March 23, 2017

A STREETCAR NA-ED DESIRE

by

Get your mind out of the gutter, Kevin.

On Tuesday night’s episode of “Wheel of Fortune”—the (usually) good-clean-fun game show beloved by all delinquent schoolchildren faking sick at home—host Pat Sajak presented a contestant (that’s Kevin) with the clue “Title” and literally all the letters but one:

A

S-T-R-E-E-T-C-A-R

N-A-[?]-E-D

D-E-S-I-R-E

And Kevin called out—with authority—“K!”

The MobyLives reader is of course savvier than your average “Wheel of Fortune” viewer when it comes to literary matters, but I’d wager that even those school-skipping fakers would know the phrase Pat was looking for was A Streetcar Named Desire, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams.

The clip has already been circulated pretty widely—under headlines like “Epic and E_barrassing Fail” (TMZ); “Wheel of Fortune Contestant Completely Blows It” (Deadspin); “Is This ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Fail the Most Cringeworthy Yet?” (Inside Edition) — but, in case you missed it, behold:

 

 

Taylor Sperry is a former Melville House editor.

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