- A teacher’s simple answer on Wheel of Fortune went viral after she flipped it
- As a result of her mistake, Angie Gautney was mocked on Twitter
- In 2022, host Pat Sajak asked social media to step back from making fun of the contestants.
A Wheel of Fortune candidate went viral for all the wrong reasons after failing to solve a simple puzzle in the Food & Drink category on the long-running game show.
Florida resident Angie Gautney appeared on the March 1 episode and had already earned more than $6,000 when she attempted to solve the puzzle: ‘WARM TOASTED BA_ELS WITH LO_ AND CREAM CHEESE.’
‘I’m going to try and solve,’ Goutney said with a bit of confidence after successfully guessing the ‘B’ in the riddle. He Offers on: ‘Warm toasted bagels with cumin and cream cheese.’ ‘No, not right,’ host Pat Sajak, 76, said at the false buzzer.
The next contestant is asked to display ‘X’ correctly. That person guessed right: ‘Warm toasted bagels with lox and cream cheese.’
“Yeah, that’s a better recipe,” Sajak said as co-host Vanna White pointed out the correct answer.
Bagels with cream cheese and lox, a slice of brined salmon, were brought to America from Eastern Europe by Jewish immigrants more than 100 years ago and are one of the most popular breakfast foods on the East Coast.
Gautney, who works as a teacher at Stetson Baptist Christian School in North DeLand, Florida, still walked away from the show with $7,300 in prize money.
She announced her appearance on the show in a Facebook post on 1 March.
‘tonight’s the night! There will be some embarrassing moments, but it was a fun experience! I wish I could do it again!’ she wrote.
Unfortunately, Gautney’s reply drew the ire and jibes of Twitter.
With ‘less and cream cheese’…..it’s a disgrace. “Someone bring us her @ so we can pair her with some LOX and cream cheese,” wrote Bagel Boss.
Another viewer said, “Someone guessed hot toasted bagels with loo and cream cheese instead of lox, that’s so embarrassing I’ll never show my face again.”
‘ She said “less” I’m not kidding. Oi ve…,’ retiredguy999 said.
Another user tweeted, “My mom and I were totally abusing this lady on the Wheel of Fortune who didn’t know what luxe was.”
At least one person sympathized with Goutney.
The riddle on the Wheel of Fortune was ‘Warm Toasted Bagel with Lox and Cream Cheese’. what the fuck? Tweetin Jacklegs said.
‘I’m from New York so I obviously know what luxe is on a bagel. I wonder if the rest of America does, or if it was just a rough estimate?’ Another tweeter wondered.
In March 2022, Pat Sajak took to Twitter to defend contestants who have been accused of getting the answers to simple puzzles wrong and therefore mocked.
He tweeted, “I always feel sad when good people come on our show to play games and win some money and maybe fulfill the dream of a lifetime, and when they make a mistake or something goes wrong become the butt of ridicule online.”
Sajak said he would never make fun of a guest because they are “good guys in a bad situation”. He tweeted that people sitting in the comfort of their homes cannot understand the pressure of competitors.
‘Eventually, you might be there one day. And nobody wants to trend on Twitter,’ Sajak said at the conclusion of his thread.