Memes on the Game Show front:
Please add entries in the following format:- The name of the show.
- Meme name: description of meme and how it's used.
- Source of meme and fandom it relates to in the form of a labelnote.
- Further mutations and successor memes, if any.
- Family Feud: Richard Karn wants you to know that because he feels like a meme, he's going to DOUBLE THE POINTS!!!!!!!! Explanation Karn's Large Ham explanation of the Double round, where the value of each survey answer is doubled, always followed by audience applause. He did the same thing with "triple the points" in the Triple round.
- But not before you've DRAWN FIRST BLOOD. Explanation Also from Karn; his way of saying which family will score the points first.
- Good answer! Good answer! Explanation Usually said by the other members of the family, no matter how far off base the answer is. Some families even seem to say it ironically because they know the answer can't possibly be up there.
- Survey said... Explanation Catchphrase originated on the 1975 pilot by Richard Dawson and heard in every version of Feud, when asking how many points an answer scored in the Fast Money Bonus Round. May be used in conversation when "revealing" the answer to a question.
- NEKKID GRANDMA!! Explanation Shortly after Steve Harvey became host, the show's YouTube channel began posting clips. Among them was a man who gave this as a response to "Name something a burglar would not want to see when he breaks into a house" — it lit up as "Gun/Occupant" for 33 points. Now, nearly every video on Family Feud's channel has someone offering "nekkid grandma" as an answer in the comments.
- IS IT UP THERE? Explanation What Louie Anderson would say after just about EVERY answer given in the main game.
- YES! KILL! Explanation One round asked contestants to fill in the blank "I would ___ for sex." After "pay," "lie," and "beg" were already revealed, a contestant offered "kill" as an answer. Steve appears to have been waiting for this, as he would bellow "YES! KILL!" in front of a cheering audience, leading to one of the game's most popular moments
. It's now used completely out of context as an (usually humorous and non-serious) incitement to violence.
- But if you do, chances are you'll hear Patrick Wayne tell you that "YOUUUUUUUUUUUU WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!" If not, that's okay, "Just cause you're divorced doesn't mean you can't have fun, riiiiiiiiiiiight?" Explanation From the 1990 revival of Tic-Tac-Dough, a couple choice quotes from host Patrick Wayne, another Large Ham of a host whose name often crops up when bad game show hosts are mentioned. The latter is from the run's Divorced Couples Week.
- Oh yeah, and Jim Caldwell wants to add that those red boxes are special categories, he'll be sure to explain them when we get to them. Explanation From the 1985/86 season of the same show; when Jim Caldwell took over from Wink Martindale as host, Caldwell became obsessed with the red box Bonus Spaces.
- Big bucks, no Whammys...STOP! Explanation The mantra of many a contestant on Second Chance, Press Your Luck, and Whammy! — hitting a Devil/Whammy on the game board wiped out one's score.
- Stop at a Flokati Rug! Explanation Often considered the least desirable prize on the board, an opinion even mentioned within the show itself.
- The title format of Whammy! All New Press Your Luck became a meme in and of itself. Explanation Message board posters would come up with similar titles for hypothetical revivals, such as Dragon! The All New Tic-Tac-Dough.
- 21 was RRRRRRRRRRRIGGED! Explanation Early meme dating from the newsgroup alt.tv.game-shows, referring to the quiz show scandals of the late 1950s. While Twenty One was a big offender, this also applied to Tic-Tac-Dough, The $64,000 Question, and the smoking gun itself — Dotto.
- WHEEL! OF! FORTUNE!!!!! Explanation Explanation: Title Scream at the top of each show since 1983.
- What? You didn't know any of this? I bet you didn't know that Woolery left Wheel.Explanation A popular way of saying that a piece of game show news is old. The reference is to former Wheel host Chuck Woolery, who left on Christmas Day 1981.
- A group of pill-pushers? Explanation A humorous mis-solve from 1999 that has shown up in countless blooper specials. The actual answer was A GROUP OF WELL-WISHERS.
