The Dirty Job Mike Rowe Just Couldn't Do

Posted by Reinaldo Massengill on Friday, May 3, 2024

"The Skilled Trades could do with a few more fans, and I'm proud to be one of them," he wrote in his 2015 Ask Me Anything Reddit thread. That attitude defined his approach to his coverage of the hands-on work that keeps society humming. Rowe has a deep respect for the people who do these jobs, but he's still got to do his job as an entertainer. This means cracking jokes for the folks back home, all clean and comfy on their soft living room couches.

Because of the jocular nature of his show, there was one trade that, although it definitely fits the criterion of being positively filthy, Rowe didn't feel he could cover in his usual comedic fashion: crime scene cleanup. "It's a great dirty job, but in the end, it's hard to be lighthearted about a body left in a trunk for three days in the Louisiana swamp," he told USA Today in 2007.

There's also the dirty job that Rowe did do, wishes he hadn't, and will never do again. Changing out the lift pump at a wastewater treatment plant is "one of those terrible, pure-disgust, oh-my-God-why-have-you-forsaken-me? jobs." That one took some time to recover from. "The crew and I always go out for a beer at the end of the day. That day we looked at each other and I said, 'I'll see you around sometime.' We didn't talk about it for weeks."

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB%2BlHJpbGpfqbWmecOiqa2xXZ%2B8o3nMoqKeZaKkxKZ5ya6qrWWTpMKtsM2tZJ2nXw%3D%3D