For many people, bagels and lox are a dietary staple. But for others, lox — a thinly-sliced filet of smoked salmon — is a foreign concept, unheard of until it they’re faced with answering a Wheel of Fortune puzzle about it.
On the March 1 episode of Wheel of Fortune, a contestant tried to solve a puzzle in the “Food & Drink” category, and despite having nearly every letter on the board, she got it wrong.
After successfully dominating the round and accumulating over $6,000 in potential prize money from her correct letter guesses, Angie Gautney, who hails from from De Land, Florida, tried to solve the puzzle “WARM TOASTED BA_ELS WITH LO_ AND CREAM CHEESE.”
For some (Jewish people, everyone in the tri-state area) the combination of bagels, lox and cream cheese is a no-brainer, and the puzzle would have been an easy solve, but the letter X in lox was missing, making the puzzle more difficult for her.
“I’m gonna try to solve,” she said, clearly not confident about giving the correct answer. She guessed, “Warm toasted bagels with low and cream cheese.”
Most of Twitter went full Old Testament on Angie as a result of her salmon-based ignorance.
Still, other viewers were more sympathetic to Angie’s blunder.
After Angie’s fail, another contestant named Nina spun the wheel to ask for an X, and she correctly solved the puzzle.”That’s a much better recipe,” host Pat Sajak replied.
One thing is for certain: all of these cultural blind spots could easily be solved over brunch.
Wheel of Fortune airs weeknights at 7/6c. Find local listings on the Wheel of Fortune website.