If you were to look up the definition of “sick burn,” you’d probably find a picture of Dictionary.com’s not-so subtle dig about the hosting drama at “Jeopardy!”
Amid Mike Richards’ resignation from his “Jeopardy!” hosting duties due to backlash over his recently resurfaced offensive remarks, the Twitter account for Dictionary.com joined in on the online roasting session.
“’Jeopardy’ is a noun meaning ‘peril or danger.’ Here it is in a sentence:
‘My job is in jeopardy because of my past comments.’”
Richards informed the show’s staff that he would be stepping down from his freshly-minted hosting gig in an email Friday, writing that, “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.”
Richards will remain as executive producer. The iconic quiz show will return to its short-term guest hosts until a permanent host is chosen.
Production on the new season of the quiz show began Thursday with Richards as host but was canceled for today. Richards taped five episodes of “Jeopardy!” yesterday, all of which will air, an individual with knowledge of the situation tells TheWrap.
On Wednesday, The Ringer reported on the existence of “The Randumb Show,” Richards’ 2013 podcast in which he “repeatedly used offensive language and disparaged women’s bodies.” The podcast, recorded during his time as executive producer on “The Price Is Right,” was co-hosted by Richards and his former assistant Beth Triffon and ran for 41 episodes.
According to the outlet, Richards’ comments included calling his female co-host a “booth slut” for modeling at CES and seeming to make a Jewish stereotype joke (after somebody else made a comment about big noses, Richards reportedly said, “Ixnay on the ose-nay. She’s not an ew-Jay”).
The fervor over Richards’ remarks was so great that the Anti-Defamation League weighed-in, calling for an investigation into the producer’s “pattern” of offensive, harmful statements.
Richards issued an apology for the jokes he made on the since-deleted podcast on Wednesday, calling that time in his life a “terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity.”
It seems you’re going to have to do better to escape the wrath of Dictionary.com though.
