The Challenge Team Needs to Say "Hello" to Hello Kitty
NEIRAD enilno edition
The DHS Challenge team will always remember the question about a kitty as “the one that got away.” Due to a question with a surprise twist in their competition against Staples High, it turns out that the Challenge team needs to study cartoons more than physics, calculus, and history. The team only lost this competition by five points on a question that no one saw coming.
Senior team member Matt Gentile, describes that the question came in the final round, which is worth a total of 180 points. The category was pop culture. Although this category is very different from the other academic categories, it has always been easy enough. Gentile said that they were expecting questions about famous singers, actors, movies, or someone well known. Instead the question was the name a famous Japanese bobtail cat.
Japanese bobtail cat? The DHS Challenge team, was stumped. They had no clue. Instead the other team answered correctly with “Hello Kitty.” Luckily, the DHS team redeemed themselves on the next question, when they were asked the color of Hello Kitty’s bow. Staples answered with pink, but DHS got the points with red. For the next question, they were asked the name of Hello Kitty’s sister. At this point Mr. Record, the faculty advisor for the team, said, “I didn’t even know he/she/it had a sister!” DHS answered with Hello Dolly, and the other team said Pretty Kitty. Neither of them got it right, because it turns out her name is Mimmy.
In the end, the DHS team, which also includes seniors Nicole Granath and John Conley, and sophomores Jonathan Gill and Reed Morgan, lost the competition because of the five points missed from the Hello Kitty question. Gentile said that they “lost by the smallest amount you could possibly lose by.” Mr. Record said, “For an academic challenge it’s disappointing that it comes down to something that nobody has heard of.” But it’s hard to believe that no one on the Challenge team has ever heard of Hello Kitty. Obviously none of the team members read the Neirad Hot in the Lot article from 2009 showcasing Priscilla Lee’s Jeep completely decked out with Hello Kitty accessories.
According to an article from The Independent, a newspaper in the UK, Hello Kitty is hard to miss. “You can buy almost anything stamped with the Hello Kitty brand, including towels, pencils, clothing, stationery and mobile phone covers, selling in more than 60 countries… You can even buy Hello Kitty-branded laptops and adult-sized underwear!”
How could such a huge icon of Japanese pop culture be completely unknown to the Challenge team? There has been speculation that the Challenge team member who was only there as back up actually knew the answer, but he couldn’t help out. “I guess the kids on the Challenge team aren’t that into pop culture,” said Gentile. “I mean, you don’t really think Hello Kitty is essential to The Challenge.” Mr. Record commented, “Because of this, what I’ve learned is that next year I really need to make the team learn more about cartoons, because it turns out that it could make or break a game.”
editor's note: this is not an april fool's article
