Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has certainly dished up its fair share of difficult questions since it first hit the airwaves in 1998. The long-running series might have been adapted in over 130 countries but the premise is always the same: correctly answer a series of 15 questions for the chance to win the life-changing sum of money. It's a feat which thousands have tried but only a handful have succeeded in doing.
But in order to even have a shot at the jackpot you have to make it past the fastest finger first round, which involves correctly ordering four answers quicker than the other contestants to make it to the hot seat. And as a recent episode of the German edition proved, even those can sometimes prove absolutely confounding.
Host stumped by German keyboard question
The episode, which aired on Monday on RTL in Germany, saw host Gunther Jauch as stumped as the contestants, when he delivered one of those opening questions. The host was clearly heard to say: 'That can't be right. Guys, nobody's going to get this right,' before he asked the question.
You might need some knowledge of German technology for this one given it was this: Press shift and use the characters above 5, 6, 0, and ß on a standard German computer keyboard. Any clue? Gunther was spot on when he claimed: 'No-one in the hell knows that!' as not a single contestant guessed it correctly.
No one guessed the correct answer
Could you have got it right? Well it seems the actual answer is related to the symbols: % was above 5, & was above 6, = was above 0, and ? was above B. Who knew? Well nobody it seems. A replacement question had to be drafted in and, fortunately, it revolved around a German nursery rhyme, producing a slew of correct answers and a contestant who went on to play for big money.
Still, it's not the only recent edition of the show which has left everyone scratching their heads in puzzlement. An episode of the British Who Wants To Be A Millionaire earlier this year stumped both the contestant and host Jeremy Clarkson with the following question: 'Which of these popular tourist lakes is the largest by area?' The four options were Lake Windemere, Lake Garda, Lake Tahoe and Lake Titicaca — and with no clue of the answer contestant Natalie Waldegrave chose to ask the host in a bid to reach £64,000.
British edition also stumped contestants
Except he wasn't sure of the answer either. 'I haven't been to Titicaca but the one thing I know about it is it is phenomenally deep,' Jeremy said, before boasting that he had a water-skiing record on Lake Windemere. He later added: 'I don't think there's anyone in the room who could answer that – or the world.' The correct answer? Lake Titicaca.
It was just one of many dramatic moments this series, which has also seen hopefuls bag a huge amount of money, only to just miss out on the jackpot. And in some cases, lose everything at the final hurdle. And sometimes of course, even the easiest questions can prove a challenge. But it's the taking part that counts, of course.
