Countdown

Claim:   Randomly selected letters on the British TV game show Countdown spelled out the phrase 'WANKMEOFF'.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 1999]

There is an English TV Quiz show called "Countdown". The computer chooses 9 letters at random. The contestants then have thirty seconds in which to make longest word as possible in that time. It's sort of like a televised version of Scrabble. Last Tuesday on Prime-Time TV in England, this was the combination of letters that the system automatically brought up, right at the start of the game — on National Television.

Origins:   The story as told above and its accompanying screen shot are fabrications, but there's a bit of truth behind this one. Countdown is a popular British TV game show that airs in the late afternoon. Contestants take turns picking vowels or consonants randomly from a pile of upturned tiles until nine letters have been selected (and arranged on the board by the lovely Carol Vorderman), then try to form a word using as many of the selected letters as possible.

Legend has it that once upon a time, the nine letters selected were, in order: W-A-N-K-M-E-O-F-F. This never happened, and it wouldn't have aired if it had. What apparently did occur was somewhat similar, though. Six (or seven) of the nine selected letters in one round could be arranged to spell the word 'WANKER' (or 'WANKERS'), and both contestants indeed did so. Here are a few recollections (differing slightly in detail) from viewers who later saw the outtake:

As Countdown is pre-recorded (and edited, if need be, to prevent just such an occurrence of naughty words being broadcast), the incident never aired on the show itself, but a clip of it was presented on a late-night show hosted by Victor Lewis-Smith. Other similar incidents have occurred over the years:

Last updated:   5 August 2007

  Sources:

    Scottish Daily Record.   "Can I Have a Bowel Please, Carol?"

    6 August 1999   (p. 5).