Concentration/Funny

Concentration may have been simple, but it was by no means without humor.

Original Series (1958-73)

 * During one episode, Hugh Downs noticed that there were more "Forfeit One Gift" squares than usual and that they turned around to show a blank space with no clues whatsoever. At his insistence, all the trilons turned to show their "prize sides" — all "Forfeit One Gift" — followed by their "puzzle sides". The "puzzle side" of the board was completely blank.
 * 1971: After the first match of a game in Squares 17 and 19, those two trilons turned to show...two eyes, giving the impression that the board was staring at everyone! Here's a re-creation of what it looked like.

Syndicated (1973-78)

 * (Nothing as of yet, but here just in case.)

The Bastardized Pilots (1985)
"Contestant: The live audience roared in laughter. Bean and I looked at each other in stunned awkward silence,﻿ and moved on. (separate comment) The highlight of this experience for me was meeting Mark Goodson, he was very gracious and personally thanked me for doing a good job - I was thrilled. Orson Bean, on the﻿ other hand, was obviously stressed out, didn't seem to enjoy the gig, and by the time we taped my episode, he was not very friendly off camera."
 * The point of matching related words appears to have been like Eye Guess (1966-69), in that humor was supposed to come from mismatching...but unlike Eye Guess, which used a straight Q&A and got humor from obviously wrong answers, these attempts at reviving Concentration used a potential Standards & Practices nightmare of predetermined word connections, trying to glean humor from mismatches that a knowledgeable contestant could reasonably link.
 * Using words backfired immensely during one taping — according to a YouTube comment from a contestant on one of the pilots, two predetermined connections were "mother-father" and "kiss-pucker". Sounds simple, until you realize the words this player blindly picked off. As for what happened next...

Classic Concentration (1987-91)

 * Marjorie Goodson-Cutt once appeared on-camera with a fake mustache. Alex Trebek commented that she now had her own soup strainer.

Other Versions

 * (Nothing as of yet, but here just in case.)