- "Who said anything about a horse?!?"Explanation Pat's similar reaction to a 2014 episode that played out similarly to the above when the contestants guessed "Riding a brown horse" and "Riding a white horse" early in the round; the correct response was SEEING A BUDDY MOVIE.
- I'd like to buy a vowel. Explanation Catchphrase from contestants. Another is "I'd like to solve the puzzle."
- "Top dollar value on the Wheel for the first round is $500/$750/$1,000. But look out for this black space, Bankrupt, because if you hit it, you lose all your cash, but not your merchandise, because once you buy a prize, it's yours to keep." Explanation Chuck Woolery/Pat Sajak's rundown of the show's rules from the shopping era. Woolery even recited this in full on an April Fools' Day episode of Scrabble.
- RSTLN E Explanation In the early days of the Bonus Round, contestants were asked for five consonants and a vowel to help solve the bonus puzzle. RSTLN are the most common consonants in the English language, and E is the most common vowel. This achieved Ascended Meme status so that contestants are now given those letters, in that order, and then asked for three more consonants and another vowel.
- The ceramic dalmatian. Explanation An Undesirable Prize when the show still had contestants shop for prizes after each round. Very few contestants wanted it at first, but by March 1987 it became famous enough that some deliberately bought it. Although the shopping was removed in the late 1980s, it has been referenced in several game show parodies, and repeatedly by the show itself. His name is Sheldon, by the way.
- Megaword. Explanation A notorious category used for about six months in the 1994-95 season; the puzzle would be a vocabulary word, and the contestant would get $1,000 bonus cash for using the word in a sentence. The category was a target of mockery by Pat during its lifespan, and both fans and contestants alike hated it for its extreme difficulty, most notoriously when the puzzle was OXIDIZED, leading to a ridiculous number of wrong letters and a round that dragged on for nearly six minutes.
- "Person does not always mean Proper Name." Explanation Prior to 1996, there was no Proper Name(s) category. Whenever a puzzle was about a Person or People, Chuck or Pat would haphazardly make this disclaimer.
- Good internet game show forum etiquette: DON'T ask how Hot Potato was played. Explanation Refers to a troll on the newsgroup alt.tv.game-shows, who would make nonsensical posts asking how "hat putato" was played.
- ...or ask what game shows [dead celebrity]'s corpse will host. Explanation Another recurring troll post on the same newsgroup.
- ...or say [dead celebrity] shits his pants. Explanation Yet another recurring troll post on the same newsgroup.
- ...or proclaim that a cancelled game show is NEW! NEW! NEW! Explanation Another troll meme that started with someone repeatedly saying this about Wheel 2000, and escalated from there. Often misspelled as "NU! NU! NU!" due to mutations with the aforementioned "hat putato" posts.
- "Is that your final answer?" Explanation Catchphrase from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to ensure that the contestant is actually going for the answer s/he has said.
- "Can I phone a friend?" Explanation One of the Lifelines available to contestants to aid in picking the right answer. This Lifeline was eliminated in some versions after too many Phone-A-Friends began Googling the answer.
- The Generation Game spawned an entire generation's worth of memes, many of which were catch phrases of Bruce Forsyth:
- "Nice to see you, to see you..." "NICE!" Explanation Brucie's iconic introductory Catchphrase, one of the most famous in British TV history; though he's also used it in just about everything else he's presented since, this show was where it originated.
- "Didn't he do well?" Explanation Said by Forsyth after each contestant's run.
- "Good game, good game!" Explanation Another Catchphrase that Fosyth would say after a contestant's run.
- "Let's have a look at the old scoreboard." Explanation Said by Forsyth whenever the scoreboard was about to be shown.
- "...a cuddly toy!" [audience cheers] Explanation In the final round, the winner would get to watch a series of prizes roll past on a conveyor belt, and was then given a set amount of time to recall as many as they could; anything they named, they won. One of the prizes was always a cuddly toy, and it quickly became one of the most iconic objects in British game show history.
- Play Your Cards Right, the British version of Card Sharks, also presented by Bruce Forsyth:
- "What do points make?" "PRIZES!" Explanation Brucie's succinct explanation of the rules.
