No one throws shade like a brainiac pre-teen vying for the title of National Spelling Champion.
The 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee ended with a tie between 11-year-old Nihar Saireddy Janga and 13-year-old Jairam Jagadeesh Halthwar. And while it’s reported that the two are close—Janga appears to be more frenemy than friend.
Social media hasn’t stopped laughing at two instances where the younger Janga does little to hold back his disdain of his eventual co-champion.
In one clip, Halthwar is barely halfway through spelling “drahthaar” when the camera captures Janga aggressively shaking his head “nope,” in the background.
When a frustrated Halthwar sits back down, Janga claps his hands–directly in Halthwar’s face.
At the end of the competition, after Janga correctly spells his last word “gesellschaft,” Halthwar rushes the stage for a high-five– but is denied the victorious gesture.
The determined Halthwar goes in for a second attempt. And is denied again.
Halthwar eventually settles for a hug–which Janga still didn’t seem super into.
But Janga wasn’t the only one casting shadows. Scripps’ official Twitter account replied to a Twitter user’s disgust over the competition’s “comfort couch.”
@Kchapman_88 tweeted, “Unsure of why the national spelling bee has a “comfort couch” you f**king lost suck it up quit teaching kids it’s okay to loose @ScrippsBee.”
To which @ScrippsBee simply replied “*lose.”
Kchapman_88 has since deleted his account after that vicious shaming.
