History Series / PressYourLuck

** The original red buzzers had coils, similar to the ones on the game show PYL replaced, ''Series/ChildsPlay''. They would break constantly, which led to a redesign on the December 21, 1983 episode. But it still didn't work, so they were completely redesigned to their more familiar appearance on the February 14, 1984 episode.

%% * DropTheHammer: Used on the Boy George Whammy.

** The Boy George Whammy [[GenreBlind would come in singing "Who would ever hurt a Whammy?"]] DropTheHammer ensued.

* DownerEnding: Oh, so many examples, like any time a contestant is leading going into the very last spin, and then hits the Whammy on said last spin.

** Michael Larson's record-breaking win turned into this, as he frivolously spent a lot of it on bad real estate deals and schemes including a $30,000 radio lottery involving $1 bill serial numbers that left him nearly broke, and the rest was stolen from his house when he left his remaining $50,000 lying around, with $5,000 in a closet taken by his soon to be ex-wife, who had had enough of Larson's behavior. All this by the end of the year in which he appeared on ''PYL'', and at the very least, the money was well gone by the time the show entered its last few months of broadcast in 1986. Larson called up the show and suggested they do a Tournament of Champions, but the show declined (shame, that, since it might have helped boost their flagging ratings in '86). Plus he died of throat cancer while on the run, which Tomarken called "the ultimate Whammy".
** Getting four Whammies/hitting a Whammy on the final spin of the final round in the bonus game of the 2019 revival of the show, especially if you had 6 figures at that point.

** A VERY BIG ONE on the July 28, 2022 episode. A contestant, Zach, won the main game with only $2,750 after both his opponents Whammied out. He hit some ''huge'' prizes during the bonus game, including two cars, a trip to both the North and South Poles, and a Harley-Davidson he wanted to give to his father, and had his bank up past $420,000 at the end of the fourth round. A sensible person might have bailed out at this point, but Zach was determined to be the first million-dollar winner and chose to play on. He hit a Whammy on his second spin, wiping out a bank that was now less than $70,000 short of the magic $500,000 threshold. However, he did pick up $25,000 on his third and final spin and left with $27,750 cash. That Whammy was the biggest single loss in the show's history.

* DisappointedInYou: In the remake one whammy dressed as a mom comes to look at the contestant's score, sees they don't have any money and says "You don't have any money? I'm not mad, just....disappointed. I expected better."

* FourIsDeath: Hit four Whammies at any point, and you're out of the game, permanently. Beginning September 17, 1984, special Whammy animations were introduced that would play anytime a contestant hit their 4th Whammy. The first was a baseball umpire[[note]] He appeared directly in front of the contestant, and after a baseball sound effect, he yelled "YOU'RE OUT!!!", with a SlasherSmile. Before this Whammy's appearance, other Whammy animations were used like normal when a contestant hit four Whammies, with at least one instance past this and ''Whammy!'' returning to that trend for elimination (no "You're Out" Whammies were used on Todd Newton's version) [[/note]], the second was a Whammy on a cruise ship[[note]] This is also one of the "remove score digit by digit going right" Whammies, and as the cruise ships sail across the money, the Whammy says "Hasta luego! Arrivederci! Bon voyage! That means goodbye! Hahahaha!" (the 2019 version of that Whammy doesn't laugh at the end). This was the elimination Whammy used by Creator/LeslieNielsen in Series/GameshowMarathon's version of ''PYL'', and since that was also the last Whammy of that game, it was also the last appearance of the Whammy on television for 13 years.[[/note]], and the third and final one, appearing in 1986, was a barbershop quartet[[note]] This only began appearing on GSN recently, and featured three Whammies dressed in barbershop clothes like in opera plus a dog conductor character that may be Fang rising from the bottom of the screen. Once they're in front of the contestant, they sing, "You're out... You're outtttt... You're outtttttt... You're outtttttttt..." then shout, "YOU'RE OUT!" while turning to the screen. This Whammy was rarely seen due to being used in the last few months of ''PYL'''s run, which GSN did not have until recent years, and was the last elimination Whammy seen on the show before 2006's ''Game Show Marathon''[[/note]]. The 2019 version has added a few more elimination Whammies, for example, there's a Whammy playing golf[[note]] "FORE! Four Whammies means you're out."[[/note]], there's a bartender Whammy[[note]] "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."[[/note]], another one with a Whammy spinning a sign and getting cut in half by it[[note]] "You... lose! Hahahahaha! *gets cut in half by the sign* I have a splitting headache..."[[/note]], and now there's one with the Whammy dressing up as Abraham Lincoln[[note]] "Four score? More like four whammies! Yooooooou're out! (laughs)"[[/note]].

