014. "I'm Not That Smart", The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

[chicafrom3]

"I'm Not That Smart", from the 2005 Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, as sung by Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

I have a gentle personality
Which you'll all agree
Is anathema to my more aggressive family
Everyone keeps swotting "Dumb kid"
Everyone keeps shouting "Dumb kid!"
How could a flea such as me
Think he'd be good at spelling?

Leaf Coneybear continually breaks my heart.

This fact is actually true for most of the spelling bee contestants, but Leaf is the relevant one right now.

Spelling Bee is, as the title suggests, the story of a regional spelling bee and its elementary-school-student contestants, each of whom is strange and damaged in their own way. Leaf is a home-schooled kid from a big, hippieish family, and makes it into the regionals on a technicality; while he placed third in the qualifying bee, neither of the two kids who beat him were able to attend.

Each of the contestants gets an I Am song, and "I'm Not That Smart" is Leaf's. When he gets a word he doesn't know how to spell, he goes off into his own world, thinking about his family and his self-image and how the two influence each other, and it's really pretty heartbreaking. Yeah, even with the deliberate comedic relief of the "I like my hair" verse. Still heartbreaking.

"I'm Not That Smart" gets a reprise later in the show which I have marked down to discuss further down the line in my 100things project, so we will be revisiting Leaf eventually.

Comments

[chibisilverwing.livejournal.com]

Leaf is a cutie. I think one of the best parts about Spelling Bee is that each kid's problems are very real but aren't taken to this massive soap opera-y extreme that takes away from the sweetness and approachability of their plights. Other than maybe Olive. She's a bit of the odd man out. I think so many of us, as children as adults feel these insecurities that aren't LIFE ENDING, but are really important. A lot of the songs in the show just feel so pleasant and fun be real in terms of the pressure we feel in relating to the world, society, family, friends etc. And I think that's why the comedic verses are totally okay with me, I like that they keep it light, while still hitting you right in the heart.

[chicafrom3.livejournal.com]

Spelling Bee does a fantastic job of walking the thin line between OTT comedy and very real, relatable problems the kids are dealing with. I think it's partly because they don't separate the two -- the same stuff that's heartbreaking and fucked up also leads to laugh-out-loud scenes.