'Racist $100,000 Pyramid' Contestant Owns Up to Obama, Bin Laden Mix-Up

Kaufman was competing with "Saturday Night Live" alum Tim Meadows on the game show hosted by Michael Strahan, making the moment perhaps even more uncomfortable for him. After the episode aired, Kaufman's conflating of President Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden quickly went viral.

Kaufman was presented with the answer, "People with the last name Obama," which really narrows it down to one family. But instead of naming Barack or Michelle or even their kids, after a very pregnant pause, he said, "Bin Laden."

Kaufman immediately recognized his mistake, corrected it and Meadows was able to get the right answer, allowing them to move on. But perhaps no one was more horrified to see that moment play out on television than Kaufman himself, who knew it was coming after taping the episode months ago.

He even admitted as part of a 13-tweet string that he'd wondered if it might be possible to edit it out, but as it was a timed sequence in the game, his screw-up was guaranteed a national spotlight and a permanent spot on lists of worst game show moments.

And so, Kaufman jumped right out in front of it, presenting his side of the story almost immediately after the show ended Sunday night. To his credit, Kaufman didn't try to justify his mistake, or back away from the "inherent racism" it represented, as he described it.

He even gave a shout-out to the production crew for capturing the moment so well, writing, "And so you have this perfectly viral clip. A clip that is insanely funny. It would be so funny if it wasn't me. The editing is impeccable."