For some reason, men have come up with a number of unpleasant euphemisms for their wives over the years. Old ball and chain. Old battle-axe.
Most don’t say these things within earshot of their wives.
But this week, a Wheel of Fortune contestant did that and more on television, announcing that he was trapped in a loveless marriage.
Blair Davis owns a small trucking business in San Diego.
While some Wheel of Fortune contestants may hope to get a boost to sales by appearing on TV, Blair drew attention for another reason.
And no, it was not his incredibly distinctive beard.
His comments about his wife, children, and grandchild raised eyebrows.
Some viewers were shocked while others were rolling around on the floor in stitches.
"I’ve been trapped in a loveless marriage for the past twelve years," Blair states matter-of-factly.
He continues, saying that he has been married "to an old battle-axe named Kim."
"She cursed my life with three stepchildren," Blair accuses. "Named Star, RJ, and Ryan."
"And," he concludes. "I have one rotten grandson."
At this, Blair nearly breaks character as he smiles.
The audience laughs, some amused and in on the joke, the others nervously, though the smile helped give it away.
Host Pat Sajak makes the best of it, yelling "Yayyy!"
He then acknowledges: "I know you’re being facetious."
Busted, Blair fully smiles and acknowledges that.
"I love them like nobody’s business," he says.
Some folks on Twitter took the man’s jokes a little too seriously.
"Most likely will be either sleep on the couch or in the guest bed," predicted one tweet.
Another wrote: "Game shows need more brutal honesty."
"Well all I can say is…’Pat handled that very well’…" another added, referring to the initial awkward tension.
"So was he serious or what?" another tweet straight-up asked.
"I think he meant sexless? He looks drier than hell," accused one tweet.
One of the Twitter denizens who saw that took the opportunity to strongly disagree.
"Most truckers are hornier than rabbits in an eat patch and can usually deliver," a reply reads.
That same tweet continued: "My late one really could deliver the goods. Don’t be deceived by the packaging."
Well that’s more than we needed to know. Will any of us ever look at truckers the same way again?
"This could be us," one young man tweeted in response to the video, tagging a young woman.
She saw the tweet and the source material, and replied with her own jab.
She wrote to him: "Get to growin that beard then."
Be careful when you make jokes like that. Some guys will take it seriously and then get too into it.
Imagine getting trapped with a beard like that because of an offhand joke.
Others just enjoyed the bit for what it was.
"He said what we always wanted someone to say. Fantastic," applauded one.
Another simply commented: "This was hilarious."
Of course, then a truther with a profile photo from James Cameron’s Avatar of all things piped up.
"He wasn’t joking at first," the tweet asserted. "It was just spun off as being such."
We have a sneaking suspicion that he was joking the whole entire time. What a cute moment.