Viewers of Lee Mack’s ITV quiz show The 1% Club have been left baffled by a question which stumped the programme’s contestants, even after the answer was revealed.
The comedian turned presenter gave the show’s finalist 30 seconds to come up with the first number which when spelled out, has all its letters in alphabetical order.
The 1% Club tests 100 members of the public’s common sense, logic and intelligence, with rounds determined by how many of the hundred answered correctly.
Elliot, the sole finalist, was distraught as he realised that 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 answer, questioning how 40 is spelled, and if there is not another number which fitted the criteria before it.
Baffled: Viewers and contestants alike were left scratching their heads after learning the answer to a final round of Lee Mack’s ITV quiz show The 1% Club
Unlucky: Elliot, the sole finalist, was distraught as he realised that his answer – four – was incorrect
One commenter asked: ‘How did people get to 40… I was still working out THREE.’
However, many wondered how ‘forty’ could be the correct spelling when ‘four’ contains a U.
‘Isn’t it spelled fourty?’ One viewer asked.
Another concurred, asking: ‘Since when is forty spelled without a u? You know… as in four?’
If that were the case, 40 would no longer be a correct answer as U comes after R in the alphabet.
However, this appears to be a case of poor spelling en masse, likely down to the fact that such high numbers are so rarely written down.
And unlike ‘color’ or ‘neighbor’ this is not a case of Americanisation of spelling as it might appear, with this spelling of 40 dating back to at least the 16th century
Before then, ‘fourty’ had been appearing as one of many spellings of the word in Middle English – from the 12th century.
How? Many viewers could not understand how 40 was the correct answer to the final question
Adding to the confusion is the spelling of 14 (fourteen), which does inherit the U from four’s spelling.
There was also a ‘concerning’ number of people who were suggesting that eight was a solution to the problem.
One comment read: ‘It’s eight! They made a mistake.’
Another said: ‘Why not eight? Comes before forty.’
However, since G comes before I, eight is not a valid answer, prompting one person to comment: ‘Please tell me how people are getting eight. I’m genuinely concerned.’