One of the few truly undisputed facts in this world is that Jeopardy! is better than Wheel of Fortune in almost every conceivable way. The only edge Wheel has, and it is a minor one, is that its second and third place contestants get to keep the money they earned during the course of the show, whereas the runners-up on Jeopardy! have their totals wiped clean and are given one and two thousand dollar consolation prizes. I can’t even imagine how furious I’d be if I lost by $1 after winning, say, $25,000, and saw my take-home amount slashed by $23,000 at the end of the show. But even then there’s a simple solution, I guess, which is to just win or not whine about how much money they gave you for losing. Either way, the point I’m getting at is that Wheel of Fortune is stupid and you shouldn’t like it.
Example: On a recent episode of the show a contestant named Renee got hosed out of almost $4000 (and, as it turned out, a shot at the final puzzle) because she didn’t pronounce the hard “G” at the end of “Seven Swans A-Swimming.” While I normally would say tough cookies and move along with my day, the thing here is that the “G” WAS ALREADY ON THE BOARD. It’s not like she didn’t know it was there, or didn’t know how to pronounce the word. She just dropped it the same way most of us do while singing “The 12 Days of Christmas” (“eight maids a-milkin’, seven swans a-swimmin’, six geese a-layin’,” etc.) and the judges still wouldn’t give it to her. SHE KNEW THE ANSWER. SHE SOLVED THE PUZZLE. THAT IS THE POINT OF YOUR STUPID SHOW. AND YET YOU WERE ALL “NOPE, WRONG ANSWER” BECAUSE SHE TRIED TO HAVE A LITTLE FUN WITH THE WHOLE THING?
Eat sh-t, Wheel of Fortune.
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On the upside, if you bet all your money on Jeopardy and are wrong, you get money back.
Phonetically, there is no “hard G” and the end of “swimming”. The “ng” represents a single sound, usually produced as a velar nasal occlusive ([ŋ]) but in many dialects/sociolects as an alveolar nasal ([n]).
By which I mean, yes, Wheel of Fortune sucks.
Yes, it’s shitty, but having been in a game show green room, I guarantee those contestants were told countless times that the answer has to be exact. You can tell by the way that most people enunciate the crap out of every word, even when the whole puzzle has been revealed. She’s lucky the story isn’t “contestant can’t read”
I do, however, love her “plotting the death of this goddamn show” face while Pat breaks it down for her.
this is just more proof in the truth that people who do prefer wheel are awful and wrong.
Or my grandparents…which means yes, you are correct.
Woah that is buuuuuullshiiiiit. Which is what that lady should have said. Wheel really is the Kardashians to Jeopardy’s Deadliest Catch though.
What happens if you’re from Philly and can’t pronounce water?
“Pick another briefcase, Sal. And please hold up the equivalent amount of fingers and/or toes as a backup. (fistbump.)”
i agree that Jeopardy rocks because Trebek > Sajak but i maintain that i am the Master of Jeopardy and all others have false claims to the title.
Wow, Wheel of Fortune rage? What’s next, complaining about Matlock being moved to 1:00 instead of noon and those damned kids who won’t stay off our lawn?
MAYBE.
GOLDEN GIRLS ISN’T ON ENOUGH.
Seriously, Golden Girls isn’t on enough.
I’ve heard Pat Sajak is a real douche in real life too, as opposed to the Bruce Greenwood of the game shows, Alex Trebek.
i saw an interview with pat sajak where he said back in the day him and vannah would go to happy hour in the middle of shooting and film half the episodes hammered.
What uniform was that lady wearing? Because jeez, that’s not making things any better. (WE MUST HONOR THE TWOOPS!)
My exact thoughts
My favourite thing about Wheel of Fortune is that the average contestant is so dumb they decided to let them play in pairs.
If they pulled that shit on me the rest of the episode would be un-airable. I have little control over my cursing even when I’m NOT enraged. They’d have to go to one of those “Sorry, Technical Issues” pictures with a drunken monkey running a camera or some shit whilst I destroyed the set and was tazered by security guards. Of course, I’m not a fuckwit so I’d be up by a zillion dollars by that point.
Ha.
What’s almost more baffling is that there are STILL two fucking game shows on in the evening on national television.
I mean ? ? ?
I swear I’m normal in real life, you have to trust me.
She is a Master-At-Arms, which is a military cop in the Navy. I can’t believe they actually did that to her and I like how the contenstant that did win threw her own jab in at the show by saying she heard the right answer from the Sailor.
Hahaha. I totally watched this the other day and I shouted the answer with the same “swimmin’ ” mistake, and said “shit – swimminG, I would have been disqualified!” And then it happened to the contestant.
Yes, I have embraced the fact that I am old and watch Wheel after the local news.
Nice let’s get into this today
This is why America is going down hill. Her answer was wrong. Sorry. Better luck next time ass. But still everyone wants to say, “Well she was close enough. Can’t we just give it to her?” F her.
no, she was not wrong. the G was there. she knew what the answer was. she barely even mispronounced it. it was a horseshit move not to give it to her.
I hate what I am about to type.
What if she was black?
And, PhoneHome, you are wrong. Mike Keesey explains exactly how you are wrong above.
I don’t see what their problem is. Look, maybe she didn’t say every single little tiny syllable, no. But basically she said them, yeah.
Trabeck laughs at this pithy matter and lets you know he knows all the answers and how to pronounce them better than you do.
“I normally would say tough cookies …” YOU WOULD!? Fuck that, man; even if that G weren’t already lit, that’s a fucking moronic rule. After all, if it had been an apostrophe, it would’ve been pre-lit just like the hyphen. There is no way that ‘ could’ve been there, and if they’re gonna interpret shit like that, then why not say, “No, no, nuh-uh, she said ’7 Swans a-Swimming.’ She didn’t emphasize the ‘n’ enough to distinguish between the numeral and the word; no good!” That rule is as pointlessly pedantic as it gets.
Then again, Wheel of Fortune is awful anyway and these people shouldn’t be supporting its continued awful existence by agreeing to be contestants. So the penalties offset, I guess. Still, props to that lady for being sportsmanlike and not slapping Sajak in the face right there and then.
What if she had a lisp and said “Th’even Th’wans a Th’wimming?” And they’d disqualified her and she sued them for discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act? That would have been cool.
Good thing they don’t play this game with people from Boston….
I love how she went with “M” after solving “SE_EN”.
it’s pronounced swimmin, silent g by 99.9999999 % of u.s. americans so it is correct. the guy who determined this decision needs to go to communication school and be given leave without pay untill he learns and they need to give her the money. if she would sue them, she would win.
In a related knowitall poll, 99.999999% of u.s. americans live in Appalachia.
My friend was a contestant once and claims that while another contestant was getting his picture taken with Vana White, Pat knees the photographer in the crotch.
I don’t care if its not true. I choose to believe.