Top 20 Wheel of Fortune Puzzle Fails
#20: Mustard-Filled Chocolate Éclair
#20: Mustard-Filled Chocolate Éclair What do you think is the best filling in a chocolate éclair? Whipped cream? Vanilla pudding? Custard? Yeah, those are all great, but have you ever tried them with mustard? This puzzle was pretty obvious. It was clear that it was a “something”-filled chocolate éclair, and the letters of the first word contained “s-t-a-r-d.” Most people would tell you that it’s a “custard-filled chocolate éclair.” But not this contestant, who went with the infinitely more disgusting “mustard-filled chocolate éclair.” Hey, you know what they say – don’t knock it till you try it. The audience clearly knocked it, as the silly answer generated immediate laughs and a quick “no” from Mr. Sajak.
#19: Cell Phone Charter
#19: Cell Phone Charter We have trouble believing anybody out there hasn’t at least heard of that nifty device we use to power up our phones. After correctly putting 2 Hs on the board, and with the puzzle almost complete, Sam attempted the obvious solve. He got two words in and paused, however. Then this happened. One of his fellow contestants got a kick out of it, and even Pat Sajak got a jab in before the puzzle was correctly solved. With the way cell phone contracts can be, though, maybe having a cell phone charter isn’t a bad idea.
#18: Start in the Right Way
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#18: Start in the Right Way You see those clues they give at the bottom of the puzzle? Sometimes – well, pretty much always – they’re important. Case in point: this puzzle, where contestant Shermian didn’t seem to notice or remember that the category is “Things.” You see, the hint clearly means that the answer is a noun – not an action. Sadly, the contestant missed that memo, AND overlooked that the N was already there, resulting in this misstep. She may’ve started this puzzle in the right way, but she ended it in embarrassment.
#17: All-You-Can-Eat-Tape Bar
Top 10 Wheel Of Fortune Puzzle Fails
#17: All-You-Can-Eat-Tape Bar Seriously, what is with these people? First with the mustard eclairs, now with the all you can eat tables and tape! This “all you can eat taco bar” puzzle practically solved itself – all that was missing were the two o’s. However, the contestants were at a total loss with “taco.” They awkwardly stumbled over the word and threw in “table” as a possible answer before going with what sounds like “tape bar.” It was wrong. The puzzle then went to Kyle and Brad, who frankly couldn’t believe their luck and quickly solved the mystery. Taco bars sound way more fun and delicious than tape bars.
#16: Ekclusive Nightclub
#16: Ekclusive Nightclub Your mind might have gone to the gutter with Joe for our last entry, but it’s hard to imagine not knowing the answer to this one. A contestant from the Air Force managed to snag the $10,000 wedge, sandwiched between 2 bankrupts, AND correctly guessed a G, but it was all downhill from there. After spinning again to the audience’s surprise and narrowly avoiding the Bankrupt wedge, she asked for the letter K. The look on Pat Sajak’s face said it all. We don’t know what an ekclusive nightclub is, but for a puzzle with only two letters left, we ekspected better.
#15: “Who Said Anything About a Horse?!”
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#15: “Who Said Anything About a Horse?!” This specific puzzle could make for a great study into the concept of groupthink – once one person says it, everyone else starts believing it. During this “What are you doing” puzzle, Lee guessed the answer “Riding a brown horse.” It was a decent guess, but it was wrong. Unfortunately, it put “horse” into the next team’s head. Following that, a female contestant guessed “Riding a white horse,” Old Testament-style. This caused Sajak to drop his arms in confusion, shake his head, and walk off the set before returning to ask, “Who said anything about a horse!?” The answer ended up being “seeing a buddy movie.” We think “riding a white horse” is cooler.
