The most amazing moment of last night's spelling bee was also its most tragic

Finalist Jacob Williamson may have been a bit too confident for his own good

Published May 30, 2014 1:42PM (EDT)

Eighth grade home-schooled pupil Jacob Williamson, 15, of Cape Coral, Fla., reacts after correctly spelling his word "harlequinade", during the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2014, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Eighth grade home-schooled pupil Jacob Williamson, 15, of Cape Coral, Fla., reacts after correctly spelling his word "harlequinade", during the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2014, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Poor Jacob Williamson. The 15-year-old finalist in the Scripps National Spelling Bee was all but doomed from the start when he stepped to the mic and confidently -- some might say hubristically -- boasted that he totally knew how to spell "kabaragoya."

After assuring us all that he had the championship in the bag, there was only one way this could end for him. (Sorry, looks like the original video is no longer available.)

To Williamson's credit, after crying out "WHAT?" in disbelief, he pulled himself together and made a graceful exit. And while his dreams of a spelling championship were dashed this year, his backup career as a viral video sensation is off to a fantastic start:

Kid Celebrates Prematurely At Bee


By Lindsay Abrams

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