- The Productive Disruptive
- Posts
- Would You Watch Hangman After Dinner?
Would You Watch Hangman After Dinner?
Every Tuesday, The Productive Disruptive delivers storytelling science, message makeovers, cultural commentary, and a little rebellious hope for anyone still stubborn enough to believe communication can change the world.
Dorian Johnson
June 16, 2026
Did a wise PHriend forward this to you? [Subscribe here.]
I saw an ad for Ryan Seacrest’s Wheel of Fortune and had a thought that made me laugh harder than I probably should have.
Wheel of Fortune is just hangman.
Actually, let me make it worse.
Wheel of Fortune is low-stakes hangman.
Regular hangman has a little threat baked into it. A wrong letter means the little stick figure gets closer to doom.
Wheel of Fortune takes even that away.
Nobody getting eliminated after a wrong guess. Nobody’s little chalk-body is in danger. The puzzle just keeps moving from person to person until somebody solves it.
And yet, people have watched this show after dinner for decades.
So sorry if I ruined Wheel of Fortune for you.
But if you take away the wheel, the money, the prizes, the lights, the live audience, the host, and the “big reveal” energy…
What’s left?
A phrase with missing letters.
That’s it.
Would you watch three people stand in a quiet room and guess letters on a whiteboard one at a time?
I wouldn’t.
But add the right presentation around it, and it’s a top gameshow.
The presentation is what people can see, and also what they experience.
We tend to treat presentation like the pretty part. The fonts. The colors. The graphics.
But presentation does so much more.
Presentation creates the frame.
And the frame changes what people notice, what they feel, and whether they care enough to stay with the thing.
🧠 Story Science Side Note: There’s a concept in psychology called the framing effect. In plain language, it means the way something is presented can change how people judge it.
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/framing-effect-psychology
Wheel of Fortune is a funny little case study in that.
The core game is simple.
But the frame changes everything.
What can we learn from that?
If you have a message, lesson, pitch, post, or conversation you need someone to care about, ask yourself:
What is the wheel?
The wheel, meaning the part that creates the experience around the message.
It could be a question that opens curiosity.
It could be a story that gives the idea a human face.
It could be a contrast that makes people go, “wait, I never thought about it like that.”
It could be a small moment of stakes that makes the message feel worth paying attention to.
Because sometimes we do have the right message.
We’re just handing people the whiteboard version.
And then we wonder why nobody wants to play.
Nearly 9 million people watched a phrase with missing letters in 2026.
The wheel is doing WORK.
📝 Message Makeover: Presentation
Before: “making something look nice” through fonts, colors, slides, polish, aesthetics
After: designing the experience that holds people’s attention.
🛠️ The PHacilitator’s Corner:
Find the Wheel
If you have a message people need to care about, ask yourself:
What would turn this from Hangman into Wheel of Fortune?
Wheel of Fortune works because it adds experience to a simple game.
The wheel adds chance.
The missing letters add curiosity.
The contestants and audience add participation.
Change agents can use the same moves.
Add chance:
Invite people to guess before you explain.
Try:
“Before I tell you, what do you think happens next?”
“Which option would you choose first?”
“What do you think most people get wrong about this?”
Add curiosity:
Open a loop people want to close.
Try:
“At first, this looks like ___. But it’s actually ___.”
“Here’s the question that changed how I saw it…”
Add participation:
Give people a role in the message.
Try:
“Pick one: would you rather ___ or ___?”
“Where have you seen this show up in real life?”
Build an experience around the message.
Because sometimes your idea isn’t boring.
Sometimes people are staring at the whiteboard version.
Find the wheel.
Chronically online(and needing to log out)