When I see this epic compilation of Wheel of Fortune failures I shake my head and wonder about humanity, more so than usual since the puzzles in this game can be complicated but not when the majority of the words are spelled out. Worse than that is the fact that some of them are already spelled out entirely, all the contestants need to do is speak the words to win the money. But somehow, they can’t even do that. If that sounds elitist I’m not sorry because that’s what a decent to good education does for a person, it allows them to understand what they’re reading and how to solve a word puzzle.
Worse still is that most if not all of these folks are at least partially to full educated individuals that you would think might have enough life experience behind them to know some of these answers and how to say them. This isn’t Jeopardy after all, where you need to have an encyclopedia of knowledge stored in your brain for immediate use when you need it. This is a word puzzle, this is Wheel of Fortune, where if you can guess the letters based on the word length, the grouping, and the frequency of certain letters you should be in the clear.
It kind of makes me believe, and for good reason, that the show screens people based on certain questions they devise in order to figure out a person’s education level, their experience with game shows, and just how intelligent they really are. I don’t know how they would accomplish the third measure but it seems like they’d give it a shot to avoid having anyone run the table on them in the game. If someone that was really good at word puzzles came in they might mop up and their only saving grace would be the chance that the individual would hit a bum roll on the wheel.
Say what you want about word puzzles being difficult and I’ll hear you, but as a writer and as an educated human being this was hard to watch at certain moments when all the people had to do was speak the entire clue, which had been solved, and walk away with their winnings. This is not a difficult game, nor is it a game where a person has to be all that quick. They just have to be intelligent enough to understand and identify certain phrases and words in order to win. That’s also part of why I believe the show is rigged in some ways.
That’s a bold accusation and I don’t make it lightly. Some of these folks should probably know these answers without any difficulty and could possibly win the game and walk away with their heads held high. But they flub on an easy answer and then deny themselves the prize. I do tend to wonder if there are people on the show that are expected to win and therefore some shady deals are made behind the scenes. That’s a giant conspiracy theory and it doesn’t hold much water, but it’s actually more comforting than the people not knowing what the answers are.
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