On a recent episode of Wheel of Fortune, a contestant named Eben was doing fairly well for himself when Pat Sajak asked him to introduce a friend of his in the audience. Eben chose “my buddy Brandon” and the camera panned to what has to be the most hilariously awkward camera wave of all-time.
As great as the wave is (Sajak’s reaction is also pretty funny), it appears that Brandon’s awkward moment was entirely intended. This is what Brandon had to say about that moment on Reddit:
My brother’s friend Eben flew to LA to be on the show, and didn’t really have any friends in LA that could attend the taping, but wanted people in the audience in case he won. He asked if I’d want to go, and I smelled opportunity, so I went. They tape six in a day, and Eben’s show was number five, so I had to sit through four full episodes, and even once Eben’s show started, I didn’t know if I would get to be on TV because they only show the family/friends of the person who wins. Luckily, Eben dominated, and right before the final round starts, the producers come ask for who was with Eben, I raise my hand, they plop me in the center of the crowd and put a camera on me. They obviously don’t vet the family and friends, so they didn’t know I was gonna act like an idiot until I did it. After the show, Pat came over to me and earnestly asked “Hey, you were just goofing around up there, right, you’re not on any type of medication?” Hah!
It’s almost more impressive that the wave was done on purpose because that means Brandon had such little time to prepare such a flawless performance.
