This has been kind of a shitty week. Luke Perry died. King Kong Bundy died. Prodigy frontman Keith Flint died. The Kardashians are going to live forever just to spite us. And Hannah Gadsby is getting another Netflix special. On top of all of that (and keep in mind it’s only Thursday) Alex Trebek has stage four pancreatic cancer.
This doesn’t mean Trebek going to die, stage four is the worst and it means that the cancer spread beyond the organ it developed in, but that doesn’t mean it’s always fatal. Still, it’s not good. But Trebek isn’t giving up hope and he says he’s going to beat it. He delivered the news himself, from the set of Jeopardy!, on the official Jeopardy! YouTube channel.
“Hi everyone, I have some news to share with all of you and it’s in keeping with my longtime policy of being open and transparent with our Jeopardy! fan base. I also wanted to prevent you from reading or hearing some overblown or inaccurate reports regarding my health. So therefore, I wanted to be the one to pass along this information. Now, just like 50,000 other people in the United States each year, this week I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Now normally, the prognosis for this is not very encouraging, but I’m going to fight this, and I’m going to keep working. And with the love and support of my family and friends and with the help of your prayers also, I plan to beat the low survival rate statistics for this disease. Truth told, I have to! Because under the terms of my contract, I have to host Jeopardy! for three more years! So help me. Keep the faith and we’ll win. We’ll get it done. Thank you.”
Alex Trebek is something of an institution on television. And I thought instead of being sad
We’d be lost without Alex Trebek explaining rap music. #Jeopardy #AlexTrebekpic.twitter.com/zt1gl1EXqA
— insecure Al (@insecure_al) March 7, 2019
I love this clip the most because that fist woman is so insane, and Alex keeps it together through her whole “I worship Dana Scully on the internet” thing but just loses it when that woman smiles and calls him insensitive.