The Joker's Wild/Funny

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



  • September 21, 1972: A contestant spun the category "Annual Events", whose slide used art of a groundhog. When the question turned out to be about Groundhog Day, the contestant pointed out that the answer was on the slide. Jack Barry was quick to deny that it was a groundhog, and the contestant remarked that it looked more like an otter. The other contestant then spun and came up with a triple (two Annual Events and a Joker), to which he said "I believe I'll take that otter for $200."
  • 1973: In one game, the slots seemed to favor Horse Racing and Bing Crosby over the three other categories.
  • 1973: In a game with a category of British Singers, Jack noted that the picture of the singer of the slide reminded him of "Tom Jones on a bad night". Then he couldn't ask the question he had in his hand because the answer was Tom Jones!
  • Once, Jack was set to reveal the game's categories, but they just wouldn't come up on the screen, causing Jack to vamp for about 30 seconds or so. When the categories finally came up, they were the wrong ones.
  • Taped December 1977: An over-eager contestant in the Bonus Round pulled the lever so hard that she broke it off. Jack replied, in pretend anger, that "You broke our wheel!"
  • Fall 1979: From Joker! Joker! Joker!...

Jack: What about your daddy, what does he do?
Contestant: He sells cookies.
Jack: Cookies? To whom?
Contestant: To the movie theaters...
Jack: Anybody else?
Contestant: ... and fat people.
Jack: Fat people.