OXON HILL, Md.—A row of metal detectors guards the hotel ballroom that stages the Scripps National Spelling Bee. There’s less than an hour until the final day kicks off with Round 4, but this main entrance is nearly empty—a trio of security guards are the only people here. I ask the woman who searches my bag if they…
Nerd alert! Edith Fuller, a home-schooled 5-year-old from Oklahoma, qualified for the National Spelling Bee after winning the Scripps Green Country Regional Spelling Bee Saturday. She will be the youngest-ever dweeb to compete in a national spelling bee.
If you’re gonna try to roast the Spelling Bee for being soft, the worst sin you can commit is bringing that weak shit (noun: substandard effort or soft response, e.g. “Kevin liked the Warriors, but they lost because they brought that weak shit.”).
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In case you missed it last night, the Scripps National Spelling Bee ended in spectacular fashion with 14-year-old Gokul Venkatachalam ensuring a tie with 13-year-old Vanya Shivashankar by throwing down “nunatak,” without asking for a definition. The boy had BALLS OF STEEL.
When I tell people I was in the National Spelling Bee, it’s always with a weird self-deprecating “I’m such a nerd” kind of tone, but the truth is—it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.
We all had our laughs about poor Jacob Williamson, the 15-year-old eighth grader whose excited misspelling of "kabaragoya" left him a spelling bee loser but viral video hit. We thought he deserved something better, and when it comes to "WHAT?" there's only one expert: Lil Jon.
Here are your 12 finalists for tonight's National Spelling Bee. Please pick your favorite and tell the class why.
Arvind Mahankali won the 2013 National Spelling Bee on "knaidel," a type of dumpling. The winning word the year prior was "guetapens," before that "cymotrichous," and before that "stromuhr." Have bee-winning words always been this insane, or is this a recent development?
Is there anything better than watching kids gleefully race to the stage after hearing their names called as Scripps National Spelling Bee semifinalists? Yes, there is! It's watching kids gleefully race to the stage with the Ultimate Warrior's theme music, "Unstable," as musical backing.
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—That fucking bell. There’s always a split-second between the moment a contestant at the Scripps National Spelling Bee finishes a word and the moment that bell rings out, and in that split-second you can see everything: panic, fear, terror, embarrassment, denial, anger ... all of it.
When you're watching the spelling bee, do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that some of the kids simply memorized the dictionary?
After a National Spelling Bee filled with children holding back tears in front of a national audience, the academic equivalent of pageant moms, and every appearance from the wonderfully weird home-schooled girl from Philly, it took ESPN's poor sideline reporter to give us the most cringeworthy moment of the night.…
You know what the national spelling needs to make it even more compelling? INJURIES. No one ever gets physically injured during a spelling bee. Oh sure, there's extensive PSYCHOLOGICAL damage that occurs when children get eliminated and their dads won't even give them a hug when they get escorted back to their chair.…
South. S-O-O-U-T-H. South.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee, which alongside poker, cheerleading, and hot dog eating constitute the E for Entertainment in ESPN, featured an actual sports word in the third preliminary round of its competition today in Washington, D.C. as "sabermetrics" made its appearance.
At the tender age of six, Lori Anne Madison just became the youngest person ever to qualify for the Scripps National Nerd Olympics, otherwise known as the Spelling Bee. But despite the media attention and mounting pressure, Lori Anne says she's not nervous at all. "I've been in competitions with older kids before."…
Yeah, this is going to get MURDERED by the Finals tonight. But the Spelling Bee really is the tits. ESPN's coverage is a million times better this year, with Sage Steele instead of Erin Andrews (at least in the early rounds), and now they don't spoil the words for you before the kid starts to spell.
This is what happens when a Jamaican kid is given a Sanskrit word, and shipped off back home, never to return.
America's newest tween spelling champion is Anamika Veeramani. Her sponsor for the Scripps National Spelling Bee? The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio. Here's a word for you, Bron-Bron: F-A-C-E-D!
