Tonight I was watching my nightly episode of Wheel where three military dudes were the contestants. And while they may spend the majority of their time defending our country from the dangers that be, they obviously spend zero amount of time watching daytime television. The insanity starts at 1:45 into this clip...
The category for the puzzle was "proper names" and the answer was obviously "Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa." These guys took FOUR incorrect guesses at the puzzle before one guy eventually READ IT ALOUD CORRECTLY. This was AFTER the guy before him read it out loud INCORRECTLY. Didn't even read it right...
The first guy said "Philburn," and the second guy said "Philman." I will say... two of the guys were denied the correct answer because they pronounced Kelly's Ripa's last name as "Ree-pa" and "Ripe-a". While the Regis mispronunciations were clearly wrong, is there a rule on Wheel about pronouncing words wrong even if they're up for interpretation (although, c'mon guys...)? I do think it's a little unfair, but god, I felt like I was watching a Saturday Night Live sketch. My brain hurts.
The best thing about the whole event was that my dad (who often calls me to gloat after successfully solving the final puzzle) called me 30 seconds after it happened and was laughing hysterically.