#14: Miners & Hoes
#14: Miners & Hoes Back in the Ken Jennings days of “Jeopardy,” he made a pretty famous goof when he answered, “What’s a hoe?” Turns out that “Wheel of Fortune” has its own “hoe” answer, and it’s even funnier. During the toss-up puzzle, Kareem guessed “miners and hoes,” causing Pat Sajak to audibly laugh while saying “no.” Kareem realized that he made a hilarious blunder, as he too doubled over in laughter. Well, if you can’t laugh at yourself. . . What makes it even better is that “miners” doesn’t have enough letters to fill out the puzzle. FYI, the answer ended up being “fingers and toes.” It’s much safer for national television, but it’s nowhere near as fun or as funny.
#13: Popsicle Bike
#13: Popsicle Bike There is just so much wrong with this one we don’t even know where to start. First, the clue is “living thing.” And this woman guessed “popsicle bike.” And for that matter, what on Earth is a popsicle bike? Secondly, the first word has way too many letters to be “popsicle.” Thirdly, there is no 0, y, or k in popsicle. And lastly, the second word has an “s” in it, so it’s clearly not “bike.” But we shouldn’t judge. This show is probably a lot harder once you’re actually there, the cameras are on you, and real money is on the line. But this has to be one of the worst “Wheel of Fortune” answers ever.
#12: A Group of Pill-Pushers
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#12: A Group of Pill-Pushers Here’s what happens when you forget that “Wheel of Fortune” is a family show. After guessing the letter P, and having one appear, Joe attempted to solve the puzzle. To be fair, the words fit perfectly, but he should have known that’s not the answer because there was only one P up there. Well, that and “Wheel” isn’t known for their drug-related puzzles. Joe got an earful from Pat, but then one of his fellow contestants made another wrong guess, before it was finally solved as “A Group of Well-Wishers.”
#11: Supper and Cereal Bowl
#11: Supper and Cereal Bowl If there’s one thing “Wheel of Fortune” contestants are continuously punished for, it’s bad pronunciation. Well, that and bad spelling, of course. And in this case, it’s both! This “same name” clue was shaping up to be “Super and Cereal Bowl,” and the contestant had every letter but the p and w. However, she thought the answer was “supper and cereal bowl.” It’s a double whammy of a fail - not only did she mispronounce the answer, but she thought “s-u-p-e-r” was how you spelt “supper.” And besides, surely “Super Bowl” makes much more sense than “supper bowl?”
#10: Fish Love
#10: Fish Love Now this is an undeniable “Wheel of Fortune” classic. The $3,000 toss up was a “thing,” and the letters consisted of l, i, s, and h. This caused Edgar to buzz in with one of the best and most hilarious answers of all time. To Edgar’s credit, the first word really does look like “fish.” Not to his credit, we don’t think “Wheel of Fortune” would ever have “fish love” as one of its puzzles. The answer caused both Edgar and Pat to crack up, and no one even paid any attention to Jenny’s correct guess of “wish list.” Sorry Jenny, but everyone is too fixated on that sweet fish love.
#9: Surf Clay Where We Go
#9: Surf Clay Where We Go We get it, Toss-Up Puzzles can be pretty stressful, and your mind’s gotta go into hyperdrive when all those letters appear one by one. One thing’s for sure though: if you don’t know the answer, don’t make a guess that doesn’t fit. This is advice that contestant Stephen should’ve heeded, as he mistook the song lyrics “Surf City, here we come” as… this. We’ll give him a pass on not recognizing lyrics from a 50+year-old beach song, but the entire last half of his guess didn’t even fit – not to mention the fact that the last word is already filled in! Maybe someone needed some R&R in Surf City.
#8: Regis Philburn and Kelly Reepa
#8: Regis Philburn and Kelly Reepa You’re in luck: this entry is 3 fails in one! While all three Armed Forces contestants did pretty well filling out the letters of the puzzle, sometimes you need every single letter to be able to solve. Okay, scratch that. We guess even with every letter on the board, it’s still kinda tough if you’ve never heard of these people. And when they finally pronounced Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa’s names correctly, our favorite host threw shade at the morning TV hosts. We’re willing to bet cable TV isn’t that popular with the military?
