Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune may be all the rage stateside, but other countries have their own game shows. Which, thankfully, means that they have their own set of gloriously wrong answers to laugh at. The latest is a holiday gift from the UK from a show called University Challenge.
The Boxing Day edition of UC featured
The show has been running for decades, and there are actually a lot of full episodes online if you’d like to see what a normal episode looks like. But the Boxing Day episode had lots of people talking online, mostly because of a question about Godzilla that went terribly wrong for a contestant from UCLan, or the University of Central Lancashire.
Well, this did me in pic.twitter.com/njBVwTjb3W
— L Johnston (@FinalBullet) December 26, 2020
“King Ghidora, Megalon and Mothra are among creatures who have fought which enduring film character in films made between 1964 and 1992?” the show’s host, Jeremy Paxman, asked. There’s a long pause before someone from UClan rang in, and just like in a darts match when a player gets a pair of triple 20s, the camera zoomed in for the big finish. It didn’t disappoint.
“Lassie,” the contestant said, with neither conviction nor curiosity, which somehow made it even funnier. The camera work all around really made this one shine, and it seems like a normal thing for University Challenge but certainly is unusual for American game shows. It really made this clip, and the clearly incorrect answer implying a normal-sized dog fought a building-sized moth, that much funnier.
As another video shows, the team from Loughborough did get the right answer before time ran out, though the video was much funnier with it cut off right at the incorrect answer.
Best wrong answer ever #UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/a2DtEG7dY8
— David Stevens
(@DavidStevens10) December 26, 2020
Still, she didn’t seem too sure of herself when guessing, either. The answer did get a LOT of people talking online. Mostly making memes about how Lassie would fare against Mothra.
— L Johnston (@FinalBullet) December 26, 2020
Mothra v Lassie. Now there’s a movie I’d like to see..#UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/ap1ixeNzoJ
— Viscount Discount (@tonydav37104026) December 26, 2020
Lassie. Lassie?! Really @richaskam #UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/vvRrjnDQVt
— Werewolf Beer (@WerewolfBeer) December 26, 2020
What’s that Lassie? Is #Mothra destroying the city again? Well we better hurry! #UniversityChallenge #wow #dense pic.twitter.com/BQa3sJZENm
—
G. Dimmock
Lassie, according to #UniversityChallenge pic.twitter.com/ztUyuvjWPj
— Viscount Discount (@tonydav37104026) December 26, 2020
It’s never great to fail on an international stage, but it is very funny to think about a tiny dog tagging in for Godzilla against some very tough opponents. At least we might get a movie deal out of this whole mess.