An episode of ITV’s Tipping Point this week might just contain the most epic fail ever to air on a quiz show. Hitting screens on 25 October, host Ben Shephard struggled to hold it together after this contestant completely missed the mark with his answer.
After fending off two other opponents, Dom, the unlucky contestant, was asked this question in the head-to-head: “In his epic poems, Homer often refers to nectar as the drink of the gods and which other substance as their food?”
Dom began to reason it out to himself. “I know he likes doughnuts,” he said. The corner of Ben’s mouth twitched, but he managed to stop himself from laughing as he saw Dom had fallen into the age-old trap of mistaking the ancient Greek poet and philosopher for Homer Simpson.
“I think I’ll go with doughnuts please, Ben,” Dom finally decided.
Ben couldn’t hold back his smile at this point, reminding Dom, “Could have passed this one over to Lindsey.”
“I would have said doughnuts as well,” Lindsey said. “Beer and doughnuts. Yep. Right up Homer’s street.”
At this point Ben let out a little burst of laughter, struggling to hold it together now. Then he re-read the question to both contestants. He got four words in before Dom’s face dropped like a stone. “In his epic poems…” The answer was in the question!
“We’ve got the wrong Homer,” Dom said. “It’s not Homer Simpson, it’s the author Homer. You’ve got a counter,” he told Lindsey, who clapped a hand to her mouth as she too realized she’d made such a massive blunder on TV.
The correct answer, by the way, is ambrosia.
It is up there with the contestant who guessed Margaret Thatcher in answer to the question: “Which monarch was on the British throne at the beginning of the 20th century?”
