Ben Shephard stunned as Tipping Point contestant confuses ancient Greek poet with Homer Simpson

What would a quiz show be without an almighty howler of an answer from a contestant – and a recent episode of Tipping Point might have provided us with an all-time classic.

During Monday’s episode of the ITV daytime quiz show, host Ben Shephard was left dumbstruck as a contestant managed to confuse Homer Simpson with the ancient Greek poet, Homer.

The question was: “In his epic poems, Homer often refers to nectar as the drink of the gods and which other substance as their food?”

Now, it’s probably fair to say that most people, when they hear the name ‘Homer’, would automatically think of the bald, doughnut-loving, nuclear safety inspector father from the long-running animated series.

However, that’s not the Homer that the question was referring to. Here, Shepherd was seeking an answer on the Greek poet who lived around 750 BC and wrote two epic poems – the Iliad and the Odyssey – both of which are seen as foundational texts in Greek literature.

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Needless to say, these are two very different figures so when the contestant said: “I know he likes doughnuts,” Shephard struggled to contain his astonishment.

Amazingly, this was the contestant’s final answer, which was of course wrong. To make matters even more astonishing, another contestant also admitted: “I was going to say doughnuts as well.”

D’oh!

The moment has since gone viral with people finding Shephard’s reaction to the answer completely hilarious.

If you are interested, the answer to the question is Ambrosia (no, not custard) which, in Greek mythology, is a type of dessert made with oranges and coconut.

With that knowledge, doughnuts probably wasn’t that bad of a guess after all.