Vanna White isn’t supposed to crack up when a Wheel of Fortune contestant offers up a spectacularly wrong answer — but she told PEOPLE in a 2019 interview that some of them were just too funny not to crack a smile at.
“I feel for our contestants because they’re so nervous,” said White, who is celebrating the show’s 50th anniversary on Jan. 6.
“But I do chuckle on the inside at some of the wrong answers,” she added. “Half of the time I don’t think they even realize what they’re saying. Like the time the answer was ‘More Fun Than a Barrel of Monkeys,’ and the contestant guessed, ‘More Fun Than a Barrel of Vikings!”
On Dec. 30, a contestant certainly made viewers laugh when she guessed the wrong famous city food — instead of New York Cheesecake, she guessed “New York Cheesesteak.”
“She’ll never be able to show her face in New York or Philadelphia from now on,” a viewer posted on Reddit, of the funny flub.
But, White recalled funnier — and even more NSFW answers — throughout her 42 years on the show.
“There was the guy who thought it was a ‘Styrofoam Hat’ instead of ‘Styrofoam Cup,'” she said. “And then there was a famous one where the answer was ‘Gone With the Wind,’ and the answer the contestant gave was ‘Done With One Hand.'”
Just recently, on Dec. 17, contestant Phil McManus made plenty of viewers, including White, laugh out loud at his now-viral mistake. The clue was “same letter,” and because it was the show’s holiday-themed episode, the answer was “Chocolates, Chestnuts & Chimneys.”
McManus’s guess? “Chocolates, Chestnuts and Chickens.”
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But that’s not even White’s favorite blooper of all time.
“We had a puzzle where the answer was Streetcar Named Desire,” she recalled. “And only the ‘m’ was missing.” She added with a laugh, “The contestant answered, ‘Streetcar Naked Desire!'”
White may be celebrating the show’s 50th anniversary on Jan. 6, but last summer she marked another milestone when she bid farewell to her longtime co-host Pat Sajak, 78, whose last episode aired on June 7 after 41 years at the wheel. Ryan Seacrest took over hosting duties in September.
As for her own retirement? It’s not happening yet. In Sept. 2024, it was reported that White had inked a deal to stay on through the 2005-2026 season of Wheel of Fortune.
Prior to Sajak’s departure, she gave a heartfelt and emotional speech honoring her longtime friend on the show.
“I can’t believe that tomorrow is our last show together,” White said the day before he signed off. “I don’t know how to put into words what these past 40 years have meant to me but I’m going to try.”
She added, “8000 episodes went by like that. When I first started, I was so green. You made me so comfortable and so confident, Pat. You made me who I am, you really did.”
“We’ve watched our children grow up together, we’ve traveled all over the world, we’ve eaten hundreds of meals together, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve celebrated,” she said.
“What an incredible and unforgettable journey we’ve had,” she added.
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Wheel of Fortune airs weekdays on ABC (check local listings).
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