* PieInTheFace: On two whammy animations this happened:
** One had a SleazyPolitician yell "If elected I will raise your taxes!" before the pie creamed him.

* PlayerElimination: Hitting a {{Whammy}} causes you to forfeit any earnings up to that point. If you hit four whammies, your score gets set to zero and you are out of the competition.

* YankTheDogsChain: With three Whammies and a lot of passed spins (which you have to use up), you rack up the bucks--and then when you're just that last passed spin away from being the champion, you Whammy out.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Many times, the Whammy will steal the money and then be hit with swift punishment. One example has him smacking a fly with a flyswatter... then getting swatted himself by a giant fly.

* ButThouMust: A player who gets spins passed to them by an opponent ''must'' use all of those spins before dealing with any earned ones. Often figures into the players' strategies. Subverted if the player hits a Whammy; any passed spins are moved over to the "earned" column and can be used or passed.
* ButtMonkey: The Whammy would often get pounded, blown up, or otherwise given comeuppance.
* ButWaitTheresMore: Often done with the personalized prizes added to the board in the BonusRound of the 2019 version. Example: a chance for a man and his wife to have a wedding vow renewal ceremony in Hawaii with all their friends and family -- followed, after a delay, by the announcement that it was bundled with a trip to Spain as a second honeymoon.

Created by the late, great Bill Carruthers and featuring the late, great Rod Roddy and the [[RuleOfThree late, great]] Peter Tomarken, ''Press Your Luck'' was a reimagined version of Carruthers's earlier (and far lesser-known today) ''Series/SecondChance''. Three contestants vied for the aforementioned Big Bucks by taking spins on the infamous Big Board, which featured plenty of cash and fabulous prizes, and perhaps the most famous game show villain ever, the {{Whammy}}. Land on one of them, kiss your winnings goodbye; land on four of them, and kiss your whole game goodbye.

* BrickJoke: In the revival episode "Go Big or Go Gnome", one of the questions asks for a mythical creature that wears a red pointy hat, long white beards, live underground, appears with Juliet in [[WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet a kids' movie]], appeared in ads for Travelocity, and ''was'' in Elizabeth's front yard last week, but the Whammy stole it. Later, a contestant, Julie, lands on a space winning them 50 garden gnomes, with Elizabeth commenting that she bets one of them is her's. Later on, that same contestant hits a space giving them 100 more garden gnomes.

* BrickJoke: In the revival episode "Go Big or Go Gnome", one of the questions asks for a mythical creature that wears a red pointy hat, long white beards, live underground, and appears with Juliet in [[WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet a kids' movie]], appeared in ads for Travelocity, and ''was'' in Elizabeth's front yard last week, but the Whammy stole it. Later, a contestant, Julie, lands on a space winning them 50 garden gnomes, with Elizabeth commenting that she bets one of them is her's. Later on, that same contestant hits a space giving them 100 more garden gnomes.

* TheAnnouncer: Rod Roddy, before (and during the first seven months of) his tenure on ''Series/ThePriceIsRight''. Someone else filled in for Rod twice: John Harlan during the September 17-October 1, 1984 episodes, and Charlie O'Donnell during the March 31-April 14, 1986 episodes. Creator/NeilRoss voiced the first four seasons of the 2019 revival, then was replaced by Chris Aheam starting with the fifth.

** '''$XXXX Or Lose-1-Whammy''' (R2 only): Debuted September 17, 1984, and originally seen in #16, but moved to #15 from February 5, 1985, to June 16, 1986.[[note]](Not used from October 21-November 26, 1985, as CBS felt a contestant might opt to lose a Whammy if hit on the Home Player Spin. Didn't stop them from using the space during the second Sweepstakes...)[[/note]] While the original cash option was a fixed $2,000 (used both in the original show and ''Whammy!''), future remakes (such as ''Game Show Marathon'' and the 2019 reboot) increased the value by varying amounts.
** '''Add-A-One''' (R1 only): Debuted September 5, 1985, and acted like a prize, placing a "1" in front of the contestant's score (and more than once, happened when someone had $0). Originally located in #5, relocated to #7 on January 8, 1986, and moved again to #2 as of the reboot.

