WOF Bonus Puzzle Analysis

[Mr. Matté]

A Secretary-General of the UN as a Bonus Puzzle?  U Thant be serious!

Alright now. Stop.
Hammarskjöld.

There is some precedent for UN Secretary Generals appearing as game show answers.

[Fedya]

In several of the Slavic languages, v and s/z (or the Cyrillic equivalents) are one-letter words.

[Fedya]

Before and After: Nothing Compares 2 U Thant.

[ducking]

[Twentington]

Of course, if the puzzle is something arcane and full of rarely-called letters like FUZZY EARMUFFS or JAZZ FESTIVAL, then ain't nothin' gonna help you.

[PYLdude]

A Secretary-General of the UN as a Bonus Puzzle?  U Thant be serious!

Alright now. Stop.
Hammarskjöld.

There is some precedent for UN Secretary Generals appearing as game show answers.

Sonofabitch.

Although I gotta figure there aren't too many other ways to go when that's the Audience Match. I couldn't think of another to fill that in.

[SuperSweeper]

A Secretary-General of the UN as a Bonus Puzzle?  U Thant be serious!

Alright now. Stop.
Hammarskjöld.

There is some precedent for UN Secretary Generals appearing as game show answers.

Sonofabitch.

Although I gotta figure there aren't too many other ways to go when that's the Audience Match. I couldn't think of another to fill that in.

-GER? 

[TLEberle]

Of course, if the puzzle is something arcane and full of rarely-called letters like FUZZY EARMUFFS or JAZZ FESTIVAL, then ain't nothin' gonna help you.

I disagree; players can help themselves by calling different letters, not falling into the trap of thinking that the point of the bonus round is to call letters that are in the puzzle, studying up on the kind of puzzle that Wheel of Fortune features in the bonus round, using the Used Letter Board, and thinking aloud, those things are all helpful.

It doesn't mean that the day's winner will solve the bonus puzzle every time (it wouldn't be an exciting end to the show if the same thing happened every day) but they'll help. Your second arcane example would start you out with jazz fESTivaL, which is a great head start. Pick letters from the bottom quartile of the frequency chart instead of C-D-M; it will reveal letters in those puzzles that are meant to be head-scratchers.

[Matt Ottinger]

Alright now. Stop.
Hammarskjöld.

I LOL'ed.

[Matt Ottinger]

There is some precedent for UN Secretary Generals appearing as game show answers.

While that is a nifty, nifty find, we can also safely assume (and prove, if we were of that mind, by searching the Archive) that Jeopardy! has mined this particular subject multiple times.

/Even more OBGameShow: My first awareness of the name Dag Hammarskjold was because some game show -- and I want to say it was early Pyramid -- invited viewers to write to their offices at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.

[clemon79]

I LOL'ed.

[Footix]

Although I gotta figure there aren't too many other ways to go when that's the Audience Match. I couldn't think of another to fill that in.

-GER?

Dag, Yo!

[irwinsjournal.com]

Before and After: Nothing Compares 2 U Thant.

[ducking]

And I LOL'd at that one.