I suspect most have already seen the famous episode of the Miss Teen USA South Carolina contestant’s answer to a geography-related question . (By the way, amazing performance by the host holding the microphone. Could you keep a straight face through that?)
This one seems a bit less well known (if you can say that about a clip that’s been watched 4 million times on YouTube):
The host here is much less impressive (note his commentary in general, and pronunciation of a certain country name in particular). The little boy looks adorable though.
There’s more along similar lines, for example this Family Feud episode.
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fifi 01.21.08 at 12:31 am
The big girl looks adorable, too, and almost certainly she is smarter than Bobby Fishcer. Perhaps even book-smarter.
Naadir Jeewa 01.21.08 at 12:36 am
I’ll cry myself to sleep now.
tom 01.21.08 at 12:43 am
pronounciation? [fixed — E.]
"Q" the Enchanter 01.21.08 at 12:43 am
The Moons of Meepzor.
P O'Neill 01.21.08 at 12:48 am
In a slightly related genre, there is the fiasco of Miss Belgium who can’t speak Flemish. It’s tough to find video of the sequence where this fact became clear to everyone without some reporter type prattling over it but this one gets the general idea.
thompsaj 01.21.08 at 1:25 am
I did like Juan Cole’s parsing of the Miss South Carolina episode.
joseph duemer 01.21.08 at 1:41 am
Jeff Foxworthy — the host — is a very smart guy who has made a lot of money pretending to be a rube. See: The Redneck Comedy Tour on HBO.
Eszter 01.21.08 at 1:56 am
Interesting link. I certainly appreciate that one can be very nervous at an event such as this. I think the video I posted here today is worse, because this woman seems to take some time to think about her responses and justifies them. It’s a series of unfortunate remarks and she doesn’t seem to be under the kind of pressure that Miss Teen USA SC was.
Note, additionally, that this woman in the video here has had experience being on TV. Her name is Kellie Pickler and she was a contestant on American Idol.
Jeff Foxworthy—the host—is a very smart guy who has made a lot of money pretending to be a rube.
But why does he say “hungry” instead of “Hungary” when pronouncing the country’s name?
Jacob Christensen 01.21.08 at 2:17 am
Oh, well: I may as well admit that I had to check a map of US states to figure out which state was “Denmark” on this map.
But I would probably be able to tell you in which country Boodapesht is the capital, even on live TV.
Helen 01.21.08 at 2:20 am
Good to see all those kids got the gender stereotypes rammed well into their little minds before they went home. ;-/
nathaniel 01.21.08 at 2:58 am
Kellie acted like this on American Idol (“salmon” pronounced “salle-mon”, confused “minx” with “mink”, couldn’t understand Simon’s English accent), but a lot of people thought it was an act and that she was playing the faux-naif. I think she’s at least embellishing.
Quo Vadis 01.21.08 at 3:34 am
thompsaj @6
I suppose the correct answer to he question posed to Miss Teen South Carolina would have been that a large part of that 1/5 of Americans would include children who might not be expected to be able to read a map.
Surprisingly, Juan Cole is no more knowledgeable or insightful than Miss Teen South Carolina.
eric 01.21.08 at 3:59 am
why does he say “hungry†instead of “Hungary†when pronouncing the country’s name?
Because, while Foxworthy isn’t really a redneck rube, he is really a Southerner, and that’s how Southerners pronounce it. Cf. “Orn’ry” for ornery.
david 01.21.08 at 4:16 am
I think he was just saying “Hungary” with a southern accent. Like “FLOR-dah” for “Florida.”
Matt 01.21.08 at 4:52 am
Does this mean you speak French, Eszter?
sglover 01.21.08 at 5:36 am
thompsaj — thanks for that link. I’d heard about the Miss Teen USA South Carolina thing, but hadn’t seen it until now. Seems pretty plain that she just got frazzled
joejoejoe 01.21.08 at 7:28 am
She was quick enough to make a “food related country joke” by mentioning Turkey. My guess is she’s fairly bright and never paid 2 seconds of attention in her life to world geography or politics. I wonder how much world geography a kid in US public school gets exposed these days? I imagine not much at all.
chris y 01.21.08 at 8:08 am
30 years ago a friend of mine staying in California encountered a woman who couldn’t understand why she was travelling to the east coast to return to Britain. This might have been unremarkable except that the woman had previously explained that she was a University geography major.
I don’t imagine it’s got better.