** The second one had Tammy Whammette singing like country star Tammy Wynette with the accompanying whammy playing guitar after introducing her "Ladies and gentlemen, Tammy Whamette!". He's promptly pied with Tammy looking surprised.

* FourIsDeath: Hit four Whammies at any point, and you're out of the game, permanently. Beginning September 17, 1984, special Whammy animations were introduced that would play anytime a contestant hit their 4th Whammy. The first was a baseball umpire[[note]] He appeared directly in front of the contestant, and after a baseball sound effect, he yelled "YOU'RE OUT!!!", with a SlasherSmile. Before this Whammy's appearance, other Whammy animations were used like normal when a contestant hit four Whammies, with at least one instance past this and ''Whammy!'' returning to that trend for elimination (no "You're Out" Whammies were used on Todd Newton's version) [[/note]], the second was a Whammy on a cruise ship[[note]] This is also one of the "remove score digit by digit going right" Whammies, and as the cruise ships sail across the money, the Whammy says "Hasta luego! Arrivederci! Bon voyage! That means goodbye! Hahahaha!" (the 2019 version of that Whammy doesn't laugh at the end). This was the elimination Whammy used by Creator/LeslieNielsen in Series/GameshowMarathon's version of ''PYL'', and since that was also the last Whammy of that game, it was also the last appearance of the Whammy on television for 13 years.[[/note]], and the third and final one, appearing in 1986, was a barbershop quartet[[note]] This only began appearing on GSN recently, and featured three Whammies dressed in barbershop clothes like in opera plus a dog conductor character that may be Fang rising from the bottom of the screen. Once they're in front of the contestant, they sing, "You're out... You're outtttt... You're outtttttt... You're outtttttttt..." then shout, "YOU'RE OUT!" while turning to the screen. This Whammy was rarely seen due to being used in the last few months of ''PYL'''s run, which GSN did not have until recent years, and was the last elimination Whammy seen on the show before 2006's ''Game Show Marathon''[[/note]]. The 2019 version has added a few more elimination Whammies, for example, there's a Whammy playing golf[[note]] "FORE! Four Whammies means you're out."[[/note]], there's a bartender Whammy[[note]] "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."[[/note]], another one with a Whammy spinning a sign and getting cut in half by it[[note]] "You... lose! Hahahahaha! *gets cut in half by the sign* I have a splitting headache..."[[/note]], and now there's one with the Whammy dressing up as Abraham Lincoln[note]] "Four score? More like four whammies! Yooooooou're out! (laughs)"[[/note]].

** Getting four Whammies in the bonus game of the 2019 revival of the show, especially if you had 6 figures at that point.

** A VERY BIG ONE on the July 28, 2022 episode. A contestant, Zach, won the main game with only $2,750 after both his opponents Whammied out. He hit some ''huge'' prizes during the bonus game, including two cars, a trip to the North and South Poles, and a Harley-Davidson he wanted to give to his father and had his bank up past $420,000 at the end of the fourth round. A sensible person might have bailed out at this point, but Zach was determined to be the first million-dollar winner and chose to play on. He hit a Whammy on his second spin, wiping out a bank that was now less than $70,000 short of the magic $500,000 threshold. However, he did pick up $25,000 on his third and final spin and left with $27,750 cash. That Whammy was the biggest single loss in the show's history.

** '''' "Tonight, these three players are after big bucks, but they’ll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Studio Center in Hollywood, it’s time to Press...Your...Luck! And now here’s the host of ''Press Your Luck'', Elizabeth Banks!"

''Press'' featured one of the most (in)famous game show contestants ever, Michael Larson, who '''memorized''' the intricate but repetitive patterns of the Big Board before he came on the show, winning $110,237 in cash and prizes. His game took so long that it had to span two episodes (and it ''still'' had to be chopped to fit in the allotted time), his score display actually went on the fritz when he got into the six-digit territory, and the board began to go out of its usual slide-change sync by the time he finally passed his spins. Larson's game was so notorious that CBS president Bud Grant, his vice president of programming, Harvey Shepard, and his vice-president of daytime programming, Michael Brockman, cited them as an embarrassment to the network and refused to re-air the Larson episodes following their initial showing; further, it was barred from airing elsewhere until GSN produced a two-hour documentary about the affair in 2003.

