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Shop NowA “Wheel of Fortune” contestant is speaking on being publicly humiliated, telling haters to take a turn on the show before judging his performance, saying that they’ll realize it’s not so easy performing under pressure.
Social media users have been mocking two “Wheel of Fortune” contestants for failing to solve an easy puzzle. A clip of the episode went viral as the 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 has been directed at 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. However, critics are also calling out fellow contestant Christopher Coleman for incorrectly guessing letters “G” and “D” on his turns.
Now the “Wheel of Fortune” contestant is speaking out and saying that unless you’ve been there, you can’t understand the pressure of playing the game in the moment.
“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,” he 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,” the contestant said.
Coleman also had a message for the “trolls” that were mocking him and the other contestants on social media, including “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.
Coleman went on to explain how blanking on the phrase “another feather in your cap” was “an isolated incident” and he 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,” the contestant concluded.
“Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak shared a similar message on social media, urging people to have more empathy for contestants who miss easy answers. In a post on Twitter, Sajak wrote that people should “have a little heart” when watching the show.
“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.
