On the game show Let's Make a Deal, a Zonk referred to an unwanted, worthless booby prize or gag gift, such as a donkey, a pig, farm animals, or absurd items like a wheelbarrow full of dirt.
While contestants technically "won" the Zonk, they were typically offered a small consolation cash prize (often around $100) after the show to take home instead of the actual joke item.Monty Hall was the host most famously associated with the Zonk. He hosted Let's Make a Deal from its 1963 debut through the 1980s and 1990s, and it was during his long run that the Zonk tradition — live goats, cows, and other absurd gag prizes — became a signature part of the show. The term "Zonk" itself became a pop-culture staple largely because of his era.
The current host, Wayne Brady (since 2009), continues the Zonk tradition, but the original and most iconic association belongs to Monty Hall.
A sampler of specific Zonk items over the show's history:
Donkeys (the classic, including "Zonky the Donkey")
Goats, pigs, cows, sheep, llamas, rabbits
"A Bucket O' Chicken" — a real chicken in a bucket-shaped coop
A "Zonkey" (a donkey painted with zebra stripes)
Zonko the Gorilla,
Zurtle the Turtle,
Zonkaroo the Kangaroo,
Zippo the Hippo
Ridiculously large piles of cabbage, pumpkins, or bananas
A wheelbarrow full of dirt
A hay bale
A giant teddy bear
A week's supply of labeled garbage cans (sometimes hiding a fur coat inside)
A washtub and washboard (sometimes with cash hidden in old jeans)
A pirate-ship car with a cannon that shoots Zonk T-shirts into the audience
A two-seater red helicopter car (three wheels, propeller on top)
A "car pool" — a pickup truck with a swimming-pool bed, diving board, and water slide
A kayak bike with paddle steering
A shopping cart bicycle
An oil derrick (which was actually worth ~$6,000 — a production mistake)
Designer pumps carved out of butter
Jewelry made of cheese
"Sunday shoes" (a play on words)
A half-bedroom set (half a bed, half a mattress, half a lamp, half a dresser)
A milk-crate dining set with a hutch made from splintery produce boxes
O DuZonk perfume
A bacon Ferris wheel
A giant water gun (12 ft 7.75 in — Guinness World Record)
A baby grand piano cut in half
Cactus swimwear
A sausage dollhouse
Trips to non-existent destinations
Fake furs and fake foreign currency
A giant "crying towel"
A moose head
"Your own" items (the contestant's own purse or shoes, returned as the "prize")
A $5,000 cash Zonk (during a Julie Chen-hosted deal)
