Woman’s whimsical ‘Wheel of Fortune’ guess is so bad it made her an instant legend

Watching a game show from the comfort of home is easy. Being on one is a totally different ball game. The lights, the cameras, the pressure. It’s enough to make anyone’s brain freeze up. And is there any game show that allows contestants to royally embarrass themselves on national TV quite like Wheel of Fortune? There’s always someone going viral for taking a big swing and missing on a phrase that seemed pretty apparent to the casual viewer. And when you take a big loss on a WOF word puzzle, there are a lot of folks shaking their heads at home. More than 8 million people watch the game show every night. Yikes. One rather notorious victim of the wheel was Gishma Tabari from Encino, California, whose fantasy-inspired whiff of a common phrase in December 2023 earned her a lot of groans and some support from those who thought her imagination was inspiring. The 3-word puzzle read: “TH _ _ RITI _ S _ GR _ E,” and Tabari offered the answer, “The British Ogre.” The guess surprised then-host Pat Sajak, who responded, “Uh, no.” Tabari must have missed that there was a space between the R and the E in the puzzle, so ogre would have had to be spelled with 2 Rs. She also probably wasn’t aware that England isn’t a place known for its ogres. The correct answer was: “The Critics Agree.” A Wheel of Fortune instant classic The answer inspired a lot of activity on X, where people couldn’t believe someone could come up with such a fanciful answer to a puzzle with such a straightforward solution. Tags More for You Get stories worth sharing delivered to your inbox.