N'oubliez Pas Les Paroles!

While I was watching Ax-Men the other day, one-too-many commercial came on so I decided to switch channels to find something else to watch. It was then that I suddenly stumbled upon a program called "N'oubliez pas les paroles" (the literal counterpart of Don't forget the lyrics") on France 2.

I had never heard of this game show, but basically the object of the game is to sing a song, and add the correct lyrics once the music stops. Each time you get the words right, you get a certain amount of money, which increases with each level or song you need to sing. The maximum amount of money one can win, is a total of 100.000 euros - nice!!

The contestant-du-jour was a pretty young woman named Caroline, who had just started singing a song to reach 20.000 euros. I was rather curious to find out how far she'd get in the show so I kept watching.

Picture of Caroline during the show

Normally I don't like these types of shows, simply because they conjure up the greed in most people. All too often a contestant, after having gathered a pretty sum of money, is faced with the difficult choice between trying his/her luck even further, or calling it quits and going home with the money. It wouldn't be the first time that a contestant, blinded by the possible jackpot, ignores all the odds against him/her - only to find out, moments later, that proceeding with the game was a bad idea in the first place.

Back to Caroline - she'd just successfully completed the lyrics to "Le Parking Des Anges", earning her 20.000 euros. She now had to sing another song, and guess nine words from the lyrics.

Alas, though she knew the song quite well, and though she guessed seven words instantly, she wasn't sure of the remaining two words. She had a rough idea, but wasn't too sure about it. So she quit - she refused to guess, taking home her cool 20k euros.

I like a contestant with common sense - sure, she could have guessed the words, she could have played on, but then she'd have to go home with a lot less. "We came empty-handed, so we lost nothing" - it's an old adage, and though it's true, you've stilled missed out on a lot of money if you'd kept on going.

Another picture of a smart contestant

But she didn't. Well done Caroline - you really made my day!