* AllForNothing: In a bizarre (and very cruel!) twist of fate in the June 17, 2021 episode. A contestant named Mathew managed to survive after the other two contestants got hit with all four Whammies. He won by default but entered the Bonus Round with no money. He made it all the way to the Big Bucks Bonanza and got two big prizes, but unfortunately for him, he hit a Whammy on his final spin and lost it all, making him the first person in this version of the show's history to leave with '''''absolutely nothing'''''. [[https://youtu.be/BQA5Va1jyyY Must be seen to be believed]].

** Getting passed a stack of spins once you had built a solid lead. Especially if you already have three Whammies.

* BonusRound: Exclusive to the 2019 revival, the winner of the main game goes up against the Whammy themselves, trying to rack up as much cash and prizes as possible before hitting four Whammies (which, as always, means elimination). After taking a certain number of spins (5 in round one, 4 in round two, 3 in all others), the player can choose to walk away with their current winnings[[note]]winnings from the main game are safe no matter what[[/note]] or continue to press their luck and go to the next round. Each round increases the overall value of the board but also makes it more dangerous by throwing on more Whammies and extra spins. Prizes tailored to the player's preferences, such as a luxury car or dream vacation, are added to the Big Board as the game progresses: two in the first round, then one more in every subsequent round except the last. If a player can get their bonus game bank to $500,000, the game automatically ends and the player’s winnings (including whatever they won in the main game) are augmented to the grand prize of $1 million.

** '''+ One Spin''': Awarded an extra turn. Round 2 began with just one space which always contained an extra spin, specifically #4 ($3,000-$4,000-$5,000), adding #8 ($500-$750-$1,000) on February 28, 1984. Larson's strategy was basically built around hitting these as much as possible.

** '''Take the Lead + One Spin''' (R2 Only): Debuted in season 3 of the reboot, acts as a prize that sets the player’s score to the current first place score plus $1, and [[CaptainObvious awards an extra spin]]. Only awards the spin [[UndesirablePrize should the player who hits it already holds the lead]]. Disappears after being hit. Currently occupies square #7.

* BrickJoke: In the revival episode "Go Big or Go Gnome", one of the questions asks for a mythical creature that wears red pointy hats, long white beards, live underground, appeared with Juliet in [[WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet a kids' movie]], appeared in ads for Travelocity, and ''was'' in Elizabeth's front yard last week, but the Whammy stole it. Later, a contestant lands on a space winning them 50 garden gnomes, with Elizabeth commenting that she bets one of them is her's.

** The Whammy had the CatchPhrase "Oh, no..." when a vehicle got wrecked or he himself suffered AmusingInjuries.

** In addition to the usual cache offered to losing contestants, the show had the occasional Home Viewer Sweepstakes. Each contestant was given the name of a viewer who had sent in a postcard, and the contestant in control of a pre-designated spin in the second round won whatever they hit for their viewer, or $500 if they hit a Whammy. The viewers paired with the other two contestants received "Whammy" T-shirts.
** There were also door prizes for some members of the studio audience. From October 19, 1983, to December 18, 1984, it was usually Skyway Luggage, and the plug occasionally appeared at the start of the last segment. Beginning with December 19, and to the end of the run, it was a different prize during Rod Roddy reading off the parting gifts at the close of the show.

** A VERY BIG ONE on the July 28, 2022 episode. A contestant, Zach, won the main game with only $2,750 after both his opponents Whammied out. He hit some ''huge'' prizes during the bonus game, including two cars, a trip to the North and South Poles, and a Harley-Davidson he wanted to give to his father, and had his bank up past $420,000 at the end of the fourth round. A sensible person might have bailed out at this point, but Zach was determined to be the first million-dollar winner and chose to play on. He hit a Whammy on his second spin, wiping out a bank that was now less than $70,000 short of the magic $500,000 threshold. However, he did pick up $25,000 on his third and final spin and left with $27,750 cash. That Whammy was the biggest single loss in the show's history.

