Wheel of Fortune is family-friendly. It’s wholesome. It lives on syndicated network television—usually in the squeaky-clean early-evening hours—and its puzzles are built around anodyne phrases and sayings suited to the proclivities of the program’s octogenarian viewership. No such thing as Wheel After Dark exists. So it is quite unlikely that Vanna White would be hiding the words “Right in the butt” behind those white squares. But that did not stop Tavaris Williams, a 42-year-old from Florida who works in children’s welfare, from letting those exact words fly last week.
Yes, on a recent edition of Wheel of Fortune’s toss-up round—where letters are slowly revealed to all three contestants simultaneously until one of them comes up with the correct solution—Williams saw a four-word construction punctuated by an exclamation mark. The timer ticked down, unveiling a B and a T in the final clause, and Williams clicked his buzzer: Right in the butt! The crowd gasped, panic washed over Williams’ face, and Pat Sajak mustered one of the most exasperated rulings of his career: a dry and callow “no.” Naturally, Williams’ brief psychosis became an overnight sensation. (For the record, the answer was “This is the best!”) It’s one of the first truly viral moments Wheel of Fortune has produced in some time, and after doing a bit of a victory lap—if you can call it that—on late-night TV over the past week, Williams agreed to explain to me exactly what happened. Our conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity, is below.
Luke Winkie: So, please, walk me through your “Right in the butt” moment. How did that come out of your mouth?
Tavaris Williams: I’m a competitor before anything else. I’m taking in all the information and the stimuli. I think my best chance of winning is to get all the toss-ups right, so I have enough bank to move onto the Bonus Round. That’s the whole point. So I was going to buzz in no matter what was on that screen, and ask my brain to catch up. Obviously, I didn’t know the answer before I buzzed. My brain scanned the grid, and “Right in the butt” came out.
So this was a genuine guess. You weren’t trying to be funny?
No. I’ve never said that phrase before in my life. And I know that it didn’t even actually fit in the clue, because the first word was only four letters. But when that timer is ticking down, you don’t have the wherewithal to count spaces.
Did you know at that very moment that your answer was going to go viral?
No, not at all. During the first break, I was talking to the producer and talking to Pat, and they were like, “Hang in there, we’ll find a tasteful way to edit it.” It was out of sight, out of mind. I had a game to focus on.
So you left the show under the auspices that the final cut wouldn’t feature you saying “Right in the butt,” necessarily.
I thought it might get muted a little bit. Some sort of alteration. But no, that’s how they left it.
What was the reaction from the other contestants?
The contestants were all great, and during the commercial break, they were just dying. Like, “I can’t believe that just happened, that was awesome. And it’s awesome that it happened to you, because that’s the complete opposite of who you are.” I’m just taken aback by the face I made afterward. I look like the most guilty person in the world.
How did you feel about the, uh, bigger reaction this got?
It’s pretty humbling. Way too many people know my name now. But at least I put a smile on everyone’s face. Everyone was cheering me on. My senior management, even HR. I’d love it if Wheel had me back someday. I’d put the trauma behind me and ride the whirlwind all the way.
How did you end up on the show? Do you have a long history with Wheel of Fortune?
My family loves the show. My mom and grandmother love it. I used to watch the show with them all the time, and now that I’m a father and a husband, we play Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! as a family a couple times a week after dinner. One day my oldest was like, “Dad, you’re answering correctly before the contestants. Why don’t you apply?” I was like, “That sounds like a long process, and I’ll never get picked anyway.” My kid replies, “Aren’t you always telling me to try the things that you know I can accomplish?” I sigh, and I take a look at the application, which was like five questions. I was like, “Crap, I have to apply now.”
They contacted me a month later and put me in a personality interview, which took, like, a minute or so. That was forwarded onto a production manager, and they brought me onto a mock competition with other contestants. I was crushing it, and they put me into this next round where I had to solve 12 puzzles in 90 seconds. I think I got nine out of 12. After that I felt like I got what I needed out of this process. I applied, they liked me, and I got to talk to someone from Wheel. But 30 days later they came back to me and booked a flight to Los Angeles to be on the show.
The rest is history.