As it turns out, Tipperary and Cork are quite near each other.
Maura Higgins, please consider brushing up on Irish geography next time you're on a gameshow.
To be fair, one could argue that this particular question on 'The Wheel' last night was worded quite oddly. That said, to think that Cork is nearer to Tipperary than Donegal is pretty egregious. Either way, last night's episode of 'The Wheel' saw a particularly cringe-inducing moment for Maura Higgins.
'The Wheel' sees a contestant plonked in the middle of a wheel of celebrities, each with a subject correlated to them. Maura Higgins' subject was Ireland. The trick of the whole game is that the wheel spins the specialist subject and could land on another celebrity who knows nothing about another subject. In other words, Maura Higgins could have potentially been asked a question about, say, religion.
Maura is giving off Joey Tribbiani on Pyramid vibes. #TheWheel pic.twitter.com/Fq7Nbv9Z2F
— Shirleigh (@ShirleighShirlz) December 12, 2020
Luck would have it that Maura Higgins landed on Ireland for her question. Immediately, however, she admitted she was nervous and was breaking out in a sweat. The question? "Geographically speaking, from which of these Irish counties would it be most accurate to say 'It's a long way from Tipperary'?" The possible answers? Limerick, Cork, Dublin or Donegal.
Now, right off the bat and in fairness to Maura, that question is worded quite oddly. Not only that, it's very easy to look at those answers now in the cold light of day with no cameras or flashing lights on you and pick Donegal without even thinking about it.
To make matters more cringey, however, the contestant - Barrie - was on the final hurdle of winning €10,000. This question was the last one. How did it go? Not great. Sadly, Maura advised Barrie to choose Cork over Donegal, resulting in Barrie losing out on the prize money.
Do we need to go get a map? Cork and Tipperary literally border one another, so there's that. To be fair to Maura, her initial thinking was Donegal because, as she correctly pointed out, Donegal was way up in the North. Barrie, the contestant, said Cork initially which obviously made Maura doubt herself.
If nothing else, somebody will gift her a map of Ireland for Christmas off the back of this, so here's hoping that if she's on a game show again, she'll try reading up beforehand.