\n“With the chocolates and chestnuts, I was thinking food,” McManus told Patch Monday. “The minute it came out of my mouth, I said, ‘Oh [snap]’.”<\/p>\n
Immediately, the next contestant, Matt Komma of Utah, correctly answered, “Chocolates, Chestnuts & Chimneys,” leaving McManus out in the cold regarding his potential 9-grand bonanza. However, that moment is likely to live on for generations in this age of instant gratification and social media.<\/p>\n
The show had barely gone off the air when memes began appearing mocking his “fowl”answer. Over the next few hours, chicken-related social media posts were plastered on pages such as People magazine, Newsweek, the Today Show and Fox.<\/p>\n
Rather than feeling shame or reacting negatively toward the spectacle, the good-natured McManus has turned it into an opportunity to educate people about a serious issue which was brought up during the opening of the program. He told Seacrest he had been “given a death sentence” about two years ago, and has since fulfilled his three biggest dreams, “the trifecta of my life: seeing blink-182 in concert, attending WrestleMania and visiting Disneyland.”<\/p>\n
“Most people assumed I had cancer, but I actually have severe congestive heart failure,” he said. His ejection fraction (EF), a measurement of how much blood the left ventricle pumps out with each contraction, was determined to be 12 to 15 percent; a normal heart is between 55 and 70 percent, and an EF under 40 is considered life-threatening.<\/p>\n
“I’m on nine medications, but I’m in remission with my EF getting up over 50 percent,” he added.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, he is parlaying his newly-acquired fame with media appearances. He was a guest Sunday on the We R Wrestling podcast, and will be appearing live this Friday at noon on “Mass Appeal” on WWLP-22 in Springfield.<\/p>\n
“There are TikToks with nearly a million views,” he laughed. “Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, it’s everywhere. I went to get gas the other day, and all of a sudden I heard someone chanting, Chicken, chicken.”<\/p>\n
His girlfriend, Katherine Albetski, said, “It’s fantastic, Imbehind him all the way. It’s exciting to see where this goes.”<\/p>\n
McManus takes the ribbing about his mistake in stride. Some Blitzkrieg! Pro colleagues have jokingly suggested some ideas for the group’s next show, “Through Being Cool,” slated for Feb. 15 at East Mountain Country Club in Westfield, Mass. Perhaps an old-fashioned kissing booth featuring McManus providing a “peck” on the cheek, or a one-night-only dinner plate special of chocolates, chestnuts and chickens. The cost? $9,550, naturally.<\/p>\n
Has he shied away from chicken? Quite the opposite.<\/p>\n
“I had chicken wings last night, and have probably had chicken three times in the five days since the show was on,” he said.<\/p>\n
Who knows? Maybe Raising Cane’s, Popeye’s, Frank Purdue or The Colonel is looking for a new spokesman…<\/p>\n
\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ENFIELD, CT \u2014 The expression “15 minutes of fame” dates to the mid-1960s when uttered by pop artist Andy Warhol (he actually said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”). After an appearance on television’s most popular game show which aired last Tuesday, the 15 minutes of fame for Phil McManus may … <\/p>\n
Read more “Hilarious "Fowl" Answer Gives Notoriety To Area Game Show Contestant”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}