Pointless contestant goes viral for his answer to 'national teams that have appeared at multiple World Cups'

A contestant who appeared on the BBC quiz show Pointless has gone viral after he produced an unexpected answer to a World Cup-related question.

On Thursday afternoon, presenter Alexander Armstrong was joined by co-host Liza Tarbuck for the quiz where contestants try and come up with answers that no-one else could think of.

Armstrong kicked off episode seven of this season's series with the topic 'World Cup football' and more specifically, national teams that have appeared at multiple FIFA Men's World Cups.

Tarbuck explained that they were looking for teams that have made two or more appearances since the first competition in 1930.

She added: "Where a country has changed its name, or the FIFA website recognises that present day country is now its successor as it were, we will accept either name as one answer."

Moments later, the camera panned towards Lyn from Weston-super-Mare but on his mission to try and score as few points as possible, he scored the dreaded 100 after missing the mark by some distance.

After a brief pause, Lyn replied: "Charlton Athletic", which brought a slightly puzzled reaction from Armstrong.

Tarbuck made a brief comment on the answer, saying: "There's nothing to be said other than national teams, obviously. If you're not a football person, and it doesn't naturally trip into your brain, then fair enough. You're still in a good place."

In total, 11 national teams were pointless answers, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras, New Zealand, North Korea, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Tunisia, Ivory Coast and El Salvador.

Unfortunately, south-east London side Charlton – who currently sit fifth in the League One table – did not feature.

Image credit: BBC

Here's how fans on social media reacted to the scenes after a video emerged on X, formerly Twitter.

One said: "I saw this last night. Was howling with laughter for a few minutes after he said that," while another commented: "If he answers all football questions with ‘Charlton Athletic’ - he will bound to get one right eventually."

A third wrote: "I do actually feel for the guy, on the pressure of live TV you can make mistakes and national sides does sound a bit more ambiguous than 'international sides'".

A fourth said: "I mean, if someone asked me a question about Bowls, I wouldn't have a clue. But if it had the word 'International' in there, I wouldn't give the answer 'West Ham'".

A fifth added: "The Peoples Democratic Athletic Republic of Charlton."