It didn’t seem like a big deal when it happened, but the moment when three Wheel of Fortune contestants struggled to solve the phrase, “Another feather in your cap,” went bonkers on social media after it aired Tuesday.
“I did not think this would be talked about,” contestant Thomas Lipscomb told The Washington Post in a story published Friday. The Glendale, Calif., resident, a postproduction coordinator working on the upcoming Oscars broadcast, said he and the other players in that day’s game — Chris Coleman and Laura Machado — were grateful that the show’s host, Pat Sajak, defended them in a string of tweets Wednesday. Sajak asked critics to “have a little heart,” because they couldn’t understand the pressures of the moment players face. He also made it clear he disapproves of people “mocking them online and calling them names.”
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.
— Pat Sajak (@PatOnWheel) March 2, 2022
Lipscomb and the others were grateful. They were getting a ton of messages, because “Wheel of Fortune” was even trending on Twitter.
“It was kind of like our game show dad stepping in to fight the internet bullies,” said Lipscomb, who’s been in touch with his former competitors. “I think all three of us are very appreciative that he took the time to write that. It meant a lot.”
Coleman explained that living the incident had been draining on its own. He recalled technical issues that led to Sajak thanking them for their patience. It was “frustrating for us,” he said, “because we’re the ones in the moment under the lights, having five seconds to guess the letter or solve.”
He didn’t expect viewers would be so interested in it and added that idioms, like “another feather in your cap,” are not something all cultures know.
“Sometimes you hear someone say ‘Dumb blonde moment!’ or just, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t get that,’ you know, and they laugh it off,” Coleman added. “But with the internet culture today, people don’t laugh things off anymore. Now we’re having people send hate speech toward us in our DMs.”
Still, there are perks to having been on the high-profile game show. Actor Josh Gad was one of the many who tweeted about the episode. It wasn’t exactly a compliment, but Lipscomb’s niece is a fan of Frozen.
