Boston University graduate student Ben Macon spells ‘libido’ with an ‘e.’
At least, that was how he spelled it at the third annual Adult Spelling Bee at BU Central on Friday night, which drew a crowd of 28 students. The low turnout forced BU Central Public Relations Manager Justin Monestime, who served as host and judge, to survey the audience for needed contestants.
Monestime, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman, said previous adult spelling bees at BU had been more popular, so he expected a better turnout. He said the date might have been inconvenient this time around, but he expects BU to host more naughty word spelling contests in semesters to come.
‘We’ll definitely retool it and think about it for next time,’ he said.
As host, Monestime called out the words and provided definitions and sentences.
CAS senior Tim Tilbe won this year’s spelling bee, taking home a cake shaped as breasts from erotic pastry shop Sweet-n-Nasty. Tilbe said the hardest word he had to spell was ‘non-gonococcal urethritis,’ which all the contestants spelled incorrectly.
The spelling bee consisted of three rounds with three contestants each. The winner from each round moved on to the final round.
Players also had three lifelines. They could phone a parent for help, perform a dance around the room or find someone in the George Sherman Union to spell the word for them. The dance lifeline could not be used in the final round.
CAS sophomore Will Bassignani lost in the first round, misspelling ‘Silicone Valley.’ However, the crowd allowed Bassignani another chance in the third round, in which he redeemed himself and made it to the finals, though could not outlast Tilbe.
Tilbe, who participated in spelling bees in middle school, said he wondered whether the nature of the event turned people away.
‘Anything with ‘spelling bee’ in the name probably won’t be too popular,’ Tilbe said.
Tilbe said he also noticed a mistake on the posters advertising the bee. The posters said the spelling bee would be on ‘Saturday, January 30.’
BU Central staff member Robert Mendoza said although fewer people attended, he considered the spelling bee a success.
‘The people that did come made the most of it,’ Mendoza said.’
Macon said he was disappointed with the turnout, but still enjoyed the spelling bee.
‘I thought it was going to be pretty funny,’ Macon said. ‘I came to see some comedy.’
CAS junior Andrew Carr attended last semester’s Adult Spelling Bee but did not participate. Friday night, he decided to try his luck, winning the first round and taking a seat on the finalists’ couch.
”Jenna Jameson’ was easy to spell, but it kind of threw me off because it was a name, not a word,’ Carr said.
In the final round, Carr was asked to spell ‘human papillomavirus.’ He used the phone-a-parent lifeline and called his mother for help.
She got it right.
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