- "Higher! Higher!" "Lower! Lower!" Explanation The game revolved around trying to guess whether the next card to be revealed would be higher or lower in value than the previous one, so inevitably, the audience would end up shouting this.
- That dating show from the 1990s is actually called FREAKIN' STUDS. Explanation In reference to a "50 Greatest Game Shows" poll conducted by GSN. This was one fan's reaction to the fact that Studs ended up on the aired list, as it wasn't a long-running or well-remembered series. It was ranked at #47, beating out 3's a Crowd, Treasure Hunt US and Blockbusters.
- This... is... Jeopardy! Explanation Title Scream at the top of the show.
- Sorry, you didn't phrase that in the form of a question. Explanation Reference to the format of Jeopardy!, which inverts the typical question-and-answer format of quiz shows.
- The "form of a question" format is so pervasive that contestants on non-Jeopardy! shows will unconsciously phrase answers "What is X?" (or similar), as if they were on Jeopardy!, usually to the amusement and/or annoyance of the other show's host followed up with a comment of "This is not Jeopardy!". It was something of a Berserk Button on Win Ben Stein's Money, where offending contestants were forced to wear a Dunce Cap as penance.
- Who are three people that have never been in my kitchen? Explanation On an episode of Cheers ("What Is... Cliff Clavin?"), Know-Nothing Know-It-All postman Cliff Clavin appeared on Jeopardy! and had a runaway lead. He lost after wagering all of his winnings on the Final Jeopardy! clue and writing that as his response. Jeopardy! has made this episode into an Ascended Meme of sorts, as "pulling a Clavin" is now the term for an all-in Final Jeopardy! wager from a runaway lead.
- What is Toronto? Explanation During a special set of episodes in February 2011, a computer named Watson competed against former contestants Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Despite amassing a runaway lead, Watson was stumped by Final Jeopardy! and guessed Toronto. Since then, this has become the successor to "never been in my kitchen" for contestants who are stumped in Final Jeopardy!
- I'll take over-used memes for $800, Alex. Explanation Common method of requesting the next clue to be revealed.
- Eleventy billion dollars! Explanation What "Keanu Reeves" bid in a SNL Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch. This "number" is often used among game show fans to spoof the trend toward very high payouts.
- Liederkranz. Explanation Explanation:The answer to a notoriously difficult Final Jeopardy! asking about an obscure, no-longer-made type of cheese, often cited by Jeopardy! fans as being the hardest Final Jeopardy! the show has ever had. References to liederkranz are common, particularly in the context of any other clue's difficulty.
- Dankey Kang. Explanation Explanation: A faked Final Jeopardy! clue read, "This video game character is blue, collects Rings, and goes fast." One contestant got it right, but the other two answered "Who is Dankey Kang?" and "Who is Princess Zorldo?"
- SHIT TYRONE GET IT TOGETHER Explanation Explanation:An Image Macro using a screencap from a June 2009 episode showing contestant Tyrone in a distant third place with -$1,600. The phrase later became popular to mock stupid acts by other people and characters named Tyrone.
- All in!Explanation During superchamp James Holzhauer's run, James would pantomime pushing poker chips before saying "All in!" to announce a True Daily Double. Soon after, other contestants did this if they were gutsy enough to do the same.
- STAY CLAM.Explanation A misspelling from a forum post made by a contestant who played on Kids' Week in 2002. The fandom has since accepted the term as helpful strategy; if you're unsure of the answer, it's better to clam up and not ring in than risk losing money on an incorrect response.
- Jeopardy! Thinking MusicExplanation Among other things, Jeopardy! is well-known for its thinking music which plays during Final Jeopardy! It is quite common to hum the show's think theme if someone is struggling to answer a question. The music has been used extensively in other works referring to Jeopardy! to the point where it has been played at sporting events.
- What's a hoe?Explanation Ken Jennings gave this answer to the clue "This long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker." The answer was "rake" and Trebek and the audience got a good laugh from Ken's answer. Several fans however have protested the answer saying that Ken technically wasn't wrong and/or they've never heard the term "rake" used in that context in their life.
