The great thing about being President of the United States is that, when you say something you shouldn’t have, you can call a press conference – or smash out a tweet – to correct yourself and clarify things.
So when you say something as innocuous as ‘I don’t see any reason why it would be’ when asked about Russian interference in the presidential election, less than 24 hours later you can tell the press you really meant to say ‘wouldn’t‘, and wipe your hands of the matter.
Unfortunately, these rules don’t apply to lowly quiz show contestants.
When someone has answered a question incorrectly and the same question gets passed over to the other team to answer, the other team should probably have been listening. That way, at least they’d know the incorrect answer, thus narrowing down the options and giving themselves a better chance at getting it right.
However, for two contestants on ITV’s The Chase, that didn’t happen. In the immortal words of Eminem, they missed their one shot, they missed their one chance to blow. In fact, they missed it so categorically, it’s worth sharing.
In the final round of a recent episode, where the contestants have answered a number of questions and the chaser has to answer the same number of questions (‘chasing’ them, if you will), the contestants had the chance to push the chaser back. This happens when the chaser answers a question incorrectly, and if the contestants get it right, the chaser’s total goes down one place.
Host Bradley Walsh asked: ‘What confectionary company makes Revels?’
To which the chaser, Jenny ‘The Vixen’ Ryan, answered: ‘Cadburys.’
Shock! She got it wrong, so the question goes over to the contestants to see if they can get it right and push her back a place.
The contestants, Fiona and Richard, looked at each other. ‘Mars?’ Fiona suggested. ‘Cadburys?’ said Richard. Erm, no Richard, open your ears…
You can watch the excruciating moment here:
You see, Richard failed to not only listen to his female team mate but also managed to not listen to his female opponent, and forged ahead with his own – incorrect – belief. Is quiz show-related toxic masculinity a thing?
Unfortunately, quiz show contestant Richard – unlike Trump – can’t bosh out a press conference to correct himself, no matter how much he’d like to clarify that what he actually meant to say was ‘not Cadburys’.
Better luck next time.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.