Wheel of Fortune contestant Christopher Coleman has urged people to ‘go easy’ on him and his fellow contestants after a clip of them attempting to solve a phrase this week went wildly viral.
Viewers were quick to laugh at three contestants who failed to recall the well-known phrase ‘feather in your cap’.
For some, the obvious answer was clear to solve when the clues were ‘ANOTHER FEATHER _N YO_R _A_’.
Yet now, Coleman has stepped forward to say enough is enough, amid the backlash he has faced online for not remembering the phrase.
Speaking to TMZ, he admitted he hadn’t heard the idiom ‘in over 30 years’.
He also said that he filmed the television show knowing all the people who would be watching just added to the pressure, along with the crunch time countdown, making it even more difficult to remember the phrase.
‘A lot of people are sitting at home on the comfort of their own couch, yelling and screaming at the TV, when we are the ones in the moment and in real-time, trying to guess and figure out what this puzzle is.’
Coleman had mistakenly guessed the letters G and D while his fellow contestant tried ‘lap’ and ‘map’ instead of cap.
Addressing the trolls who have humiliated him online in the viral clip, he went on: ‘Just go easy on me and the other contestants because we are very educated people.’
Adding that those trolls ‘don’t even have the public speaking skills,’ Coleman also questioned whether they would be able to stand in his shoes at that moment, under intense pressure.
Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak came to Coleman’s defence, tweeting: ‘It always pains me when nice people come on our show to play a game and win some money and maybe fulfill a lifelong dream, and are then subject to online ridicule when they make a mistake or something goes awry.
‘Last night’s ‘Feather in your cap’ puzzle was a case in point. Sitting at home, it seems incredible that they couldn’t solve it, but I knew in real time what was happening.’
Sajak added: ‘Good-natured laughter is one thing. Heck, they laughed at themselves. But, hey, cut them some slack. Unless you’re there, you have no idea how different it is in the studio.’
In the end, it took the three competitors eight turns and 10 attempts to solve the five-word puzzle.
Coleman had also shared that going on the wheel fulfilled a lifelong dream, and was in memory of his grandmother who had recently died.
Despite the turn of events, Coleman did win a trip to Saint Lucia, with Lucia translating to his grandmother’s name, Lucy.
For those still wondering, ‘another feather in your cap’ is an English idiomatic phrase believed to have derived from the general custom in some cultures of a warrior adding a new feather to their head-gear for every enemy slain; today more referring to any laudable success or achievement by an individual that may help in the future.
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