People shocked after Who Wants to Be a Millionaire contestant fumbles easiest $500,000 Pokémon question

More than two decades after the episode aired, people are still screaming from the sofa at a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? contestant who fumbled one of the 'easiest' ever $500,000 questions.

Any question is easy if you know the answer, but I'll bet 99.9 percent of people would have got this one right.

And while the show has treated us to many absolutely nail-biting scenes, this has to be one of the most entertaining.

Back in 1999, Millionaire hopeful Toby Moore - a statistician from Tulsa, Oklahoma - was one question away from half a million dollars.

Up to this point, Toby was doing incredibly well and sitting pretty as he answered 13 questions in a row correctly to sit on a whopping $250,000.

But a ridiculously simple question about Pokémon proved to be his undoing. Watch the cringeworthy moment below:

Just remember, due to inflation, $500,000 back in 1999 was worth a lot more than it is now - around $900k in today's money, in fact.

So he must have been really kicking himself when host Regis Philbin asked the following question: Which of the following characters is not considered a 'Pokémon'?

A: Jigglypuff

B: Frodo

C: Squirtle

D: Pikachu

Now, come on, we all know Frodo is in fact a small, hairy-footed resident of Middle Earth and not a Pokémon. Not Toby, though.

ABC

He was unsure so he decided to use the '50:50 lifeline' - with Philbin looking a little shocked he didn't immediately know the answer.

He was ultimately left with Jigglypuff and Frodo as possible answers.

The contestant continued to deliberate, before deciding he was going to take the $250,000.

Well, it seems that Toby had never watched an episode of Pokémon, or Lord of the Rings.

Many years later, this iconic moment is now considered a classic in US primetime history.

Some viewers have even dubbed the Pokémon question 'one of the easiest questions ever'.

"This is one of the easiest f**king answers to a $500k question I've ever seen," commented one viewer.

ABC

"Either this guy never had a childhood or has kids who played this.

"It's insane; this is so freaking easy. This is a $500 question. What's crazy is that Regis Philbin was like, 'Omg, fine,' at the end, because he knew it was such an easy answer that he didn't do it."

While another added: "Are you serious? This is like an $1,000 question. Or have your kid as a phone a friend."

Would you have got 'one of the easiest questions ever' right?

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