A game show contestant confused Barack Obama with terrorist Osama bin Laden during an episode of "The $100,000 Pyramid" on ABC that aired Sunday, which was mocked on social media, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The game show, where contestants work together with celebrities to find the answers, turned down the wrong path for Evan Kaufman while he was paired up with "Saturday Night Live" alum Tim Meadows, the celebrity publication said.
The object of the "pyramid" part of the show is to get the questioner to give clues to the answer, hoping his partner will come up with the right response. When Kaufman saw the answer to the first question, "People Whose Last Name is Obama," his first clue to Meadows was "bin Laden," The Hollywood Reporter noted.
After an awkward pause where Meadows did not answer, Kaufman tried again, with the clue, "Barack." Meadows answered correctly, allowing the team to move on to the next question. But Kaufman's initial clue would not be forgotten on social media so easily.
"Did he really just start off with 'Bin Laden,' then struggle with Obama family names, only to say Barack with uncertainty?," one Twitter user wrote.
"Yeah, that was a bit odd. The look on #TimMeadow's face was priceless," Rod Harrell tweeted.
"Where do they find these people? The category was people with the last name Obama. The clue the guy gave was Bin Laden," another Twitter user bemoaned.
Kaufman took to Twitter in an effort to explain himself in 13 tweets, blaming the initial response on being a "tired parent" and calling the incident the most embarrassing moment of his life.
"The producers of the show tell us beforehand, if we get to the final round, to study the questions VERY hard. 'People misread them!' They say. They have no idea," Kaufman said in one of his post-show tweets Monday.
"The first square flips. I breathe. I read 'People Whose Last Name is Obama.' I freeze. There's only one. BARACK OBAMA. The man I would have voted for three times*! (*H/T Jordan Peele)," Kaufman continued.
'''Who else is a famous Obama?' My brain is racing. I need to list multiple people. I can't just say Barack. What I should have said was, 'Michelle, Sasha, Malia, Bo! The PORTUGUESE WATER DOG BO,'" Kaufman added.
"Here's what my brain decided. Who is associated with Obama? Who did he kill? What sounds like Obama," Kaufman wrote.
"And so you have this perfectly viral clip. A clip that is insanely funny. It would be so funny if it wasn't me. The editing is impeccable. The little breath I take? I'm working so hard to get it right," he continued.
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