Katherine 01.21.08 at 9:34 am
Gosh, those silly silly girls. What a pity we don’t shove boyz on stage in their underwear so we can prod them enough to make fools of them too. What fun!
shteve 01.21.08 at 10:59 am
She said she didn’t know, and wasn’t embarrassed to admit it. Can’t say fairer than that. And she entertained people and gave them a good laugh.
Plus the little guy got a friendly squeeze from a glamorous babe. Good on him!
novakant 01.21.08 at 11:07 am
Oh come on, of course it was an act and the giveaway was her mentioning Turkey which was both a surprisingly quick-witted remark in the context and didn’t fit in with the previous display of ignorance regarding geography.
tps12 01.21.08 at 1:50 pm
Good call, novakant. Her reasoning (“I think they speak French in Budapest, so it must be in France, if France is indeed a country”) doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if it isn’t scripted. And it was a special charity episode, so why wouldn’t it be?
KCinDC 01.21.08 at 3:28 pm
She’s a time traveler from the future and thus understandably a bit confused over whether Europe or its various constituents are countries at the moment.
thompsaj 01.21.08 at 8:38 pm
@5, so wait, the Belgian woman couldn’t speak Dutch, nobody knew until she was on stage being asked questions, and she still won? I think I would understand it better si ils parleraient plus lentement.
Adam 01.21.08 at 11:48 pm
@5
Miss Belgium, Alizee Poulicek, spent most of her life in the Czech republic. She’s fluent in English, French, and Czech, so she’s not exactly stupid. And while she wasn’t fluent in Dutch while she was on stage at the Miss Belgium competition, she has started learning it. She just had trouble answering a question in it under pressure.
Seriously.. that’s not at all the same as not being sure if Europe is a country.
Matt S 01.22.08 at 2:18 am
I really hope this is staged, because if it’s not, I am deeply saddened to have this woman as a fellow native of the great state of North Carolina.
I wouldn’t give Foxworthy grief over how he pronounces Hungary, either. Heck, I pronounce it like that!
GreatZamfir 01.22.08 at 8:49 am
To be fair, I keep doubting which country has Budapest and which one has Bucharest
David in NY 01.22.08 at 2:54 pm
“To be fair, I keep doubting which country has Budapest and which one has Bucharest.”
greatzamfir: There is an animated Hungarian movie called “The District” set in the underworld and underclass of Budapest (gypsies, Ukranians, petty and not so petty criminals), scored with hip-hop music, that you might like. By a wholly improbable set of events, the teen-agers of “the district” (translate, “the ‘hood”) upset the world economy, prompting GW Bush to declare war and bomb the city. Everyone waits in fear as the bombs fall — not on Budapest, but on Bucharest. Great ending.
Ragout 01.22.08 at 3:13 pm
And how many Europeans could name the capital of Illinois? That’s another trivial fact that’s about as important as knowing that Budapest is the capital of Hungary.
If the Cold War were still on, I can see how American educators might want their students to have heard of Hungary. But I’m struggling to think of anything of particular importance to America that’s happened in Hungary since 1956. Hungary joined the EU not that long ago, which I guess is nice to know. Anything else?
Now that she’s heard of Hungary, how can we expect the contestant’s life to be enriched? What has she been missing during all those years of ignorance? Let me suggest that the answer is “nothing.”
David in NY 01.22.08 at 3:39 pm
ragout, ca. 1989: “If the [Iran-Iraq] War were still on, I can see how American educators might want their students to have heard of [Iraq]. But I’m struggling to think of anything of particular importance to America that’s happened in [Iraq in recent years]. [Iraq and Iran fought a war to a standoff], which I guess is nice to know. Anything else?
Now that she’s heard of [Iraq], how can we expect the contestant’s life to be enriched? What has she been missing during all those years of ignorance? Let me suggest that the answer is “nothing.—
Dave 01.22.08 at 4:37 pm
One should never approve of ignorance, especially since it is in such great abundance in us all. To approve it in others is to excuse it in oneself. And ignorance, while frequently understandable, ought not to be excusable.
Jim S. 01.22.08 at 4:57 pm
True, but focusing on one people’s ignorance, while neglecting others, gets quite tiresome after awhile.
Katherine 01.22.08 at 8:15 pm
Re . 29 – except of course that Hungary is a COUNTRY, and Illinois is a US STATE, so perhaps equating the two is being a bit generous to Illinois.
Jacob Christensen 01.22.08 at 8:30 pm
The Economist tells us why Ms. Whatshername should know about Hungry:
and tries to explain it with the fact that the Hungrians do indeed not speak French:
Jacob Christensen 01.22.08 at 8:32 pm
Whoops – a formatting problem: The last paragraph is the Economist speaking, not me.
