‘Wheel of Fortune’: Austin Butler Stars in ‘SNL’ Parody of Pat Sajak Game Show

Saturday Night Live loves to lean on game show sketches, and this week’s episode was no different. Last night’s installment, which saw Austin Butler host and Lizzo as musical guest, saw a Wheel of Fortune parody make it to air. The name of the game was “The Phrase That Pays,” so it wasn’t a direct parody like they once did with Tom Hanks. Instead, three panelists just took turns guessing letters and phrases without a wheel, though the puzzle board was exactly like Wheel of Fortune.

“So this is Wheel of Fortune with no wheel?” Heidi Garner’s character says at the start of the sketch when the rules were explained. The Sajak stand-in, played by James Austin Johnson, plainly replies, “Don’t do that. That’s not nice.”

The sketch goes on to show Garner and Punkie Johnson’s character not having much success at all. However, Butler’s character has an unreasonable amount of success, correctly guessing complicated titles and phrases without one or no letters. He even solves a book’s title before admitting he had never read any book ever.

As noted, this isn’t the first time the NBC sketch comedy series has looked to Wheel of Fortune for parody material. Aside from the aforementioned send-up starring Hanks, SNL enlisted Melissa McCarthy for “Million Dollar Wheel” and “Guess That Phrase.” Other sketch comedy series have also taken on Sajak and Vanna White’s iconic program, including MADtv and The Whitest Kids U Know (in the infamously bloody parody called “Wheel of Money”). Others comedies, like South Park and Conan, also have bits about Wheel of Fortune.

Elsewhere in last night’s SNL episode, Butler helped send off longtime cast member Cecily Strong, who is exiting the show after 12 seasons. He brushed off his Elvis vocal chops to sing “Blue Christmas” to her, only to be joined by the whole cast in an emotional closing sketch.