The 1% Club fans baffled by ‘easy’ question that’s blindingly obvious once you know

Quiz show fans were left scratching their heads after a particularly perplexing hidden code question on prime-time show stumped many—yet it seemed glaringly apparent once the answer was disclosed.

The show, helmed by comedian Lee Mack, pits 100 contestants against one another in a battle of wits with increasingly difficult questions to determine if they’re among the nation’s top 1% of quizzers – and to take home a hefty cash prize.

Theoretically, only the creme de la creme, or 1 in 100, can crack the final question, but last week’s conundrum proved extra challenging. Only two out of the final four contestants solved it, each pocketing a cool £46,500.

The ultimate brain-teaser posed to the contestants was: “Peter has recently found his old diary that he’d written in secret code, but he can’t remember how to decipher what he wrote. Can you crack the code to find out what the underlined word is? WH89 I GR1W UP I WA92 21 B8 A 5L1RI72.”

While the lead-up to the mystery word appeared straightforward, with “When I grow up I want to be a” easily decoded, the final codeword had viewers kicking themselves when the solution was unveiled.

The trick to the code was that Peter substituted each letter with a digit corresponding to the letter’s position in the alphabet, prompting Lee Mack to reveal the elusive answer as ‘florist’, reports .

Maisy and Jasmine were ecstatic when they were declared victorious, having successfully deciphered the show’s puzzles. Launched in April 2022, the programme quickly ensnared audiences with its unique formula.

Unlike other quiz shows that test general knowledge, this series poses questions similar to an IQ exam where answers are deduced through logic and common sense instead of obscure trivia.

Studios has capitalized on the format’s international appeal by securing the global distribution and format rights. This strategic move has seen multiple incarnations sprouting across several nations, including Australia, the United States, Germany, France, and Spain.

However, the intellectual challenge of the show does not always sit well with its audience.

Notably, viewers expressed their annoyance at a particularly perplexing question from an earlier episode that asked: “Without reordering any letters, how many animals appear in the sequence below? PHEASANTORTOISEALION”.

While the correct solution was six – pointing to the hidden words ‘pheasant’, ‘sealion’, ‘ant’, ‘seal’, ‘tortoise’, and ‘lion’ amidst the jumble the classification of an insect as an animal left numerous fans outsmarted and exasperated.