Featured Image Credit: ABC
Topics: TV and Film, US News, Lord Of The Rings, Social Media
Anish Vij
Back in 1999 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire viewers were screaming at the television as one contestant struggled to answer the 'easiest' $500,000 question ever.
Toby Moore - a statistician from Tulsa, Oklahoma - featured as a contestant on the US primetime version of the show on November 17/18, 1999.
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Having already answered 13 questions in a row correctly, Toby was sitting comfortable with $250,000 in the bank.
Remember, that a quarter of a million was worth even more back then, due to inflation.
Now, with a possible $500,000 on the line, Toby was tasked with answering the following question, about Pokemon.
Which of the following characters is not considered a 'Pokemon'?
A: Jigglypuff
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B: Frodo
C: Squirtle
D: Pikachu
After deciding to use a '50:50 lifeline', Toby was down to two options:
A: Jigglypuff
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B: Frodo
After minutes of deliberation, Toby decided to call off his bets and take home the $250,000.
It seems that the contestant had never watched an episode of Pokemon, or read 1937 classic, 'The Hobbit'.
Notably, The Lord of the Rings was a follow-up from that book and the film hadn't come out until 2001.
The Frodo we all know and love today perhaps was not as well known in 1999.
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Incase you haven't already figured it out, the answer is B: Frodo.
Years later, this moment is considered a classic in US primetime history and some viewers still think it's 'one of the easiest questions ever'.
"This is one of the easiest f**king answers to a $500k question I've ever seen," commented one viewer.
"Either this guy never had a childhood or has kids who played this.
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"It's insane; this is so freaking easy. This is a $500 question. What's crazy is that Regis Philbin was like, 'Omg, fine,' at the end, because he knew it was such an easy answer that he didn't do it."
Another added: "Are you serious? This is like a $1,000 question. Or have your kid as a phone a friend."
However, some did have a little sympathy for the contestant, as one person pointed out: "Frodo wasn’t much of a household name back then. The Lord of the Rings movies were from 2001-2003."
Someone else wrote: "Kids had the knowledge, the adults did not. So Regis was right when he said every kid in the country (myself included) was screaming at the TV when this question came up LOL."