. 

That's a fact that has not escaped the attention of the show's producers, hence Mr Richards and not Mr Burton. Now that Mr Richards has stepped [or been pushed? Ed.] down, Jeopardy! will continue with guest hosts until a suitable BIPOC can be found.

Mounties get their goat -- a real Canadian story

Readers occasionally ask if Walt is a Canadian making fun of Americans, or an American making fun of Canadians. Let it be remembered that no-one needs to make fun of Canadians, because they quite enjoy making fun of themselves. One has only to watch SCTV's "Great White North" segments, featuring Bob and Doug McKenzie, the quintessential hosers, or watch for the Canadian jokes included in so many episodes of The Simpsons.

One of the big differences between Americans and their northern cousins is that Canucks refuse to take themselves seriously, whereas Americans take themselves much too seriously. That's a fact... a Canadian fact... brought to you by the Canadian Ministry of Facts.

Today we have the perfect example of the Canadian sense of humour in a true story from Warman SK, a crossroads remembered none too affectionately by one of Walt's agents, who passed this along.

Early Sunday morning, two Mounties from the Warman detachment were called to a Tim Hortons in nearby Martensville for an unusual disturbance -- a goat refusing to leave the store (or "coffee and bakeshop", as Tim's is called south of the border).

The RCMP issued a press release -- really -- which confirmed that "There was a stubborn goat refusing to leave the establishment. The employees would ask him to leave and walk him outside, but he would just turn around and come back in through the automatic doors."

RCMP believe the goat was simply cold and decided to sleep in the space. Store employees said the goat ambled through the parking lot, and took a nap in the drive-through at one point. Store owner Camille Barzeele said, "One of [our employees] stayed with him to make sure he didn't get run over, and the other one called the cops."

RCMP said the goat was "arrested" and taken into their cruiser. (No, the Mounties don't ride horses any more, not even in Saskatchewan.) But, they said, "He was very unhappy with this so the members decided to take him home instead of to holding cells at the detachment."


"We are happy to report that the goat is safe and sound back with his owners after his adventurous night out on the town," the press release concluded. "Employees at the Tim Hortons in Martensville see all sorts of customers overnight. This one wasn't kidding around."

How about that, eh?! But when you think about the differences between Canadians and Americans, consider how this story might have played out had it occurred a few hundred miles due south, say in the middle of Wyoming. The errant goat would surely have been shot.

In Canada, if it remained in the store another night, it would only have been taxed. That's right... a tax on real property abutting and abounding on public lands, taxed at the rate of X dollars per front foot. [Aaaaarrrggghhh! Ed.]