So this is a repost of my 2nd ever entry, but I figure since the Scripps National Spelling Bee is now only hours away I may as well repost it.
It seems like every year a new video clip goes viral featuring either an indian/asian kid or a pasty white kid with some form of social anxiety at the Scripts National Spelling Bee doing something interesting enough for a spelling bee clip to go viral. Theres always a train wreck right around the corner, but when you get that many socially awkward home schooled teenagers in one room and combine them with an audience, television cameras, and pressure from overbearing parents something is bound to happen, something always happens. So I decided to make a list of the best youtube clips involving the spelling bee. enjoy.
This video shows a petrified white boy who is faced with spelling a word that sounds an awful lot like “niggas”. Usually things like the definition, language of origin, and hearing the word in a sentence can give little clues to the spellers, except in this case the sentence ” the Negus ruled Ethiopia until the coupe of 1974” likely only further convinced this kid that he was fucked. The poor kid, faced with elimination or spelling the one word a scrawny white kid from the South should never be asked to spell. At some point during the most terrifying 2 minutes of this kid’s life he must of looked over at his parents in the audience, but whatever comfort he got from seeing the loving supportive faces of his parents must have disappeared as soon as he noticed the two black men sitting directly behind them. After stalling a bit he accepts elimination over embarrassment, and spells negos, while shaking his head no, just trying to get off stage as fast as he can. His reaction once realizing he spelled the word right says it all.
Next we have potentially the most socially awkward/unaware spelling kid ever. Home schooler Evan O’Dorny is an interviewers worst nightmare. He is the master of one word responses, awkward pauses, and strange noises, proving once and for all that just because you are able to spell a word doesn’t mean your able to string those words into sentences and those sentences into coherent thoughts. But we should give the kid a break, he’s not an actor or a politician, interviews just aren’t his forte*, spelling is. He may not have charm, social skills, or any definably useful characteristics, but goddamn this kid can spell like a champ. So surely he can redeem himself for giving the worst interview ever and spell scombridae. Right? Right? Wrong : (
The next video features a spelling bee legend Rebecca Sealfron. Rebecca paved the way for socially inept home schooled kids around America when she became the first homeschooler to ever win it all. Its hard to describe a girl like Rebecca, words like strange,awkward,and out of sync get thrown around at spelling bees all the time, what Rebecca is goes beyond what words can describe. Let’s put it this way, she was weird enough to get her own Top 5 plays on SportsCenter**. Anyway I’ll just leave you with these two videos, first is her emphatically spellings euonym to win the Scrips National Spelling Bee and the next is the interview that followed.
The next two videos have been relatively huge over the last few years. Both featuring the other kind of spelling bee contestant***, Indian/Asian kids. The first one had his 15 minutes of fame for inexplicably quoting Napoleon Dynamite. Poor kid, after that stunt he was definitely the coolest most talked about kid at the Spelling Bee, only to go back to his school back at home where he was never heard from again****.
The next one is probably the most popular video from the Bee( and without a doubt the cutest thing to ever happen at a spelling bee*****), the kid, gets his word, faints, gets back up, and spells his word like nothing happened.
Random Notes and things I’ve Learned about Spelling Bees.
There are people that actually protest spelling bees. Apparently they believe that it glorifies spelling and according to some increase illiteracy, crime, and dyslexia. As noble a cause as protesting a children’s spelling bee is I have a funny feeling that people won’t be taking these guys to seriously.
* im gonna go ahead and assume you can add girls, sports, making friends, keeping friends, chewing gum while walking, holding conversations, and not getting punched in the face as things not in Evan’s forte.
** Heres a link to an episode of Cheap Seats featuring Rebecca and her top 5 moments on SportsCenter, skip to 4:50 mark, if you don’t want to watch the Sklar brothers.
***the first being of the pasty white variety.
****until this much less popular, much more annoying video of him surfaced a few years later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90peZ0oqO50
***** as you probably know fainting can make anything cute, indian kids, goats, anything.