* DynamicDifficulty: Occasionally, the light bulb on Peter Tomarken's podium would blink during a Q&A round. This was Peter's cue to go to the easier questions; the bulb would blink if the three contestants earned a combined total of fewer than 10 spins by the 2nd or 3rd question. The January 17, 1984 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9umJAZZcc0 episode]] (#93) has a disclaimer stating that the entire second round was thrown out and redone due to the original one "fail[ing] to generate an adequate number of spins to provide for a full-length program".

** In the first few weeks, the questions were noticeably more difficult, resulting in low spin totals (one early episode had the contestants going into round 2 with a mere seven spins between them). Over time, the difficulty was adjusted in order to increase the number of spins won.

** Lampshaded for a Whammy animation introduced in 2020. The Whammy gets his cape stuck on a firework that he's setting off, and he goes up with it. After the Whammy gets literally blown to bits, his disembodied head tells the audience "[[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle Don't play with fireworks]]."

* ForWantOfANail: For how amazing Michael Larson’s trouncing of the game was, it bears mentioning just how close he was to losing every penny of it on his last spin. To wit, Larson ended up stopping the board too early, landing on square 17 instead of the desired square 8. Said square had just switched from $700 + One Spin to a trip to the Bahamas. The other value it could have switched to? A Whammy (incidentally, [[BookEnds the very same one he hit on his very first spin]]). Essentially, Larson was spared being remembered for a [[DownerEnding very]] [[ShootTheShaggyDog different]] reason by little more than the flip of a coin.

* FourIsDeath: Hit four Whammies at any point, and you're out of the game, permanently. Beginning September 17, 1984, special Whammy animations were introduced that would play anytime a contestant hit their 4th Whammy. The first was a baseball umpire[[note]] He appeared directly in front of the contestant, and after a baseball sound effect, he yells "YOU'RE OUT!!!", with a SlasherSmile. Prior to this Whammy's appearance, other Whammy animations were used like normal when a contestant hit four Whammies, with at least one instance past this and ''Whammy!'' returning to that trend for elimination (no "You're Out" Whammies were used on Todd Newton's version) [[/note]], the second was a Whammy on a cruise ship[[note]] This is also one of the "remove score digit by digit going right" Whammies, and as the cruise ships sail across the money, the Whammy says "Hasta luego! Arrivederci! Bon voyage! That means goodbye! Hahahaha!" (the 2019 version of that Whammy doesn't laugh at the end). This was the elimination Whammy used by Creator/LeslieNielsen in Series/GameshowMarathon's version of ''PYL'', and since that was also the last Whammy of that game, it was also the last appearance of the Whammy on television for 13 years.[[/note]], and the third and final one, appearing in 1986, was a barbershop quartet[[note]] This only began appearing on GSN recently, and featured three Whammies dressed in barbershop clothes like in opera plus a dog conductor character that may be Fang rising up from the bottom of the screen. Once they're in front of the contestant, they sing, "You're out... You're outtttt... You're outtttttt... You're outtttttttt..." then shout, "YOU'RE OUT!" while turning to the screen. This Whammy was rarely seen due to being used in the last few months of ''PYL'''s run, which GSN did not have until recent years, and was the last elimination Whammy seen on the show prior to 2006's ''Game Show Marathon''[[/note]]. The 2019 version has added a few more elimination Whammies, for example, there's a Whammy playing golf[[note]] "FORE! Four Whammies means you're out."[[/note]], there's a bartender Whammy[[note]] "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."[[/note]], and another one with a Whammy spinning a sign and getting cut in half by it[[note]] "You... lose! Hahahahaha! *gets cut in half by the sign* I have a splitting headache..."[[/note]]

*** Prizes in excess of $50,000 are common in the second round.
*** Unlike the original version, it is easy to get over $10,000 in the first round, meaning that hitting "Add-A-One" could add $100,000 to your score. At lease one contestant did exactly that and managed to avoid the Whammy for the rest of the game and win.

