A ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ Contestant Had A Spectacularly Bad Guess That Left Everyone Confused

I’ve seen my fair share of bad Wheel of Fortune guesses over the years.

There was poor Shermian, who just needed the first and last word to solve a puzzle but ended up bungling the whole thing; and this guy’s dirty mind (it’s A Streetcar Named Desire, not A Streetcar Naked Desire, although maybe it should be); and who could forget this act of hubris. Shout out to “bridal and gold shower,” too. But Thursday’s episode of the syndicated game show had one of my all-time favorite terrible guesses.

As seen above, the category was “People” and the board read: TH_ N__T __N_R_T__N. To be honest, I didn’t know the answer, but I knew it wasn’t “The Best Buttercup,” which is what contestant Matt guessed. Or maybe he said “The Best Buttercut.” It’s hard to tell, but neither is close to being right (the actual answer: “The Next Generation”). Even Pat Sajak sounded confused. After Matt tried to solve the puzzle, the host replied, in a deadpan voice that would make the late, great Alex Trebek proud, “Uh, no. Oddly enough, no.” Matt ended up winning the episode (although he wasn’t able to get the bonus puzzle), but that’s not what he’ll be remembered for.