#7: Self-Potato
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#7: Self-Potato The toss-up rounds on Wheel of Fortune are great. The timed aspect and the rush to be the first to answer result in some truly hilarious and bizarre answers. In this $3,000 round, the “thing” in question was “self portrait.” However, Lolita clearly panicked and said . . . uh, “self potato”. It’s a totally nonsensical answer made even better by the fact that the second word is clearly not “potato.” To her credit, Lolita immediately recognized her blunder and smiled her way through the answer in embarrassment. Pat was quick to reassure her that blunders like that are totally normal, but that can’t stop us from having fun with it!
#6: Spider-Woman
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#6: Spider-Woman We can blame some fails just on nerves. This nearly completed puzzle should have been solved with the DC Comics superheroes, Superman and Wonder Woman. After successfully guessing a letter, the contestant got a little mixed up, however. We believe he did know the correct answer, as he blurted it out right after, but it’s too late. Our best guess is that he initially thought the first word was Spider-Man, and the web-slinger stayed in his head just long enough to confuse him. Here’s hoping his teammate didn’t take it too hard.
#5; Magic Jand
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#5; Magic Jand This one took place in the bonus round, so the stakes are high. Contestant Zach got lucky with his chosen letters, and is only missing two to complete the puzzle. Not recognizing the second word, Zach seemed to go through the alphabet until he hit the letter, even guessing non-words like “jand.” He finally got to W and guessed “wand”!... right after the buzzer sounded. Don’t feel too bad though; despite his disappointment, he still won over $19,000.
#4: Sneeky Dwarf
#4: Sneeky Dwarf Surely, by this point we all know the names of the famous seven dwarves. Right? Unfortunately, this contestant was not. The “characters” in question were obviously the seven dwarves, and this contestant did know that. However, when it came time for Sneezy, she said “Sneeky” instead. To make matters worse, that’s not even how you spell “sneaky.” It was a major blow, and you could even hear the audience groan in disappointment. The puzzle then went to another contestant, who answered it correctly for a whopping $5,000.
#3: A Streetcar Naked Desire
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We don’t want to know where the contestant’s head was for this one. What’s worse is the puzzle is only missing one letter. After spinning the wheel, contestant Kevin knew he had a choice between two words: “Naked” or “Named.” You can see where this is going… The best part might be the reaction from a shocked and chagrined audience member. Kevin was later invited on “Ellen,” where it was revealed that neither he nor his wife had heard of the play. He ended up the winner, though, as Ellen gave him $5,000 in redemption money after playing a game on her show.
#2: I Have the Wine by Johnny Cash
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#2: I Have the Wine by Johnny Cash Ah yes, Johnny Cash’s memorable “I Have the Wine.” It’s a classic, right? Obviously, this “song/artist” clue was “I Walk the Line by Johnny Cash,” and a jackpot of nearly $10,000 was on the line. That’s an enormous amount of money for “Wheel of Fortune,” and in our opinion, there were more than enough letters on the board to make this one a cinch. However, the contestant clearly didn’t know the song, and, rushed by Pat Sajak’s reminder of the $10,000 jackpot, blurted out “I Have the Wine by Johnny Cash.” Hey, at least she got the artist correct! And we’re sure Johnny Cash did have some wine in his day. Unfortunately, he did not write this song about it. Before we unveil our top picks, here are a few honorable, or dishonorable, mentions. Boozing My Shore Excursion Mountain Boat No L
#1: Mythological Hero Achilles
This one hurts the most, because everything worked out so well for our contestant Julian, but he just couldn’t nail the finish. After obtaining the million-dollar wedge to start his journey towards obscene cash, he guessed all the letters to actually complete the full puzzle. All he had to do then was say it to solve it. And say it he did, with a ton of confidence to boot. However, it wasn’t accepted and when a fellow contestant pronounced it correctly, a humiliated Julian had to stand beside Pat Sajak as the host explained what happened. It’s safe to say that the Greek gods weren’t smiling down on Julian that day.
