The Most Bizarre Answers Given By Game Show Contestants

Game shows either vet potential contestants so only the best of the best make it through, or they purposely find the goofiest weirdos on Earth whose ridiculous answers will both make the audience laugh and make them feel way better about themselves. Judging from contestants like the following, it seems they care way more about the latter.

It's hard to win a round about lyrics to a song you've never heard. But you should be able to at least filter out answers in your head that make literally no sense. Or, you could be Steven, who had apparently never heard of Jan and Dean, or logic.

During a round of Wheel of Fortune, Steven buzzed in to solve a puzzle with very few letters left uncovered. The answer was clearly "Surf City, here we come," but presumably Steven was more of a Beach Boys fan because he whiffed badly. He blurted out "Surf clay, where we go," which sounds far more psychedelic than anything Jan or Dean would've written. You'll notice several issues with this answer beyond "it's so wrong." He guesses "where" for a word with four letters. Also, "come" is already spelled out completely, and yet he still guesses "go." Even Pat had to think for a bit to make sure Steven actually said such a thing before telling him no. The next contestant immediately guessed it correctly, enunciating every word perfectly, almost to rub it in. Poor Steve. At least he has his clay.

Weakest Link host Anne Robinson would insult anyone on her stage, whether they did well or not. And this contestant, named Christie, most certainly did not do well.

When her turn came up, she was given the question "In U.K. geography, the road called Watling Street that now forms part of the A5 was originally built by what civilization?" Robinson had barely gotten through "Watling" before Christie started shaking her head vigorously. She clearly had no idea what this street was, and definitely didn't know who built it. So instead of running with literally any actual civilization from ancient history, she answers "apes." Yes, those enterprising apes. Robinson doesn't even bother with a snide remark, simply telling her the right answer — "the Romans" — with just enough condescension to tell Christie than a bunch of nonsense syllables would have probably been closer than "apes."

It's possible Christie was trying to make a joke in lieu of a real answer, but if so, she became the joke instead.

Outside of Family Feud, if you're on a game show and want to give an edgy, adult answer, well ... probably don't. Most game shows are family shows. Joe, meanwhile, went on Wheel of Fortune and tried to give it an R rating.

During the "Final Spin" round, Joe found himself with a halfway-finished puzzle. So he decided to solve it, guessing "a group of pill-pushers." You might recognize pill-pushing as one of the last things a positive, life-affirming show like Wheel would want to promote. As such, the crowd broke into hysterical laughter, and Pat Sajak appears to have done a spit-take at Joe's answer. First he stared at the crowd and pretended to leave, because there's no way to top that. Then Sajak mockingly snapped, play-yelling, "This is Wheel of Fortune, Joe!" because some people need that extra reminder that a kid-friendly game of Hangman is not where you go to talk drugs.

Amazingly, the person after him screwed the puzzle up, too, with "a group of will-wishes," despite several exposed letters making it clear that was wrong. Finally, Pat's sanity is saved by the third contestant correctly guessing, "a group of well-wishers." That's what Wheel wants to gift the world: well wishes. Not pills.

On shows like Wheel of Fortune, pronunciation is key. Contestants have lost thousands of dollars for dropping the "g" from "swimming," so if you're ever on the show, remember to enunciate perfectly. Literally everyone in the above video, meanwhile, did not.

The puzzle was very clearly, "Regis Philbin & Kelly Ripa," and the first contestant knew it. He did not, however, know how to pronounce Regis's last name, running with "Regis Philburn." As any fan of late '90s R&B will tell you, "almost" doesn't count, and Pat did not accept this answer. So the next contestant spins, adds another letter, and then goes bankrupt, despite the answer literally being fed to him by the last guy. So contestant three buys an "I" and an "A," which almost fills the entire puzzle. Time to solve! And he does, except he can't pronounce Kelly's last name, running with "Kelly Reepa." Wrong again, off to the next guy, who doesn't even bother to spin. He just solves, and gets Kelly's surname right before royally screwing up with Regis "Philmin." On to the next contestant, who spins to fill every remaining consonant, leaving the puzzle 100 percent exposed. So he solves, and now it's Kelly's turn to hear her name mangled: "Kelly Ripe-a." Too bad her name wasn't "Jones."

Finally, just before the show bled into Jeopardy's runtime, the next contestant solved and pronounced everything correctly. Kelly Rippah must've been so proud.

The point of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? was to prove most adults weren't — they forgot much of their childhood lessons while distracted by the real world. Nowhere was this more evident than Jennifer, who couldn't remember what a yard was.

After she selected the "Second Grade Measurements" category, host Jeff Foxworthy asked, "If Jacob stands on Spencer's shoulders, they are two-and-a-half yards high. How many feet is that?" It's obviously 7.5 feet, but Jennifer had no clue, starting off with "I just wanna say the length of a football field and be done with it." Then the real rambling begins, as she starts thinking out loud: "Well, there's five thousa...52, 89 feet in a yard or something like that." Even Spencer, one of the kids, is staring with pure incredulity, like he knew adults were pretty dumb on this show, but he didn't expect it to get this bad.

Jennifer then decides to cheat by "peeking" off a student's paper, except the student was also way off, guessing 78 feet. Even Jennifer knows this was wrong, yelling "There's 352 feet in a yard!" with 100 percent certainty. Now it's Jacob's turn to stare like he's amazed she knows how to breathe. She then reverses course, committing to 78 feet. Only then does Foxworthy remind her there are 3 feet in a yard, meaning she's way wrong. Maybe Jennifer was trying to measure in inchworms or ... bread crumbs or something. Stay in school, kids.