The Hilarious and Controversial History of Wheel of Fortune Puzzle Solutions

“Marvin the Magician!” loose the candidate, so convinced that she has solved the problem Wheel of Fortune word puzzle and so sure she’s about to make enough money to pay her mortgage for next year. At the same time, studio audiences and viewers in front of their television sets are shouting “Noooo!” and slap their open palms to their foreheads as their inner voices cry, “Merlin! Merlin the creepy magician!” Since 1975, the second longest-running game show in television history (only The The price is right bat) entertained the masses with just the right mix of joy, elation and absolute recoil as the lucky contenders lucky enough to spin the swirling round disc try to fill in the blanks and win cash and prices that easily put them on the street. Yes, audiences love it when the show’s players solve puzzles correctly and win thousands of dollars, but there’s that dark, slightly sinister place in everyone’s soul that loves it just as much when a contestant does. really explode. Watching a contestant incorrectly solve an obvious puzzle gives viewers a sense of intellectual superiority, not to mention the comfort of knowing that they aren’t the ones being absolutely humiliated on the broadcast airwaves. There’s been enough of “Oh they did not did they say that, didn’t they?” Wheel of Fortune moments over the past 48 years to satisfy the Beelzebub in all of us, but there is one particular answer that tops them all, and not just because of the ridiculousness of the answer itself, but because of the reaction that the response received by Wheelhave been the show’s venerable, poised, and almost unfazed hosts since 1981, Pat Sajak et Vanna Blanc.

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The ‘wheel of fortune’ is TV comfort food

Wheel of Fortune, starring host Sajak and “lighter letter” Vanna White, the woman with, by far, the best job in the world, has earned her rightful place in American pop culture history. What makes the show so immensely popular and seemingly impervious to changing times is its simplicity. Each weekday, three contestants spin a glittering wheel, shout out random letters, and find out if their guesses prompt Vanna to dash across the puzzle board and touch a glowing rectangle to reveal the consonant (or vowel costing 250 $) that competitors called. The more letters that light up on the seeing board in front of them, the closer the contestants come to solving the word puzzle and reaping the rewards. That’s it. This is the game. In a world filled with obstacles, aggravations and endless entanglements, Wheel of Fortune is the easy, non-threatening comfort food a harassed American population needs after enduring the troubles and burdens of the day.

The show’s format and premise have changed very little in the nearly five decades of airing. Although most viewers only know Pat and Vanna as the program’s centerpieces, the show’s first host was actually Chuck Woolery, best known as the host of the schlock fest of the 1980s and 1990s, love connection. Actress and model Susan Stafford was Wheel, and that was back when the letters in the puzzle really had to be turned manually. It was not until 1981 that Sajak took over hosting duties for Woolery, and the following year White took on Letters processing responsibilities from Stafford.

Pat and Vanna make good competitors with bad answers

The easy chemistry between Pat and Vanna was instantaneous, and their decades-long partnership helped attract huge Nielsen ratings for a game show that’s more about luck than strategy. Moreover, Sajak’s affability with an undercurrent of cynicism is a good counterweight to White’s unapologetic wholesomeness, and it makes every episode’s contestants feel comfortable and protected, even when they’re on the move. spoil things. Viewers feel like White feels really bad when someone guesses the puzzle incorrectly, and during a 1986 appearance on The show tonightshe told the guest host Joan Rivers that she “feels so bad” for contestants who get the puzzles wrong. Sajak, for his part, does his best to minimize any reaction when a contestant says “Magic Hand” instead of the obvious solution, “Magic Wand.” Part of the fun of watching Wheel, in fact, is to see if Sajak can keep his cool when a player gives a really ridiculous solution to a puzzle. Take, for example, the poor woman who guessed “The Sharp Desert” instead of “The Painted Desert,” or the ignorant man who said “Pass the Bacon” instead of “Pass the Stick.” Sajak consistently maintains his professional demeanor so as not to make candidates feel more humiliated than they already do. In a recent episode, Sajak’s mettle was tested when it seemed to take the contestants forever to find the solution to “Another Feather in Your Cap.” Despite answering the riddle, but looking them in the face, players kept calling out incorrect letters, and when one of them tried to solve the riddle as “Another feather in your lap ,” viewers could practically see puffs of smoke emanating from Sajak’s ears.

The most hilarious blunder of the series

But it was on the November 11, 1999 episode, broadcast by Radio City Music Hall, that the most hilarious puzzle solution was ever given by a contestant, and one of the few episodes where Pat and Vanna failed to keep it together. . It was the last puzzle in the series to be revealed, and Sajak had given the wheel one last spin. Each contestant had the opportunity to call out a letter and then attempt a solution. The solution to the puzzle was “A group of sympathizers”, but only a few correct letters were displayed on the large board. Contestant Joe Cardone, a New Jersey security guard and bartender, correctly called out the letter “P,” earning him a chance to guess the solution. To be fair, the pressure is on during the final round, as players only have three seconds to come up with an answer after Vanna reveals the letter and steps aside, so Joe was no doubt feeling the heat as the clock was starting to tick. . After hesitating for a moment, Joe offered his solution: “A group of pill-selling people. The audience immediately burst into laughter, as did Joe’s other contestants. Even Vanna doubled as Joe, realizing the words that had just escaped her lips, raised her hands to her head and turned her back to the audience. Sajak leaned on the railing in front of him, hand over his mouth, the wheels of fortune in his own head spinning as he pondered what kind of response he could possibly offer to such a worthy comedic gem. invaluable. Instantly surrendering, Sajak looked at the camera and shouted, “Good night, everyone!” as he greeted the still laughing audience. Finally, Sajak turned to the contestant and shouted, “It’s Wheel of FortuneJo !”

And that is precisely what made this moment so thunderous. It wasn’t just that Joe the bartender gave an incorrect answer; is that he gave an answer that could never be the solution to a puzzle on arguably TV Land’s most sanitized and family-friendly show. Joe’s response was the equivalent of shouting an obscenity in the middle of Sunday church services, and it elicited an almost cathartic release from all who heard it. One has to wonder how many years Pat, Vanna and Wheel audiences were waiting for someone to bellow an answer that would upend and subvert the show’s rather established vanilla image. So, as terrible of a puzzle solver as Joe from Jersey was, in a way, he also became a bit of a cult hero; the guy who splashed red paint on the white palisades of Wheel of Fortune. We love you, Joe, and we’re sure Pat and Vanna love you too. That is, until another contestant comes up with an even more comical and extravagant puzzle solution.