ScienceBy Kevin Trahan on

The National Spelling Bee—the one on ESPN every year—is this week, and in its honor, Google Trends posted the most misspelled words in each state by finding out which word is preceded most by “how to spell.”

Most of the words are fairly predictable.

“Beautiful” is tough. I learned this week after my dog got diarrhea that, like New Hampshire, I do not know how to spell “diarrhea.” I am from Iowa and have never spelled “vacuum” correctly.

But then there’s Wisconsin, which doesn’t know how to spell … Wisconsin.

As an Iowan who has to constantly convince people that Wisconsin sucks, this makes me quite happy. And I don’t know how this is possible, since Wisconsin is a very easy state to spell. It’s spelled exactly like it sounds. There’s really no ambiguity.

The only possible answer is T-Pain.

https://twitter.com/rarekeith/status/869620508169469952

This isn’t Wisconsin’s first spelling mistake. One Badgers fan tried to troll NC State with a billboard in Raleigh by thanking Russell Wilson (Wilson started at NC State, then transferred to Wisconsin) but spelled Wilson’s name wrong.

Anyways, let’s all laugh at Wisconsin. I can attest from past experience that it’s a lot of fun and helps you forget about your state’s own failing.

Speaking of, there are a lot of us who should be embarrassed:

  • Rhode Island doesn’t know how to spell “liar,” which seems like it should be easy to spell. (Rhode Islander and Comeback Media’s Ken Fang notes that it’s hard to spell when you pronounce it “ly-ah.”)
  • South Dakota can’t spell “college,” which also seems pretty surprising.
  • New Mexico needs to listen to more Gwen Stefani.
  • Hawaii can’t spell “people,” but to be fair, they can probably spell “brah” just fine as a substitute.
  • Connecticut and West Virginia are apparently very interested in learning how to spell a fictional word created by Mary Poppins.
  • Bostonians can’t spell “license” because presumably none of them have them with their (lack 0f) driving skills.

Moral of the story: We all suck at spelling. Even Google.

About Kevin Trahan

Kevin mostly covers college football and college basketball, with an emphasis on NCAA issues and other legal issues in sports. He is also an incoming law student. He's written for SB Nation, USA Today, VICE Sports, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.

View all posts by Kevin Trahan