Viewers of Lee Mack’s ITV quiz show The 1% Club have been left baffled by a question that stunned the program’s contestants even after the answer was revealed.
The comedian turned host gave the show’s finalist 30 seconds to come up with the first song that, when spelled, has all the letters in alphabetical order.
The 1% Club tests the common sense, logic and intelligence of 100 members of the public, with rounds determined by how many of the hundred answered correctly.
Elliot, the sole finalist, was distraught when he realized his answer – four – was incorrect, as it was eventually revealed that the correct answer was 40 (forty).
Viewers of the exchange on TikTok remained largely unconvinced by the response, wondering how 40 is spelled, and whether there wasn’t another number that met the criteria for it.
Stunned: Viewers and contestants alike were left scratching their heads after learning the answer to a final round of Lee Mack’s ITV quiz The 1% Club
Bad Luck: Elliot, the sole finalist, was distraught when he realized his answer (four) was incorrect
One commenter asked, “How people got to 40… I was still working out THREE.”
However, many wondered how ‘forty’ could be the correct spelling if ‘four’ was one YOU.
“Isn’t it forty?” one viewer asked.
Another agreed, asking: “Since when is forty spelled without au?” You know… as in four?”
If that were the case, 40 would no longer be a correct answer YOU comes after R in the alphabet.
However, this appears to be a case of bad mass spelling, probably due to the fact that such high numbers are so rarely written down.
And unlike “color” or “neighbor,” this is not a case of Americanization of spelling, as it might seem, since this spelling of 40 goes back at least to the 16th century.
Before that, ‘forty’ appeared as one of several spellings of the word in Middle English – from the 12th century onwards.
How? Many viewers couldn’t understand how 40 was the correct answer to the last question
Adding to the confusion is the spelling of 14 (fourteen), which is the YOU from the spelling of four.
There were also a ‘worrying’ number of people suggesting eight was a solution to the problem.
One response read: ‘It’s eight! They made a mistake.’
Another said: ‘Why not eight? Comes before forty.”
However, since G occurs I, eight is not a valid answer, prompting one person to say, “Please tell me how people get eight.” I’m genuinely concerned.’