Why is Pat Sajak so angry? [View all]

[Bucky]

full article ==> https://slate.com/culture/2023/06/pat-sajak-replacement-wheel-of-fortune-host-ryan-seacrest.html

I want to take a break from all the hair-pulling malicious attacks on vulnerable Americans and just have a good old fashioned laugh at the ridiculousness that is Pat Sajak.

When Pat Sajak announced he’d be retiring from Wheel of Fortune after the show’s 41st season, he included a perfectly diva-ish swipe in his farewell message. “It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months,” Sajak wrote. “If nothing else, it’ll keep the clickbait sites busy!”

Seriously? At 76 Pat Sajak thinks his vanilla face (sorry, vanilla) is clickbait? Duuuude.

And it kind of says it all that Sajak—who has spent decades directing people to spin a wheel and has recently been making a reported $15 million a year for the privilege—took the bittersweet moment of his retirement as an opportunity to air a bit of grievance. Over the years, that became his brand...

I guess that's true. And if you'll excuse the spoiler, the simple answer to why Pat Sajak is so angry, with his lotteryish 15 round a year for, you might wanna sit down for this, 48 days of work per year is because in the other 317 days per year he putters around his I'm guessing McMansion watching Fox News on every wide screen in the house.

Of course, Sajak is not beloved—or at least not in the way that men are supposed to become beloved after 40 years of screen time. The archetypical game show host is warm, convivial, and an advocate for the contestants, someone who has fully internalized the agony of a bad buzzer and the ecstasy of a savvy play. Sajak, meanwhile, consistently cut the silhouette of a man who stumbled into the easiest gig on television but never seemed to appreciate his good fortune.

It seems that Sajak... Wait, it doesn't feel right calling him only by his last name. It seems that Pat Sajak suffers from a lifelong comparison to Alex Trebek. He's Trebek minus testosterone. Also missing a sense of human warmth. But where Trebek dedicated his game show to the retention of academic knowledge and cultural literacy, Pat Sajak was the guy who made sure Americans could still recall the full alphabet.



The article goes on to explain that Pat Sajak is mad about being the only Republican in Hollywood. Which is, first off, pretty damn insulting to Kelsey Grammar (who might also be a tad cranky sometimes, but at least manages to have a sense of humor about it -- probably because he actually earned his living). Maybe crankiness is just being on brand as a conservative. Let's call it Scrooge syndrome. But also, can you imagine bumbling into a golden gig, anointed by Merv fucking Griffin no less, and not being pleased every day you wake up?

Sajak’s Twitter feed is a trove of your typical conservative death-cult stuff—most of the highlights are from around 2014 or so, and all of them provide an eerily prescient snapshot of where political discourse was headed. (A choice quote from the Sajak files: “I now believe global warming alarmists are unpatriotic racists knowingly misleading for their own ends.” Not quite sure what that means!) Sajak also flirted with some early anti-woke ideation, once remarking that the next big “cause du jour” will be “Plants Rights”

I'm just kidding. Being Pat Sajak means you don't have to wake up. I get why my neighbors here on Houston's east side might get angry. They struggle with house payments, kids' college costs, record breaking summer droughts for 15 of the last 20 years, inexplicable crime rates amid an elusive economic recovery, and inflation rates sucking all the fun out of that recovery. But anger doesn't seem to fit Pat Sajak, a guy who makes Dan Quayle look downright spicy. I can't help but get a chuckle out of how a guy who has every reason to live a life full of joy and gratitude would with an Elmer Fuddish stubbornness absolutely refuse to be happy.

Good Lord, son, take your victory lap and try not to kick the poodle when you round the corner.