He’s giving himself a Pat on the back for this one.
During Tuesday night’s episode of “Wheel of Fortune,” host Pat Sajak had a bit of an awkward moment with a contestant after he tugged on his facial hair — something he said he’ll “never do again.”
Contestant Greg Weichert, from Florida, sported a big, bushy gray beard as he revealed that he’s been “helping out” Santa Claus for 25 years. He has a big, blended family of six children, 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
“I started a real beard about six years ago, it made all the difference in the world,” Weichert explained.
Sajak then asked him if the kids still pulled on Santa’s beard, which Weichert confirmed, sharing that he has told kids to pull on his beard before so that he can prove himself as the “real” Santa Claus.
“If I come over there, can I tug on it?” Sajak asked, before proceeding to do just that. He gave the man’s beard a firm pull and then backed away.
“I’ve never done that, and I will never do it again,” the host joked afterward. Later in the episode, he apologized to the contestant, appearing to look “choked up,” according to The Sun.
“Thank you all for being here, and I apologize again, Santa,” he said.
The Post reached out to Sajak’s rep for comment.
After the on-air moment, some users took to Twitter to express how “cringey” they thought the interaction was.
“#PatSajak pulling on that dude’s beard was super cringy #WheelofFortune,” one Twitter user wrote on Tuesday night.
Someone else blasted, “@WheelofFortune why is host harassing contestant Greg of his body hair? Nobody grabbing pat’s fake wig? How rude! And name calling?? What is wrong with #patsajak ??!!”
Another viewer criticized them for their Santa Claus talk, writing, “If @WheelofFortune & @patsajak could be a little more mindful of the younger audience they have when someone who plays Santa is on as a contestant, that would be super helpful… Really hard to keep the magic when someone named Howard talks about being a Santa Claus.”
However, some found the clip to be quite funny after it was posted on the official “Wheel of Fortune” Instagram account.
“Y’all so funny. Love this show!” a fan commented.
“I just absolutely love his show,” another seconded.
Of course, this is not the first time in recent months that Sajak, who has hosted “Wheel of Fortune” since 1981, had an embarrassing interaction with a contestant. Just last week, he snapped at player Mary Ann Hotaling, a school administrator from Alabama, after she spun the one million dollar wedge, leaping toward it before calling out a letter, which is against the rules of the game.
“No, no, no, ba-ba-bo-bop!” Sajak exclaimed, as he let out a tiny chuckle. “Now here’s what you do, you see, you call a letter.”
In a January episode, he teased contestant Ben Tucker after he incorrectly guessed a phrase while playing on the game show.
“Wow, that was so unclose. You just didn’t have the letters,” Sajak said to him after the blunder.