- Mike Richards as the Delta Variant.Explanation August 2021 saw fans applying the "My fall plans/The Delta Variant" COVID-19 Pandemic meme to Jeopardy! when Mike Richards was announced as the permanent host (at first) for Season 38. The first part had the memer's preferred choice of host, most commonly Ken Jennings, LeVar Burton or even Alex Trebek. The second universally had Mike Richards' picture.
- Joker...Joker...First Ladies! Explanation Jack Barry's over-dramatic read of the giant slot machine on The Joker's Wild.
- Jack, I'll go off the board and take Baseball. Explanation A rarely used tactic; anyone with one or two Jokers showing could go "off the board" and ask for a category not shown on the slot machine.
- As we know, The Joker's Wild is a game of definitions.Explanation Catchphrase on the show's 1990 revival.
- I'll take [celebrity's name] for the win, please. Explanation The origin of "for the win", originally said by many contestants on the celebrity Tic-Tac-Toe game when three-in-a-row was imminent.
- YOU FOOL! Explanation From a 1999 episode where Gilbert Gottfried was the only star left on the board, but the contestants kept whiffing the increasingly easy questions and falling for Gottfried's obvious bluffs. Every time they whiffed, he would scream "YOU FOOL!" By the end of the round, everyone on the board was shouting it — if they weren't laughing too hard to speak.
- Circle/X gets the square! Explanation Often said by the hosts when a contestant correctly agrees/disagrees with a celebrity. It is also often used in real life as a sarcastic retort to a blatantly obvious statement.
- "The password is..." Explanation Whispered by The Announcer in most versions of the word-association game.
- Deal or No Deal? Explanation Title Dropping question asked by any host of the show, when asking if the contestant wants to take the Banker's deal or keep eliminating suitcases or boxes in hopes of finding one with the top money prize in it.
- Is it bigger than a breadbox? Explanation In reference to the Panel Game where a celebrity panel would ask yes-or-no questions in attempt to determine a contestant's job. "Bigger than a breadbox" existed well before that, but the show helped popularize it thanks to Steve Allen.
- I'll take a P, Bob.
- Saucy female students: "I'll have U, Bob."
- "I'll take an E, Bob." Explanation Double Entendre letter request from the British version of Blockbusters, which involves a board full of letters — each answer begins with the letter selected. "P" of course refers to "taking a pee"; "U" as in "I'll have you" and "E" was a common slang for the drug Ecstasy.
- BRING ON THE WALL! Explanation Catchphrase on Hole In The Wall, where contestants must contort their bodies to fit through holes made in an Advancing Wall of Doom.
- In Ireland, "Stop the lights!" Explanation From the game show Quicksilver, and used as an expression of surprise; impressive as the show was cancelled decades ago.
- "You are The Weakest Link... goodbye." Explanation Spoken by the host of the show in question, when the "weakest link" player has been voted off by the others.
- That's Numberwang!
- Let's rotate the board! Explanation From a game show parody sketch on That Mitchell and Webb Look called "Numberwang", the premise being a complete Non Sequitur number-guessing game. References to Numberwang have bled over into the game show fandom, to the point that many consider it an overused meme.
- I have a question for Bachelor #2... Explanation From The Dating Game, in which a bachelorette inquires three mystery bachelors before deciding which one she wants to date.
- "Tell me specifically, where is the weirdest place you've ever gotten the urge to make whoopee?" Explanation A notorious 1978 question from the show that asked prying questions of four sets of newlyweds; one wife answered: "I don't know — in the ass?" For years, it was believed that this question and answer were Urban Legends as host Bob Eubanks swore up and down that he had no memory of it happening, until footage of the actual question and answer surfaced. The confusion arose because the version of the story that became a meme didn't happen — all of America seemingly misremembered the phrasing as "That'd be in the butt, Bob."
- "Dumb Dora was so dumb..." "HOW DUMB WAS SHE?" Explanation Although the "X was so Y..." "How Y was X?" construct originated with Johnny Carson, Match Game help popularize it whenever the show had a question about "Dumb Dora" or any other personality made up for the show's humorous fill-in-the-blank questions. The "How Y was X?" portion was usually asked by both the celebrity panel and audience, and host Gene Rayburn would typically rate their performance (e.g., "You blew it").
