[PA Comic] Monday, September 17, 2012 - Adjudicator

Geth

Adjudicator
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/09/17

TychoCelchuuu

Did Jerry actually judge a Spelling Bee?

Fandeathis

That first panel is amazing. The expressions are perfect.

Jortalus

I was in a spelling bee once. The judges were really strict about stuff. My word was "gruff", and I rushed and said "G-U-Waiit..." but they told me I couldn't go back, but I had to spell out the word as I started it. So, as a 4th grader, I looked like an idiot saying "G-U-R-F-F". Then I cried.

Tleilaxu

The first panel expressions are really great and I like the comic as a whole; however, this is the one comic where there should have been a Tychpo deliberately inserted. Where is it?!

Turambar

I loved this episode of Psych

Jam Warrior

Jortalus wrote: »

I was in a spelling bee once. The judges were really strict about stuff. My word was "gruff", and I rushed and said "G-U-Waiit..." but they told me I couldn't go back, but I had to spell out the word as I started it. So, as a 4th grader, I looked like an idiot saying "G-U-R-F-F". Then I cried.

And still you remember the incident in vivid detail today! Character building stuff, keeping the psychiatrists of America in gainful employment.

King Riptor

Tycho investigates the seedy underbelly of the Bee.

Rouge dictionarys looking for a little adverb on the cheap. Vowels running wild.

Darkewolfe

I went to the spelling bee regionals once. I was son insanely proud of myself. I WAS ACCOMPLISHING.

Then I was mocked mercilessly on the school bus for months.

Good times.

A Dabble Of Thelonius

King Riptor wrote: »

Tycho investigates the seedy underbelly of the Bee.

Rouge dictionarys looking for a little adverb on the cheap. Vowels running wild.

King Riptor wrote: »

Rouge dictionarys

Sorry. I had to.

Oddfish

A Dabble Of Thelonius wrote: »

King Riptor wrote: »

Tycho investigates the seedy underbelly of the Bee.

Rouge dictionarys looking for a little adverb on the cheap. Vowels running wild.

King Riptor wrote: »

Rouge dictionarys

Sorry. I had to.

One of us was going to do it. Better you than me.

Lucascraft

I'm a good speller on paper. But I'm a TERRIBLE spelling bee participant. I have a hard time visualizing words in my head. I suck at head-math too. I can work calculations just fine on paper, but ask me to add or multiply in my head and I go all sorts of retarded.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Dimension breaking cthulu tie!

SwashbucklerXX

Damn right it's complicated. Somebody's gotta be able to use that shit in a sentence.

Shanks

Turambar wrote: »

I loved this episode of Psych

Every time I eat a banana.

Peccavi

The trick to spelling bees is to ask for parts of speech and for the word to be put in a sentence, buying you extra time to think.

Not that that advice is useful for anyone over 10...

badger2d

Spelling bees are so bizarre. Putting kids up on stage to compete over who's memorized more of the dictionary? WTF.

When I worked in an afterschool program with 4th and 5th graders I had this kid who had the idea in her head that spelling is actually a skill and was all gung-ho about how good she was at it. She wanted me to make up a list of 10 words and test her on them, and she wanted me to challenge her with "hard" words so she could prove how awesome she was. I tried to explain that there's no such thing as "hard" words, there are just words that have weird unphonetic spellings and you've either seen them before and memorized them or you haven't. She really didn't understand and insisted on going ahead with me making up a test. So I made a list full of words that have unphonetic letters in them but I did the best I could to pick words that I really thought a 5th grader should already be familiar with, stuff like "doubt" and "thought". She scored like 3 out of 10 and she ran away and cried, and I felt like such an ass.

SabreMau

Having won a city spelling bee back in the early 90s and taking second place the following year, I didn't think it was so much about memorizing a dictionary as it was reading many more books than most of the other kids in school and having seen many more words in their natural habitat. Which I suppose is at least some of the point: to get kids reading.

Now, at the national championship level when they're pulling out words like "Pneumococcal", then it's for kids who've read more medical journals than most of the other kids in school.

badger2d

SabreMau wrote: »

Having won a city spelling bee back in the early 90s and taking second place the following year, I didn't think it was so much about memorizing a dictionary as it was reading many more books than most of the other kids in school and having seen many more words in their natural habitat. Which I suppose is at least some of the point: to get kids reading.

Now, at the national championship level when they're pulling out words like "Pneumococcal", then it's for kids who've read more medical journals than most of the other kids in school.

Well yeah, I agree. I was just being pithy when I said memorizing the dictionary. But regardless of where you're seeing the words it's primarily about memorization, just whether you already know it or not.

When I was a kid I was a voracious reader and a "good speller" as a result, but even then I held the same opinion about spelling bees as I do now. I was well aware I knew how to spell more words than most kids just because I'd seen them more, not because there was some kind of problem-solving, actual brainpower skill behind it.

Groosenat0r

I wonder if anyone still remembers that Tycho's a grammar nazi... or Mr. Period for that matter... I hope he appears...

Lovely

When I was a kid, I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on. For some reason though, I had a hell of a time with spelling. Something I'm still not all that great at.

I don't know what the hell is wrong with me .

jothki

Jortalus wrote: »

I was in a spelling bee once. The judges were really strict about stuff. My word was "gruff", and I rushed and said "G-U-Waiit..." but they told me I couldn't go back, but I had to spell out the word as I started it. So, as a 4th grader, I looked like an idiot saying "G-U-R-F-F". Then I cried.

The proper way to handle that would have been to say "G-U-^H-R-U-F-F"