Most of the time, when Drew Carey offers Price Is Right contestants a chance to shout out someone at home while the wheel is spinning, the shouts out tend to hit familiar targets: “My lovely wife,” “My beautiful kids,” “The brave men and women of the armed services whose sacrifice ensures our freedom back here at home,” etc. On today’s show, however, a contestant named Joshua went a different route: He shouted out “all the sick kids at home, staying home from school,” telling Drew that he used to dream about being on the show when he was a young flu-ridden lad who was passing the typical school hours by watching daytime game shows.
And then, presumably, all those sick kids heard his tribute to them and harnessed what little energy they had left to send it en masse to Southern California — I’m picturing the killer bee swarm from the beginning of Wu-Tang’s video for “Triumph,” but with, like, good vibes instead of bees that morph into rappers — to will the wheel to reach the $1.00 slot, because it did, earning Joshua $1,000 and a trip to the Showcase Showdown. And he won that, too, which led to one of daytime television’s more inspiring four-way jumping bro hugs.
The lesson here, as always, is that sick children possess a powerful form of black magic that we must learn to harness before it is too late.