Tube Map for Miss South Carolina...

[Mr. Analog]

So, like, everywhere like such as the Iraq has like a way to the future!

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/29/tube-map-for-miss-sc.html

[Mags]

The press this is getting is pretty outstanding. Poor girl is lucky she's good looking. Perhaps she can take tips from Paris on how to make money with no talent or brains what-so-ever.

[Mr. Analog]

The funny thing I find is that I'm pretty sure if she said something intelligent we wouldn't have even known there was a Miss Teen USA pageant going on.

Human nature I guess, we prefer to see stupid beauty!

[Tonnica]

[...]if she said something intelligent we wouldn't have even known there was a Miss Teen USA pageant going on

I think it's hard for people who aren't involved with (or haven't stumbled across while channel-surfing) to care much about teen editions of already existing beauty pageants if there's no spin.

Sure, she epically bungled her response. It's not like that hasn't happened in the past at a beauty pageant.

This may be me, but there are three things that make this clip even remotely interesting: the question itself, the high likelihood of the viewer jumping at a response to the question, and the decentralization of her answer.

Firstly, the question isn't an easy one to answer when you're standing on the stage all smiles and glitter. The inability of one fifth of Americans to locate the U.S. on a map is a loaded topic. Let's assume for a minute her standpoint could have been that the cause is a fault within the continental U.S. educational system. If you're trying to act pretty and sweet onstage (while being filmed for TV) how can you nicely say the educational system of your country sucks? Tricky.
But no, her provided conclusion was a lack of maps to read in the first place. Wait, wut?

Secondly, while this may not be the case for everyone I know I reacted to the question and jumped to my own conclusions when I heard it. It's a hot topic and viewers will have their own opinions on the matter drawn out. It'll get people talking if they're of an inquisitive mind. Doubly so because it's particularly mean and a teen beauty queen is an easy target.

Thirdly, her answer jumped all the way out to education in South Africa and The Iraq. The two countries were delivered as buzzwords, old chestnuts popular as out of country charity locations. Then she cycled back to the educational system in the U.S. assisting the educational systems in South Africa and The Iraq. If we assume she held to her hypothesis of not enough maps, shouldn't her final point have been "the U.S. educational system should provide lots of maps to South America and The Iraq"?

It wasn't even remotely consistent. The whole answer was a mishmash, as if she had been told to always mention certain things in any question she was asked. The final effect is breathtaking and just a little exasperating.

[Darren Dirt]

Painful to watch.

But later she defended/esplained herself on The Today Show.

[Mr. Analog]

All I know is this; the part of the show which tests how well you think on your feet caught her like a deer in the headlights.

Nuff said.

[Tonnica]

But later she defended/esplained herself

The positive side of me says: good for her! It is true, she could have just waited it out for people to get bored of talking about the slip-up but instead she went out there and tried again. That takes some scruples.

The internet side of me says: that was a very very sugary sweet interview and her answer was probably scripted for her. I hope she puts that teflon coating daytime TV society has given her to good use.

[Darren Dirt]

I'll start the pool for which daytime soap opera she first does a guest spot on...

[Thorin]

Uhh, she wants to do special effects?  I hope she remembers to read the instructions on the explosives!

[Mr. Analog]

Uhh, she wants to do special effects?  I hope she remembers to read the instructions on the explosives!

I'm sure she has plenty of skills making the unreal seem likely!

[Tom]

Uhh, she wants to do special effects?  I hope she remembers to read the instructions on the explosives!

I'm sure she has plenty of skills making the unreal seem likely!

That is so hawt.

[Thorin]

I'm sure she has plenty of skills making the unreal seem likely!

You think she'd be useful on that Joust movie, then?

[Darren Dirt]

Jimmy Kimmel went through a clarifying analysis.

[Darren Dirt]

This series of coffee mugs and T-Shirts explains her confusion

[Mr. Analog]

This series of coffee mugs and T-Shirts explains her confusion

Man, I love how this works; any idiot can cash in on any other idiot!