FOUR SIMPLE WORDS, ONE INFURIATING PUZZLE — THE 1% CLUB LOSES 20 CONTESTANTS AS VIEWERS BRAND IT THE WORST QUESTION IN THE SHOW’S HISTORY! Lee Mack presented two rows of mugs with what appeared to be a ridiculously simple task. The top row displayed HAT, LOG, OLD and ROW, while the bottom featured ALF, SUE, MEG and BEN. Contestants had just 30 seconds to identify which mug belonged on the top shelf. The result was brutal: 20 players eliminated and another 18 forced to use their passes. The explanation sparked even more frustration, with viewers questioning the logic behind the puzzle.

The 1% Club viewers baffled by ‘worst ever question’ — could you get it right?

The 1% Club viewers stumped by 'worst question' in ITV show's entire history Who's mug belongs on the top shelf
Lee Mack presides over The 1% Club (Picture: ITV)

The 1% Club as rarely been off our screens since it first aired in 2022 — with only the most lateral of thinkers able to crack its toughest of posers.

The Lee Mack-fronted show sees 100 players having to answer a string of logic-based puzzles, which might start off easy but become increasingly harder as the chance to win a share of the prize money draws closer.

If you want to go home with the cash you have to avoid being eliminated, and correctly answer the final question — the one which only 1% of the public were able to get right, and which in many cases seems impossible.

And while it might seem a lot easier when you’re playing along with the show, even the folks at home can be confounded by the questions sometimes.

Or not, as the case may be.

Because two recently repeated episodes of the show, both of which originally aired in 2024, saw viewers confused by what they called one of ‘the worst’ questions ever to air, before they were equally baffled by one which seemed almost too easy.

But could you have got either of these right?

The first of these questions saw the contestants presented with a graphic featuring two rows of four mugs, with the top row’s mugs labelled with the words HAT, LOG, OLD and ROW and the bottom row’s with the names ALF, SUE, MEG and BEN.

The question was: ‘Whose mug belongs on the top shelf with the others?’

The 1% Club viewers stumped by 'worst question' in ITV show's entire history Who's mug belongs on the top shelf
This one stumped a lot of people (Picture: ITV)

The question certainly stumped a lot of people, with 20 contestants crashing out after failing to answer it correctly.

And the folks at home were left lost and puzzled too, taking to social media to make their feelings known.

‘Worst question the show has ever had,’ one person complained on X, while another added: ‘This is officially the most annoying question of the evening.’

So just what was the answer? Well, it was ALF. But why?

As Lee Mack explained, if you added the handle of each mug as a letter C to the words already on the mugs, the top row all spelled out new words: CHAT, CLOG, COLD and CROW.

‘On the bottom row, of mugs’ he pointed out, ‘only ALF makes a new word if you add the C — ‘CALF’.

This image and the information contained herein is strictly embargoed until 00.01 Tuesday 21st January 2025 From Magnum TV The 1% Club: SR4 on ITV1 and ITVX Pictured: Host Lee Mack. This photograph is (C) Magnum TV and can only be reproduced for editorial purposes directly in connection with the programme or event mentioned above, or ITV plc. This photograph must not be manipulated [excluding basic cropping] in a manner which alters the visual appearance of the person photographed deemed detrimental or inappropriate by ITV plc Picture Desk. This photograph must not be syndicated to any other company, publication or website, or permanently archived, without the express written permission of ITV Picture Desk. Full Terms and conditions are available on the website www.itv.com/presscentre/itvpictures/terms
A whole 20 contestants were lost on this one (Picture: ITV)

The question proved so challenging that not only were 20 people eliminated but a further 18 contestants had to use their pass to skip the question and go through to the next round.

Lee later joked to a contestant who had used their pass after failing to guess the answer: ‘If they had made the handles red that would have helped, wouldn’t it?’

Indeed. But the show went from one extreme to the other in a second repeated episode, dishing up what might be one of the easiest questions of all time.

This time around, in an instalment which originally aired in December 2024, the contestants were shown images of a thermometer against a backdrop of the sun, next to a photo of a shaggy dog, and asked: ‘What food is represented here?’

What was the 'easy' question that so many got wrong? 1% club Picture: ITV1
This one knocked out 15 people, despite seeming obvious (Picture: ITV)

This one seems pretty obvious. The correct answer is ‘hot dog’, of course.

Astonishingly though, 15 people failed, leaving one viewer gobsmacked on social media.

’15 people out on this? Where are they getting the contestants from?’ they asked, with others sharing their own thoughts. ‘Yep, we were shocked,’ the second replied, while another jokingly replied that the answer was ‘mercury mutt’.

Another viewer, however, exercised a note of caution. ‘Trust me,’ they said. ‘When you’re under the lights and on the spot nothing is as easy as it looks.’

But still. Come on now.

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