Move Over, Joe Moore

Skootch over and make some room next to you, Joe Moore, there’s someone who has something in common with you who might want to sit down.

When supermodel Sarah Murdoch announced the name of “Australia’s Next Top Model,” she did some quick thinking and ended up making a horrible mistake. She announced the wrong person as winner.

Kelsey Martinov was well into her acceptance speech when Sarah had to stop her and confess her mistake. Amanda Ware was the real winner.

Kelsey apparently was a good sport about the whole fiasco, and as compensation for the blunder, will receive $25,000 and a trip to New York City.

The incident reminds me of the big-time blunder by KHON-TV’s news anchor Joe Moore.  Joe was the pronouncer at the televised Hawaii State Spelling Bee several years back and apparently had a brain fart – not once, but twice.

His duties included reading the words for the students to spell, then announcing if the response was correct or not. When only two spellers are left, the rules change and if a word is misspelled, then the other student is given a chance to spell the same word and if s/he does it correctly, s/he’s given another word to spell. Get that one correct, and s/he is declared the winner.

The finalists were a young boy and a young girl. The boy misspelled. Joe then said he was incorrect, but instead of giving the girl a chance to spell the word, Joe spelled the word out loud. The girl was shocked, as were the audience, the judges, and everybody watching on TV.

Joe apologized and the word was tossed out. Then, the same thing happened. The girl was devastated!

The boy eventually won, and Joe was so distraught with his egregious blundering that he offered to fund a trip to the finals for the girl. But, I’m sure that gesture did nothing to console the girl and her parents.

Which just goes to show, brain farts are contagious, transcending even distance and decades of time.