Viral Alert! Here she is: Miss South Carolina

August 27, 2007 | Written by

Once again, viral has made headlines! What’s the next viral sensation? More soda antics? Did Alanis do another remix? Did those Cebu prisoners learn the dance moves to Footloose?

No! This time we owe our thanks to none other than Miss South Carolina 2007. She was asked an intriguing question: Why can’t 1/5 of Americans point out the United States on a world map?

The answer COULD have been about:

• No Child Left Behind.
• Or the focus on math and science, therefore not on geography and history.
• Or maybe it could have been about the rise of pop culture uselessness and a wildly decreasing attention span.
• Or about our US-centric world where you don’t need to know where your country is on a map.

Instead her answer had something to do with Iraq, Asian countries, and the sad reality that many "U.S. Americans" don’t have maps.

Counting all versions, we’re already well beyond 1 million views in a span of one day. And, thanks to my emailing, we’ll reach 2 mill by quittin’ time.

I’m sure there will be a Miss South Carolina remix before the week is out. Maybe they’ll even juxtapose what she said to one of George W. Bush’s speeches on education. The sky’s the limit, and you know that the Internets will find the rocket shoes to get soaring.

Quick, corporations! Contact Miss America and get rights to this video. It would be excellent for:

• moveon.org (anti- No Child)
• Kaplan study aids
• Revlon brown hair dye
• McDonalds (they just buy viral anyway, I’m sure they’ll figure out how to use it.)

So what makes this viral? Humor, of course, that’s key. But there’s more – the unbelievability factor. Is it really possible that someone could say something we wouldn’t even believe coming from Elle Woods in Legally Blonde?

Also there’s Mario Lopez, formerly known as A.C. Slater from TV’s Saved by the Bell. I’m pretty sure Lopez can make anything viral. He just has that sort of power.

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