‘Wheel of Fortune’ contestant goes viral after hilarious X-rated guess

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A Wheel of Fortune contestant has become an internet star after he made an X-rated guess to a puzzle that had people at home in stitches.

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During Thursday night’s episode, Tavaris Williams was trying to solve an answer in the Phrase category. With the puzzle board revealing the letters “_ _ _ _ I _ T _ E B _ _ T!,” Williams immediately buzzed in blurting out his response.

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“Right in the butt!” he proudly exclaimed.

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“What?!” one of his fellow contestants exclaimed as the audience let out a collective gasp and laughed.

Longtime host Pat Sajak flatly replied, “No,” before a fellow contestant named Blake gave the correct answer: “This is the best!”

Later in the broadcast, when Sajak, 77, was introducing the contestants, he said, “Well, Tavaris, you’ve already made an impression on us.”

“I apologize, Pat. I was a little excited,” Williams replied.

“We’ll figure out a way to handle that tastefully,” Sajak joked, as the crowd laughed. “I have no idea what that’ll be.”

Williams’ blunder became an immediate sensation on social media, where his answer racked up millions of views and thousands of comments.

One person called it a “Wheel of Fortune clip you will be seeing many times throughout the rest of your life,” while another added, “I may be an 83-year-old man who watches Wheel of Fortune regularly, but moments like this are rare and make it all worth it,” one user wrote on X.

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A third person proclaimed it was an “All time Wheel of Fortune moment,” with a fourth writing, “Beat it, Ken Jennings. We have a new greatest game show contestant of all time.”

The official X page for Merriam-Webster also weighed in, tweeting, “Yes, we saw the Wheel of Fortune clip you can stop sending it to us.”

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One viewer couldn’t understand how Williams arrived at that answer given the available spaces on the board, tweeting, “Where did he even get that from the spaces available?!”

Williams might have gotten the most laughs, but it was his fellow contestant Tyra who ended up winning, as she took home $14,338.

The gaffe followed another viral exchange that happened this week in which Sajak teased a contestant who flubbed a seemingly easy answer in the Phrase category.

With the puzzle reading, “A_ _T_ING’ ‘IS’ ‘POSSI_ _ E,” entrant Brittany chose to guess the letter “R” instead of going for the solve.

After the next contestant answered correctly, “Anything is possible,” Sajak addressed Brittany’s incorrect response by taking a swipe at her.

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“Sometimes you’re sitting at home and you think, ‘I know that,’ ” he said (per the New York Post). “It’s a funny thing. Sometimes, it doesn’t want to come into focus — and then we move on to the next round.”

Brittan’s answer drew groans from people at home, who took to social media to lambast her response. “I can’t believe she said ‘R’ , proving that anything is not possible,” one person wrote on X, with a second wondering, “How did she not know it? It was pretty much complete, apart from like 3 letters. Now she’s made me grind my teeth, and I can’t stop.”

This week’s viral moments come as Sajak gets ready to retire from Wheel of Fortune next month.

Last year, Sajak announced he would be stepping aside at the end of Season 41 with American Idol host Ryan Seacrest set to replace him this fall alongside longtime letter turner Vanna White.

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“Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last,” Sajak said in a statement posted to his X account last June. “It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all. (If nothing else, it’ll keep the clickbait sites busy!).”

Meanwhile, Seacrest said he was honoured to be chosen to replace Sajak.

“I’m truly humbled to be stepping into the footsteps of the legendary Pat Sajak,” Seacrest said in a statement. “I can say, along with the rest of America, that it’s been a privilege and pure joy to watch Pat and Vanna on our television screens for an unprecedented 40 years, making us smile every night and feel right at home with them.”

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