- "Slide it, Earl!" Explanation Host Gene Rayburn's Catchphrase when asking for the top answer to be revealed in the Audience Match portion of the Bonus Round, where a contestant has to try and pick the top answer given by an audience in response to a fill-in-the-blank question.
- Old Man Periwinkle Explanation The name Match Game used whenever the sentence to complete involved an old person. Gene Rayburn would usually do an old man voice for him.
- "...The choice is yours, and yours alone." Explanation From the kids' show Legends of the Hidden Temple, the end of the Rules Spiel given by "Olmec", an animatronic stone head voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
- "...Through the SHRIIIIINE OF THE SILVEEEEEER MONKEEEEEY." Explanation Another recurring Large Ham statement from Olmec while describing the path through the temple.
- "I can name that tune in five notes." "Four notes." "Three notes." "Name that tune." Explanation From the "Bid-a-Note" round of Name That Tune, where contestants bid on how many notes they need to identify the song.
- "Not a match; the board goes back." Explanation Hugh Downs often said this on Concentration when a contestant's chosen numbers did not have the same prize behind them. David Letterman helped get this phrase here, as he says it occasionally when a joke falls flat.
- "Oh, swell." Explanation Said by Downs early in games when two matched squares reveal blank spaces on the puzzle side.
- ...IS RIGHT! Explanation Hugh says this after a contestant correctly solves the puzzle.
- "DO IT, ROCKAPELLA!" Explanation Catchphrase in reference to the a cappella group Rockapella, who provided the music for Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
- Greg, go away. Explanation How pretty much all of the host's conferences in Da Chief's office ended.
- Is it behind Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3? Explanation Reference to the three numbered doors on Let's Make a Deal, which may conceal a Zonk or a prize.
- "Your starter for ten..." Explanation Phrase used on University Challenge to indicate the next question is a basic, ten-point one.
- "For $10/$25/$50/$100,000...here is your first subject. Go!" Explanation Phrase used by Dick Clark to start the Winner's Circle round on various incarnations of Pyramid.
- "Threefourfifty...$500!" Explanation Dick Clark adding up the amount of money won in a Pyramid Winner's Circle round. Or words to that effect.
- "Lower/Higher than a...?" Explanation What the host of Card Sharks will usually say before turning over the next card.
- "All of it, higher/lower!" Explanation What confident Card Sharks contestants will say when playing the Money Cards, the bonus game where you call high/low on the cards, but this time you bet money on each call. Aces or deuces, the little-to-no-fail cards in the deck, usually get the "all" bet.
- "Will the real X please stand up?" Explanation What the host of To Tell the Truth says to find out who's telling the truth and who the imposters are.
- "I would like to introduce you to ten of the most (alliterative two-word phrase, usually with negative meaning) that ever stood between an (occupation) and his/her money, and here...they...are!" Explanation Said by Whew! host Tom Kennedy to players before attempting the Gauntlet of Villains for $25,000.
- LONGSHOT! (screeeeeeeeeeech...CRASH!) Explanation What a Charger on Whew! would say when time was running out and s/he couldn't reach Level 6 in time. This forced a Tiebreaker Round single-pick of three possible bloopers to decide the round.
- TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME'S UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP! Explanation What the Gaunlet said to a Charger if their time ran out.
- If you'd like to be a contestant on Hit Man, forget it! Explanation Rod Roddy's famous line in place of the contestant plug on said show's Grand Finale.
- Bowling for X. Explanation A snowclone meme originating from the franchise Bowling for Dollars.
- All-Star Blitz, hobba hum hobba heeba humba. Explanation The only circulating version of that show's theme is a very surreal remix with a lot of scatting, which was apparently used for only one week. The sheer bizarreness of this remix is quite well known.
- "We'll be back in two and two."Explanation Chuck Woolery's Catchphrase when throwing to commercial on Love Connection, referencing the then-standard commercial break length of two minutes and two seconds, complete with a two-fingered hand gesture. Woolery also did this on Lingo and Scrabble.
The Price Is Right has so many that it gets its own page.
