We apparently live in a golden age of game show blunders. Recently there’s been a spate of cartoonishly wrong Wheel of Fortune answers. Now the trend is infecting other shows. On a recent episode of the U.S. reboot of The Weakest Link — which swaps out original terrifying host Anne Robinson for the comparatively warmer Jane Lynch — one contestant was asked to show off his knowledge of legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Not only was his expertise lacking, but his answer was powerfully, inventively wrong.
This is one of the funniest wrong answers ever
pic.twitter.com/j6MSUM9UA4
— Piñata Farms
(@pinatafarms) April 4, 2022
The viral clip shows a man named Sean being asked by Lynch a simple question: Of the nine Oscar nominations the Marvel villain has earned for directing over his long career, which film did he wind up winning for? The answer is one of Scorsese’s most popular films, 2006’s star-studded gangster epic The Departed, which grossed a pretty penny back in the day and has been a home video/streaming favorite ever since.
Sean did not know that. “I’m horrible with films,” Sean admitted while visibly wracking his brain. He admitted he would “have to guess.” And so his mind landed on…8 Mile. The 2002 biopic about Eminem, starring Eminem as himself.
Sadly, the director of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Last Temptation of Christ, and the lengthy video for Michael Jackson’s “Bad” has never once directed the onetime Slim Shady. Those duties went to another Oscar-nominated director, the late Curtis Hanson, the versatile filmmaker of L.A. Confidential who directed 8 Mile in between the comedic dramas Wonder Boys and In Her Shoes. So it’s not too far-off.
There is one other connection between the two: At the 2020 Oscars, when Scorsese’s The Irishman was up for a pile of awards, the great director was forced to listen to “Lose Yourself,” the song that won 8 Mile’s lone Academy Award. And he did not exactly seem to be enjoying it.
(Via The Independent)