'Wheel of Fortune' contestant loses $40,000 but his father's laughter took everyone by surprise

It's not unusual for family members and friends of "Wheel of Fortune" contestants to accompany them to the show. But it's rare to see loved ones outshining the players themselves. Something like that happened when a contestant’s father got the spotlight for his iconic laughter. Even Ryan Seacrest became a fan of the man’s laughter, but unfortunately, his son failed to win anything in the bonus round.

The contestant was a man named Eric Handzel, and his father came into the spotlight at one point during the show. This was because of his dad's loud and hilarious laughter, as per a TV Insider report. “Is that your father laughing?” Seacrest asked, to which the contestant responded in the affirmative. “You have a great laugh, sir,” the host added. The man came down to the stage when it was time for his son to play the Bonus Round. That’s when he was formally introduced.

“Well, you’re going to meet the man we were talking about a second ago, his father,” the host said, before adding, “Signature laugh. We love having you in the audience.” It was then time for Handzel to play the game. He spun the wheel hard, and it landed on an A. The contestant had chosen the ‘Around The House’ category and, as per the show’s rules, was given the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E.

These did not do much, as they only uncovered a couple of places in the puzzle. The contestant then had the chance to pick three more consonants and one more vowel. Handzel chose the letters C, P, H, and A. These were even worse than the letters given to him earlier, as they only uncovered one spot. The puzzle now read, “_ _ _ _  P_LL_ _.”

This was not going to be an easy win. Handzel tried talking it out, but his 10 seconds quickly expired. He guessed the second word correctly, which was ‘pillow.’ However, he had no clue about the first. The answer was then revealed to be ‘body pillow.’ Seacrest then revealed the envelope to show that the contestant could have won an additional $40,000. However, he was not too disappointed about it.

Hanzel had already won well over $21,000 before the Bonus Round, which was a lot of money. His father might not have been laughing after he lost, but he, too, probably was not upset for more than a moment or two. Some fans of the show believe that the puzzle was an easy solve, and they made their feelings known in the comments section on YouTube.

“Seemed like another easy solve, but not everybody is going to solve every puzzle all the time,” one fan wrote. “My Golly, I got the puzzle right surprisingly with Body Pillow & that was a guess, wow,” quipped another.

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