It's one thing to misstate a phrase in conversation. It's quite another to misstate a phrase on national television.
"Wheel of Fortune" viewers watched in shock Tuesday as contestants struggled to correctly guess the last word of the phrase "another feather in your cap," an idiom for an achievement or accomplishment.
It began with a contestant named Laura, who after buying the vowel "o" was able to correctly determine the first four words of the common phrase. But that last word proved to be trouble for her as she confidently, and with clear enunciation, guessed "another feather in your hat."
The buzzer sounded to indicate the guess was incorrect.
And that was just the beginning.
Next, a contestant named Christopher incorrectly guessed the letter "g." The third contestant, Thomas, spun the wheel and landed on "bankrupt," the ticker just passing the shiny green sliver of the $1 million mark.
Laura was up again and took another turn at guessing, this time with "another feather in your lap."
"Oh, the feather is moving around," host Pat Sajak joked as the buzzer sounded again.
Christopher, choosing to spin the wheel, next guessed the letter "d," to no avail. Thomas then spun and landed on "lose a turn," giving Laura another chance.
As she debated between spinning the wheel or attempting to solve, Sajak popped in with a piece of advice: "Go ahead and spin if you don't know, don't get buzzed out here on time."
For $700, Laura took a big pause before correctly guessing the letter "p," leaving just one more consonant missing.
For the third time, Laura tried to solve the puzzle.
"Another feather in your map?" she guessed, lifting her voice at the end as if asking a question. No, again.
Finally, after Christopher spun the wheel and ended up on "bankrupt," Thomas was able to get in on the action, opting to spin. For $500, Thomas correctly guessed a "c," before solving the puzzle: "Another feather in your cap."
The clip soon spread on social media, with the account TodayInSports calling it the "worst 2 minutes in the history of Wheel of Fortune."
The contestants' struggles Tuesday are just the latest chapter in the history of "Wheel of Fortune" fails.
On Feb. 23, one contestant hilariously messed up when attempting to solve the "show biz" category puzzle "Jurassic Park movies." With a "j," "m" and "v" missing, she guessed "Jurassic Park bodies," and was promptly laughed at on Twitter.
And in December, fans on social media came to the defense of one contestant who paused too long mid-phrase, according to the show's host. Because she had paused in the middle of guessing the bonus round puzzle, the show didn't count her correct answer, depriving her of the prize of an Audi car.
But in a sweet ending, Audi rewarded her with a car anyway.
