“Wheel of Fortune” is on a strange roll as of late, stumping contestants with relatively obvious answers. On Wednesday night, the hurdle was getting players to guess the word “pedal.”
The category was “What Are You Doing?” and the answer was “Renting a Pedal Boat.” With just two letters remaining in each word of the puzzle, the first contestant, Crystal, bought an “O” to solidify that the final word was “boat” before she stepped up to try and solve it. Her guess? “Renting a paddle boat.”
In fairness, a paddle boat is technically a real thing — it’s just called a canoe, or a kayak. A pedal boat is called a pedal boat because, well, the riders have to literally pedal to make the boat move. But, given that the word only had five letters, “paddle” couldn’t have worked.
So, when the next contestant, Sean, came up to spin, he guessed the letter T and bought an E, bringing the puzzle on the board to look like “Renting a Peda_ Boat.” He then attempted to solve the puzzle — by also guessing “paddle boat.”
Of course, that was incorrect, so the wheel went to contestant Michelle, who giggled before spinning. She guessed the letter M — but no, a “pedam boat” is not a thing. That said, Crystal was still confused when her turn came again, so she guessed a W.
Pedaw?
Finally, Sean solved the puzzle by correctly pronouncing “pedal boat,” prompting host Pat Sajak to animatedly explain why the pronunciation mattered.
You can watch the full video here and above.