Photo : Tracy A. Woodward ( The Washington Post via Getty Images )

Television mainstay and badass cancer survivor Alex Trebek is a legend when it comes to game shows. Jeopardy is, and always will be, the epitome of that genre dof TV, and Trebek will always be the face of it in people’s minds. Obviously, being host since the ’80s makes it second nature, which includes getting into habits. For example, the way he says “genre.” It’s a super simple word; doesn’t seem like it’d be all that interesting to watch a supercut of him saying it over and over again, right? Wrong. His pronunciation is actually the greatest, most bougie way to pronounce “genre,” ever.



Trebek grew up speaking French in his native Canada (other countries are much less intent on being monolingual), and he gives the word a French pronunciation so it almost sounds like “jar” or “John.” The further you get in the video, you actually start questioning if you’ve been saying it incorrectly this whole time. It is a French word in its origin, but it’s a bit discombobulating when you make it to the 40-second mark in the video and you just hear Trebek say,“genre” almost 10 times in a row. But honestly, Trebek is allowed to say things however he wants—he will still be a gift to this world. (Remember when he took points away from a contestant for saying “Gangster’s Paradise” instead of “Gangsta’s Paradise”? That was great.)


[Editor’s note: This original video was actually created by Jeopardy! superstar Alex Jacob, who very politely requested that we give him credit rather than the lazy sonofabitch who downloaded and reposted it on their own channel, where we first stumbled upon it. We have corrected the error, and kindly request Jacob never challenge us to a trivia contest.]