Randy Paul 01.22.08 at 9:58 pm
What has she been missing during all those years of ignorance?
A fine after dinner Tokaj, goulash, the films of Istvan Szabo, Miklos Jancso and Marta Meszaros, amongst other things.
Bloix 01.22.08 at 10:00 pm
Eszter – in my experience, in the US, Hun-gry is the usual pronunciation among most educated people except for those who have traveled in Europe. Among most Americans, Hun-gary would be seen as affected.
lemuel pitkin 01.23.08 at 4:48 am
Wow, ragout, you really hate CT, don’t you? My suggestion: a better play would be the anti-Southron bigotry card, where you call them out for treating a regional accent as a sign of ignorance. Or maybe “Sure, she may not know where Hungary is, but if it were up to you, Saddam would be killing Hungarians by the bucketful at this very moment!” That one never gets old.
Ragout 01.23.08 at 5:23 am
One should never approve of ignorance
Sadly, everyone’s knowledge is limited. I feel sorry for the 5th-grader whose knowledge of Budapest must have have cost him some additional ignorance of Poland or fractions or something.
Did you know that Budapest used to be 2 separate cities on opposite sides of the river, Buda and Pest! That useless fact has been wasting space in my brain ever since I wrote a report on Hungary in 6th grade.
Hungary is a COUNTRY, and Illinois is a US STATE
So what? Illinois has a bigger population and probably a bigger GDP. I don’t claim that knowledge of Illinois is important, just more important than knowledge of Hungary.
A fine after dinner Tokaj, goulash, the films of…
At least someone bothered to argue for the importance of Hungary! Although I don’t think it’s a very convincing argument. The game-show contestant has probably eaten goulash and paprika, even without having heard of Budapest.
For this small central European nation has produced a disproportionate number of geniuses, mainly scientific, but also cultural titans.
As a Berkeley grad, I am well aware of the existence of Hungarian geniuses. Hungary, population 10 million, probably has had an influence on the world greater than many countries with populations of 20 million, even 30 million! I’m still convinced that my knowledge of a few trivial facts about Hungary is taking up valuable space in my brain that could be filled with something more important, like knowledge of Italian wine or Illinois tractor manufacturing.
Ragout 01.23.08 at 5:32 am
Wow, ragout, you really hate CT, don’t you?
Not really, although I do find that the commentators tend to have bigoted views regarding American and Israel, while at at the same time downplaying the prevalence of racism in the US in favor of a abstract class analysis. What I really hate is 5th-grade geography!
GreatZamfir 01.23.08 at 9:46 am
ragout, the really disturbing part of her answer was not that she couldn’t match Budapest and Hungary, but that she was quite certain that Europe was a country, and she suspected that asking for a ‘European country’ was a trick question.
You’re right that knowing the captials of all European countries isn’t that important, but realizing that Europe consists of independent countires is a bit more useful.
The comparison with US states misses a few points. US states and countries differ in a crucial respect: states don’t have a foreign policy. Washington, Hungary and Budapest are mentioned in newspaper articles on iternatioal affairs, Illinois is not, let alone its capital.
Also, the capitals of US states are not exactly the most important cities in the US. If Chicago was the capital of Illinois, and Houston, NYC and Los Angeles were state capitals, there might have been a point that Europeans should learn the capitals of at least some US states. But the way it is, I doubt even Americans have any use for learning state capitals.
bernarda 01.23.08 at 4:31 pm
She should have known about Hungary because it was a major member of Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing” with its 300 troops, which it withdrew about 3 years ago. How can you not know about such an important Bush ally?
Ragout 01.24.08 at 9:23 am
I doubt even Americans have any use for learning state capitals.
No we don’t. And yet geography fascists still force this “knowledge” on 5th-graders all over the land.
GreatZamfir 01.24.08 at 10:46 am
I think by now you should be calling them geography liberals.
But don’t worry, all 5th graders have to learn useless things. I think it is meant as memory exercise. My geography had as major part the agricultural differences between the Dutch provinces, which would have been quite useless knowledge even it wasn’t 40 years old and most agriculture had switched to growing tomatoes in greenhouses since.
A Polish friend once told me she had had to learn the names of all Polish kings from the year 900 to the present, plus the names of important court jesters.
engels 01.24.08 at 1:09 pm
If you want to imagine the future, picture some school children colouring in a map of Europe–forever!
abb1 01.24.08 at 1:12 pm
Crapuelinski und Waschlapski
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