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Who wants to be a millionaire? has become a TV staple in recent decades, handing out life-changing sums of money to the smartest contestants.
The format is also seen all over the world, with more than 130 countries having had their own version of the show at some point.
While most of these members of the public see in the hotseat, there are other versions, such as in the UK and the USA, when celebrities get to have a turn, winning money for the charity of their choice.
But being a famous face doesn’t necessarily mean it gets easier, as Saturday Night Live duo Michael Che and Colin Jost discovered on a recent edition of the US show.
After making it all the way to the $125,000 mark, the duo — performing for charities Answer the Call and Food Bank for NYC — were asked a question challenging their knowledge of pop icon Taylor Swift by host Jimmy Kimmel.
Can you get these right? The question was: ‘Ironically, which innuendo-laden song is the shortest track on Taylor Swift’s album The Life Of A Showgirl?’
The options? A) Wood B) Cruel Summer C) Anti-Hero or D) Karma.
Che immediately joked: ‘Innuendo-laden, is this a terrorist?’ to which Kimmel told him, ‘You’re thinking of innuendo laden.’
Jost, on the other hand, took a more pragmatic approach as he showed off his Swift skills by running through the runtime of each track.
“Cruel Summer is 3:23, Karma is 4:24, So, there is one, that’s why I originally thought it was A. I don’t want to explain to you why,” he told Che, who took some time to catch on to his play partner’s meaning.
“And, I feel like the irony is, if you know some of the lyrics to the song, talk about greatness,” Jost added as his partner told him to “lock up, baby.” I wood…’
So what is the right answer?
Well, it turns out Jost was right because the answer is indeed Wood, a guess that saw her earn a cool quarter of a million dollars.
Oh, and for completeness Wood clocks in at a compact 2 minutes, 30 seconds – but in an added twist, it’s actually the only one of the four songs that appears on The Life Of A Showgirl.
Cruel Summer (which is 2 minutes, 58 seconds) comes from the 2019 album Lover, while Anti-Hero (3 minutes, 20 seconds) and Karma (slightly longer at 3 minutes 24 seconds) both come from the 2022 album Midnights.
So of course, dedicated Swifties would have noticed this in an instant.
While Che and Jost have reached the $250,000 mark, it’s not that easy for any contestant who recently appeared in the Millionaire Hotseat.
A recent re-run of the UK show on ITV Quiz featured a moment where a hapless contestant trusted his own judgment rather than using one of his lifelines – and it didn’t end well.
Competitor Sanjay Basu, who told Clarkson he was a big rugby fan, was looking to double his £2,000 winnings to £4,000 when he was asked: ‘Which of these sportsmen hasn’t been cheated? A) Jonny Wilkinson B) Steve Redgrave C) Chris Hoy D) Andy Murray?’
Unfortunately, he jumped in without a second thought and said: ‘I’m sure the answer is Andy Murray.’
After making his final choice, Clarkson didn’t miss a beat: ‘You know how they say lots of money changes people? You never have to worry about it. It’s the wrong answer.’
The correct answer was A) Jonny Wilkinson, who never received more than a CBE despite being regarded as one of England’s greatest rugby players, and poor Sanjay was left to face a stinging punishment from the host himself.
‘That was pathetic. You’re a rugby fan aren’t you?’ he said as the teammates looked sorry, explaining he thought Wilkinson knight was because he retired.
“You don’t get knighted just because you retire,” Clarkson snapped before sending Sanjay home with just £1,000.
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