Miss Teen South Carolina: Miss Understood?

After her less-than-stellar answer to a simple question concerning maps during the “Miss Teen USA” pageant Lauren Caitlin Upton appeared on the Today show to redeem herself.

Matt Lauer and Ann Curry, ever the defenders, hand-fed South Carolina’s finest cartographer her dignity by strategically answering the questions they asked before Upton had a chance to.

Curry: “…And it was the first time you had actually been on national television. Here you were competing and it was…it was…just one of those moments when you were asked this question…I’m sure everything came at you at once.”

Upton: “Yes. Everything did come at me at once.”

Moments later Lauer chimed in with an assist:

Lauer: “Please don’t let it get you down. I mean…and I know the fact that it’s on YouTube and a lot of people are watching it right now probably has to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand you think it’s kind of funny; on the other hand it’s not all that funny to you, is it?”

Upton: “Um, no, but then again looking back on it I am sitting here laughing at myself.”

Her answer mirrors Lauer’s 50/50 split of the incident being funny/not funny.

I want to hate on this beauty-queen so much it hurts, but truth be told, Upton is just another victim of stage fright; it happens to almost every unprepared speaker when asked a question on television. But that doesn’t mean a fluff-piece on the Today show validates her completely.

Although Upton did state that her rambling, incoherant, laughable, ignorant, dense, witless, meaningless, misinformed, mentally-retarded answer was a mistake, I would’ve loved for her to go a step further and just say, “Hey, I’m a teen model – why are you looking to me for anything besides having a great pair of boobs?”

Personally, I would’ve accepted “World Peace” as a correct answer.

But in the immortal words of Curry to Upton, “Good girl! Good girl, you!”

CO-ED’s Miss South Carolina, Lauren Caitlin Upton Bikini Gallery