7 years later, Alex Trebek’s unimpressed response to a Bane impression is still funny
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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