The 1% Club Contestant Calls Herself “Thick” After Changing Her Mind on an Easy Picture Question

A contestant on The 1% Club was left kicking herself after changing what would have been the correct answer to a seemingly straightforward picture puzzle — only to become one of just four players knocked out.

Margaret’s mistake came during a question involving one of the most recognizable artists in history, Vincent van Gogh. And when Lee Mack asked her to explain what had gone wrong, she admitted she didn’t really have an answer.

Could You Spot the Altered Van Gogh?

Host Lee Mack was gobsmacked by the mistakeCredit: ITV

Contestants were shown three versions of a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait and given 30 seconds to answer:

“Which of these Vincent van Gogh self-portraits has been altered?”

The trick was hidden in plain sight.

One image — option C — showed Van Gogh wearing earbuds. Since the artist died in 1890, long before such technology existed, that was the altered portrait.

But four contestants failed to spot it.

Margaret was one of them.

She Had the Correct Answer — Then Changed It

Margaret branded herself “thick” after answering incorrectlyCredit: ITV

When Lee turned his attention to Margaret after her elimination, she summed up her performance with a brutal assessment of herself: “Thick as two short planks.”

But there was an extra sting to her mistake.

Margaret revealed that she had originally selected C — the correct answer — before changing her mind at the last moment.

Lee naturally wanted to know why.

“God alone knows, I don’t,” Margaret replied.

It was the sort of mistake that makes The 1% Club so frustrating to play from the studio rather than from the sofa. The answer looks obvious once it has been revealed, but with only 30 seconds and prize money at stake, even a simple visual clue can suddenly become easy to second-guess.

Lee Mack Couldn’t Believe It

Did you spot the right answer?Credit: ITV

Margaret’s mistake became another memorable example of contestants being caught out by questions that initially appear much easier than the show’s notorious final 1% challenge.

The format doesn’t primarily test traditional general knowledge. Instead, players are required to use logic, observation and common sense while the questions become progressively more difficult.

Sometimes, however, the earlier rounds cause the biggest surprises.

Another picture challenge asked contestants to determine how many right footprints appeared in an image of tracks in the sand.

The correct answer was eight.

That puzzle proved considerably more destructive, eliminating 20 contestants and dramatically reducing the remaining field.

One Changed Answer Was All It Took

For Margaret, however, the frustrating part wasn’t simply failing to notice the unusual detail in Van Gogh’s portrait.

She had noticed it.

She had selected the correct option.

Then she talked herself out of it.

And on a show where one small decision can separate another round from elimination, changing that single answer was enough to end her run.

The lesson from Margaret’s appearance may be painfully simple: on The 1% Club, sometimes your first instinct really is the one you should trust.