The original survey which spat out that statistic asked students to find "the United States" on a map. When students found the *continental* US, but forgot to also point to Alaska and Hawaii, they were counted as "not being able to find the US on a map". Does anyone really think that's a fair assessment of those student's answers? How many students from the UK were dinged for not being able to find their home country on a map because they forgot to also point out the Isle of Man?

That said, it sounds to me like this girl had a set answer in mind already, and was bound and determined to shoehorn it into whatever question was asked of her.

And while we're on the subject of the pageant, why are we snorting at a stupid answer when we don't bat an eye at the fact that Upton and her pageant sisters are smearing Vaseline on their teeth and parading around in bathing suits and evening gowns, hoping to be judged superior to one another and deemed emblematic of young American womanhood?

People already laugh at pageants. That's a given. There is no particular reason to bring up the details of why pageants are silly wastes of time and insults to women everywhere. Those arguments are background to the fun that people are having at this poor young woman's expense, but they do not need to be retread to understand the joke.

As a Hawaiian, I take offense at not being included in the answer. We are the United States after all and if someone can't understand the basic meaning of the two words put together, then their answer shouldn't count.

O-gins - it's "The Mainland" not "Stateside".

Miss Upton's response that she didn't hear the question seems reasonable. Having not heard the question, she decided to throw in all of the appropriate beauty pageant answer buzzwords: "Education. Iraq. South Africa. Our Children. Our Future."

The only one she was missing was "9/11." And "world peace."

It reminds me of that scene in Miss Congeniality (2000) with Sandra's Bullock's character Gracie Hart as a pageant contestant. Everyone else asked this question has answered the same way...

Stan Fields: What is the one most important thing our society needs?

Gracie Hart: That would be... harsher punishment for parole violators, Stan.

[crowd is silent]

Gracie Hart: And world peace!

[crowd cheers ecstatically]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212346/quotes

Its also the perfection of her image, her hair, her lip gloss, and then the total absence of spark in her eyes, "black eyes, like a doll's eyes".

And, she's probably a Republican, which explains a lot about why we're in Iraq and George Bush has yet to be impeached, removed, indicted, tried and convicted, and imprisoned for the rest of his unnatural life.

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps."

As in inadequately funded public schools? Sounds reasonable.

"And I believe that our education, like, such as in South Africa and the Iraq, everywhere, like such as, and I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children."

You mean education should give Americans some sense of the rest of the world, should imbue us with a sense of public service, and make us realize our future is tied to the future of other countries?

Yeah, I can see why it's so embarrassing.

Really, does it matter whether this woman is ridiculed by people laughing at their work desks or by finger-wagging editorials?

Get over yourselves.

...have you ever ended a sentance with 'such as.'?

Although there have been some doozies (particularly from GW Bush and Mr. Perot) let's be honest and admit that no president or presidential hopeful has ever, ever displayed such stupidity during a debate.

Why are these girls answering questions anyway? Is it adding some legitimacy to the creepy title of Ms. Teen USA? Why can't a beauty pagent just reward beauty?

The 'I was nervous' excuse rings a little hollow. Does someone who displays themselves in a suimsuit on television really seem like the kind who would succumb to nerves? Of course, I think she did hear the question. After all, she answered with the insight that some U.S. Americans simply don't have maps.

Please, someone investigate the lipgloss-Iraq connection. I'd assumed Rummy, Condi, Dick, Georgie were responsible for Iraq. Now I see it's pretty young women.

As for Origins ... apart from Jack Lord who really cares?

And Israel. They're behind this, they always are.

...because I clearly remember laughing just as hard (if not harder) at the "Boom Goes The Dynamite" kid, and that one weather guy who lost his s*** on air when he saw a cockroach.

There's a cheap, somewhat guilt-inducing, but mostly sympathetic laugh to be had whenever someone live on the air goes into complete and total meltdown like Miss Teen South Carolina. That she's pretty and blond and young really doesn't matter so much as the complete and total train wreck that was her answer.

At least that's one male-type person's view.

We're not even allowed to laugh at beauty pageant contests anymore? Why not just cancel Christmas while you're at it.

if someone can't understand the basic meaning of the two words put together, then their answer shouldn't count

I think its an easy mistake to make.

In any case, they were 96% correct, not 100% wrong.

My snark-o-meter is set off only when the person committing the gaffe is hateful (outing homophobes is a time-tested favorite). I don't have much use for beauty pageants, but raking a kid over the coals for having a brain freeze while speaking in public seems pretty pointless. Her subsequent high placement in the rankings however does give me a measure of cynical joy; we've known all along that beauty pageants are about physical appearance and nothing more.