** Many "amateur" (unofficial) versions were done for PC in the 1990s and 2000s, somewhat a combination of love, boredom, and the absence of a console/PC game that didn't require DOS. One in particular, made by Curt King, stood out for containing ''every single prize and Big Board layout ever used'', audio tracks of many Whammies and most of Peter Tomarken's calling of spaces, all three board sounds, male and female computer opponents, a program for users to create their own layouts, great renditions of the Big Board "slides" despite being made by hand, an immensely-detailed customization menu, and was not only ''very'' user-friendly but easy on the PC (both in space required and in CPU usage).
*** A set of "third-party" modifications to King's program made the slides even more accurate, added custom prizes of $10,000 and $25,000, allowed the board to display slide colors according to each of the show's three seasons, had a Christmas motif that added decorations to the board, and even included a special Round 1 board that gave contestants a number of chances to rack up spins for Round 2. More amazingly still, the mod community is still going strong to this very day: take, for instance, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx7JTS18TZI&t=15s this visual/board mod]] for the 2019 reboot, unveiled a full day before said reboot even premiered!
*** One Flash version, created by a user with the handle "[=BigJon06=]", better known today as a video game speedrunner, features so many extra gimmicks that players can use, which could result in PinballScoring-levels of insanity (think insane combos like 1,000,000 + Decatuple Your Money and a Spin + Add a One being ''common occurrences''). And they love posting their games on Website/YouTube to the ranks of MemeticMutation.

** A Website/{{Facebook}} app was created for the game in 2012; unlike other officially-released home versions of recent years, this one seems to be fairly well received aside from its length. [[http://www.gamezebo.com/games/press-your-luck-facebook/review Here's a review.]]

** Despite the abundance of digital versions of the game, an actual, physical board game wasn't released until the ABC reboot in 2019. The game, which even comes with a Whammy plush (the first since the early '00s), is paired with a mobile app, with players answering questions and tallying scores (and Whammies) using the physical game, and spinning in the app. Some deviations have been made for the sake of gameplay (up to 4 players can play a game instead of the traditional 3, and games can last up to 3 rounds as opposed to the show's 2), but it's otherwise a faithful game, going as far as to even use videos of many of the Whammies actually featured on the show.

** The Carruthers Company, feeling the show's demise was probably imminent, decided to have the last Sweepstakes go out with a bang; instead of 20 episodes, it ran for 25. At the end of its last episode, a special all-cash board was created, and the day's champ drew one card from all those that had been chosen during that sweepstakes (75 total) and took one spin. The viewer won whatever amount they hit, multiplied by the total number of spins earned in Round 2 that day. With a stop on $2,000 and a total of 18 earned spins, the lucky viewer won $36,000 and a [[ConfettiDrop balloon and streamer celebration]] took place in the studio.
* HypocriticalHumor: The Literature/SherlockHolmes Whammy says, "It was greed that got him".

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: In the bonus round of the 2019 reboot, you can choose to quit at the end of any round after using all the spins you were given. If you play on, though, you take a chance on ending up with a lower bank total when the next round is over. On more than one occasion, a contestant decided to go into the final round with a substantial amount in the bank, only to hit a Whammy on the last or second-to-last spin and be forced to leave with either nothing at all or much less than they had.

* OffscreenCrash: Sometimes happened to the Whammy. The airplane one is HarsherInHindsight since Peter Tomarken died in a plane crash.

** '''September 19-October 4, 1983:''' "These three contestants are about to play the most exciting game of their lives, which only one of them can win." [each contestant is introduced one by one, with Rod making a comment about each of them] "From Television City in Hollywood, it's time to ''Press Your Luck''! And now, here's your host, the star of ''Press Your Luck'', Peter Tomarken!"

** '''June 19, 2019-October 29, 2020; July 7, 2022-present (following a montage of clips from previous episodes starting with the July 14, 2022 episode):''' "Tonight, these three players are after big bucks, but they’ll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Television City in Hollywood, it’s time to Press...Your...Luck! And now here’s the host of ''Press Your Luck'', Elizabeth Banks!"
** '''May 26-September 15, 2021:''' "Tonight, these three players are after big bucks, but they’ll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Studio Center in Hollywood, it’s time to Press...Your...Luck! And now here’s the host of ''Press Your Luck'', Elizabeth Banks!"

** The second one had Tammy Whammette singing like country star Tammy Wynette with the accompanying whammy playing guitar after introducing her "Ladies and gentlemen! Tammy Whamette!" he's promptly pied with Tammy looking surprised.

** The most serious example is the one with Jim Hess; when he got a third Whammy, he swore under his breath, but the audience could clearly tell he was saying "Oh, ''shit!''" Upon Whammying out, he yelled, "JEEZ! FUCKING SHIT!"

