If you can read this, the answer is yes.

Kelly Pickler was on the television show "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader" tonight. As usual, she was a total embarrassment to the entire state of North Carolina. The media continues to use her astonishing ignorance to reinforce the negative stereotype of North Carolina education, by making an over-abundance of references to her home state again and again.

The show began with host Jeff Foxworthy explaining that at the end of the game, if she didn't win the million dollars, that she would have to turn to the camera and tell the world that she was not smarter than a 5th grader. Kelly immediately turned to the camera and began to be the first contestant to admit that before the first question was even asked. Jeff stopped her and said she didn't have to say it yet, and Kelly said "I may as well get it out of the way now."

Questions 1 and 2 had their comedic moments but she basically got them right. Then it only went downhill from there.

Question 3: Watch this video. Kelly was asked how many "E's" are in the following word, and before Jeff Foxworthy could tell her the word, she said "word?". Jeff then jokingly asked her if she knew the answer and Kelly said "there are no "E's" in "word."" After Jeff explained that the word is watermelon, she then proceeded to count how many "L's" are in watermelon instead. Jeff has to remind he that she's supposed to count "E's", not "L's".

Question 4: A piccolo is what kind of musical instrument: woodwind, strings, or percussion? Now ignoring the irony that she actually works in the music industry, it was her logic that boggles the mind. She incorrectly guessed percussion, because piccolo begins with the letter "p" and so does percussion. What? By that ridiculous logic, a saxophone would be a string instrument because they both start with the letter "s". Holy cow.

Question 5: Budapest is the capital of what country in Europe. First she says "I thought Europe was a country". Then after Jeff Foxworthy tries to help her out, she says "Is France a country... I don't think France is a country". I'm sure nobody was shocked that she later added Hungary to the list of countries she didn't know existed.

Question 6: Which of the following was a President of the United States: Johns Hopkins, Franklin Pierce, or Brigham Young? Once again, it wasn't that she didn't know the answer but her logic that is baffling. After toying again with the notion that all answers starting with the letter "p" must be right, she then guessed Franklin Pierce because her ears were pierced. No kidding. She luckily chose the correct answer by accident.

Kelly, keep singing if you like but please stop being the poster child for North Carolina education.

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Update 12/14/2007:
You can watch this entire episode online at OpenHulu.

Labels: television