Christopher Coleman wants haters to take a turn on “Wheel of Fortune” before judging his performance. Then they’ll realize it’s not so easy performing under pressure.
Social media users are still mocking “Wheel of Fortune” contestants for failing to solve an easy puzzle on Tuesday. A clip of the episode went viral as two contestants failed to identify the idiom, “another feather in your cap” when the solved portion read, “ANOTHER FEATHER _N YO_R _A_.”
The most scorn is reserved for contestant Laura Machado, who incorrectly guessed “another feather in your hat,” “another feather in your lap,” and “another feather in your map” during her turns. Critics, however, are also coming after fellow contestant Coleman for incorrectly guessing letters “G” and “D” on his turns.
Now the “Wheel of Fortune” fan is speaking out and saying unless you’ve been there, you can’t understand the pressure of playing the game in real time.
“This idiom [‘another feather in your cap,’] is something I learned when I was 6 or 7 years old. But I haven’t heard it in over 30 years and so it has been a while for me,” Coleman told TMZ.
“You are also under a lot of scrutiny and pressure when you’re in production,” the contestant continued. “A lot of people are sitting at home on the comfort of their own couch, yelling and screaming at the TV, when we [the contestants] are the ones in the moment and in real time, trying to guess and figure out what this puzzle is.”
“The sad part is that people are saying that we [the contestants] were not intelligent and were trying to belittle our college degrees,” he said.
Coleman also had a message for the “trolls” that mocked him and the other contestants on social media, which includes “Frozen” actor Josh Gad.
“What I would say to the trolls is that, ‘You go up there. Half of you don’t even have public speaking skills. You go on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and go into the shoes of where we were standing.’ And then it will be a whole another conversation when they are trending and making donkeys of themselves,” he told TMZ.
He went on to explain how blanking on the phrase “another feather in your cap” was “an isolated incident” and wanted people to “have more empathy and a little more grace and understanding.”
“Just go easy on me and the other contestants because we are very educated people, and we don’t want to be put in a situation where we are being cackled and publicly humiliated on a show that was a lifelong dream,” Coleman concluded.
Host Pat Sajak shared a similar message urging people to have more empathy for contestants who miss easy clues. He wrote on Twitter that people should “have a little heart” when watching “Wheel of Fortune.”
“It always pains me when nice people come on our show to play a game and win some money and maybe fulfill a lifelong dream, and are then subject to online ridicule when they make a mistake or something goes awry,” Sajak stated.
“Last night’s ‘Feather in your cap’ puzzle was a case in point. Sitting at home, it seems incredible that they couldn’t solve it, but I knew in real time what was happening,” the long-time game show host explained, also citing the pressures of being on national television and playing the game for real stakes.
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