* PyrrhicVictory: One contestant on the CBS version had her two opponents Whammy-Out… but she herself had $0 and no spins, and thus became the only contestant in that version's history to win with $0. [[spoiler:She lost her second game, though, so she received the same consolation prizes the other loser got.]]

** The main theme was based on Keith Mansfield's ''Flash'', which was used on the pilot.

* RevisitingTheRoots: While the first revival ''Whammy!'' adapted a more high-tech aesthetic, the aesthetic and gameplay of the 2019 revival is almost identical to the 1983 show. Most obviously, while the Whammy animations in ''Whammy!'' were done in CGI, the animations in the 2019 reboot return to the LimitedAnimation of the original, to the point that some of them are taken straight from the original show.

* RogerRabbitEffect: Could apply with the Whammys' appearances in front of the contestant's score.

** Other notable examples were the whammy dressing up as Music/TheBeatles, Music/MichaelJackson, and Music/CultureClub frontman Boy George. The whammy's girlfriend, Tammy, was a shout to country music legend Tammy Wynette.

* SplitScreen: When it was down to the final spin of the final player with spins still remaining, a splitscreen on the big board would show both that player and the player who would either be the winner if they whammied out, or who was in the lead if the player taking the spin wasn't in the lead. If they picked up an additional spin, then the split-screen would continue into the next spin. Otherwise, the splitscreen would slide away to show only the contestant who had won. Also, if the spinning contestant whammied, no whammy animation would be played; they would just clear away the splitscreen and go directly to the winner.

** The Benjamin Franklin Whammy, while flying a kite, said that "The chances of you winning this game are about as good as my getting hit by--" *'''ZOT'''*

** A German version, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFk_dU7y5ls Glück am Drücker]]'' (more clips [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL6vze73qu4 here]]), aired for a time in 1992. This iteration used a kinda-similar set (the Big Board used a five-by-five layout instead of six-by-five), animated vultures instead of Whammies (complete with unique animations), and a "light box" which moved at a speed more like that on ''Series/SecondChance''.

* {{Troll}}: If the contestant got a Whammy, it will taunt the contestants as it steals their money.

** Most prominently the Flokati Rug, the former TropeNamer[[note]](it was worth $350 and was only available in Round 1)[[/note]]. Whenever this was hit, Peter would go gleefully nuts, and told the contestant "Once you find out what it is, could you send us a picture?"[[note]](The Flokati Rug was a Janis Imports rug that could be used anywhere in the house for "added comfort and warmth" such as in a bathroom or living room; it was actually won at least twice, with Peter [[LargeHam making the most out of the opportunity to publicize it]], and it may have also been a good-luck charm because both of these instances were won by contestants who eventually retired undefeated with over $50,000 cash and prizes including the rug.)[[/note]]
** Basically any Round 1 prize under $500. In Round 2, when given a choice, savvy contestants knew that cars were good, golf clubs were bad.
** A choice of a Mediterranean Cruise easily beats out a trip to Palm Springs (the cruise was the most expensive square they had[[note]](if the second place deficit was more that its value of $6,118 and the person trailing was on the last spin, they NEEDED one of the +Spins spaces to stay in the game)[[/note]].
** Double Your $$ (+ One Spin) when the score is meager, like $0 (in which case you only get the spin and the space is taken off; it originally had no extra spins attached to it, making it worth completely zilch with $0, one step above the Whammy).

** Season 3 of the revival introduced a new special space to Round 2: Take the Lead + One Spin.[[note]]Sets the score of the player who hits it to the current first place score + $1… and [[CaptainObvious awards an extra spin]].[[/note]] This space is not all that great to land on for a player who already has the lead, but it at least eliminates the possibility of either of their opponents hitting the space.[[note]]"Take The Lead + One Spin" functions as a prize in that it disappears after being hit.[[/note]]

* WhoWantsToBeWhoWantsToBeAMillionaire: Downplayed in the reboot - the top prize of the BonusRound is $1,000,000, but otherwise the game retains the same fast pace and fun atmosphere as usual. However, the bonus round segments may show symptoms of the so-called "''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' syndrome" (with family members, emotional discussions, lavish prizes based on the contestant's preferences, among others.)
* YankTheDogsChain: With three Whammies and a lot of passed spins (which you have to use up), you really rack up the bucks--and then when you're just that last passed spin away from being the champion, you Whammy out.