Another Wheel of Fortune episode, another iconic moment with Pat Sajak. But unlike other times, the contestant’s unique commentary was directed right at the show — and he had to field it.
During a recent episode of the hit game show, the longtime host stood with competitor Ben as he tried to guess the bonus round puzzle for the category “Fun and Games.” With just a few letters left to fill, his final guess was “taunt a wacky guy” — which wasn’t correct. Pat and co-host Vanna White then revealed that the answer was “taking a quick jog.”
“Oh, that was so unclose. You just didn’t have the letters,” Pat said afterward. But the Wheel of Fortune competitor quickly gave his two cents about why he failed to guess the phrase. “Well, see, I don’t consider jogging fun and games,” Ben replied.
As it turns out, Pat appeared to be surprised by his honesty but tried to still be supportive. “Oh, well, there you go! That wasn’t bad,” he said. To drive his message home about the category and phrase not matching, Ben looked directly at the camera and gave folks watching from home a thumbs-up.
While Ben ended up earning $18,000 for his entire run on the game show, viewers weren’t too happy about how his bonus round unfolded. What’s more, many took to Instagram to voice their thoughts about how Wheel of Fortune may have misled him.
“Finally! A contestant finally speaks out about the answers not matching the category! The kid was great!” one person wrote in the comments section. “You can tell he pissed off Pat… hahah,” another added. “AS soon as the answer was revealed….I said…”thats NOT fun”….very poor choice!!!” a different follower said.
Leave it to a puzzle to get everyone riled up!
Editorial Assistant
As the entertainment and news editorial assistant for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey’s Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.