Caitlin Upton
Encyclopedia
Lauren Caitlin Upton also credited as Caite Upton, is an American
fashion
model
and a beauty queen
from Lexington, South Carolina
. While Miss South Carolina Teen USA
, Upton became an Internet meme
for her nonsensical response to a pageant question.
for 2007 in the November 2006 state pageant. She went on to place fourth in the Miss Teen USA 2007
pageant. She gained international notoriety for her convoluted and nonsensical response to a question posed to her during the national pageant.
Upton attended Lexington High School
. She has modeled in numerous advertisements for such companies such as Nautica and Wrangler
and has appeared in national magazines such as Seventeen
, Cosmo Girl
and American Cheerleader.
Upton later signed a deal with Donald Trump
's modeling agency in New York City.
Upton has been enrolled in Appalachian State University
. She has moved to Los Angeles
/ North Hollywood to continue modeling.
Alongside numerous other YouTube celebrities, Upton appeared in Weezer
's music video "Pork and Beans
," which was released on May 23, 2008 where the microphone she held became a lightsaber
. In the same video, she blends "Maps" in a Blendtec
blender.
Upton was a contestant on The Amazing Race 16
, where she is credited as Caite Upton. She and her teammate, ex-boyfriend Brent Horne, placed 3rd.
actress Aimee Teegarden
: "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?" Upton responded:
According to YouTube
, video clips of her response on the website have had over 51.3 million views. It was the site's most viewed video for the month of September 2007. Many YouTube users made their own parodies of the incident. The Yale Book of Quotations designated the response the second most memorable quote of 2007. Upton won a World Stupidity Award for the Stupidest Statement of the Year.
As a guest on NBC
's The Today Show, Upton told Ann Curry
and Matt Lauer
that she was overwhelmed when asked the question and did not comprehend it correctly. The Today Show hosts gave Upton another opportunity to answer. She responded:
Both Curry and Lauer, along with unseen crew members, applauded her response.
, where she performed a parody of her famous response.
She also appeared on an episode of the TLC
series King of the Crown
and on a 2009 Comedy Central
's Tosh.0
as a "Web Redemption".
In September 2009, Upton appeared in a television advertisement for Wonderful Pistachios, as part of their "Get Crackin'" campaign. In the commercial, she wears a pageant gown and a sash reading "Miss Wonderful," and says: "I personally believe that cracking shells will help Americans who don't have maps [pause] to build a better future."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and a beauty queen
Beauty Queen
"Beauty Queen" is the second song from Roxy Music's second album, For Your Pleasure. The lyrics refer to Ferry's girlfriend, Valerie Leon, one-time UK beauty queen, B-movie actress and model working in the Newcastle area, circa 1973.-Musicians:...
from Lexington, South Carolina
Lexington, South Carolina
Lexington is a town in and the county seat of Lexington County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 17,870 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Lexington is located at ....
. While Miss South Carolina Teen USA
Miss South Carolina Teen USA
The Miss South Carolina Teen USA pageant is the competition that selects the representativies for the stat of South Carolina in the Miss Teen USA pageant. The pageant has been directed by RPM Productions since its inception....
, Upton became an Internet meme
Internet meme
The term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
for her nonsensical response to a pageant question.
Career
Upton became Miss South Carolina Teen USAMiss South Carolina Teen USA
The Miss South Carolina Teen USA pageant is the competition that selects the representativies for the stat of South Carolina in the Miss Teen USA pageant. The pageant has been directed by RPM Productions since its inception....
for 2007 in the November 2006 state pageant. She went on to place fourth in the Miss Teen USA 2007
Miss Teen USA 2007
Miss Teen USA 2007, the 25th Miss Teen USA pageant, was held on August 24, 2007 in Pasadena, California. At the conclusion of the final night of the competition Hilary Cruz of Colorado was crowned Miss Teen USA 2007 by outgoing titleholder Katie Blair of Montana.This was the first time the pageant...
pageant. She gained international notoriety for her convoluted and nonsensical response to a question posed to her during the national pageant.
Upton attended Lexington High School
Lexington High School (South Carolina)
Lexington High School is a public high school in Lexington, South Carolina that provides education for ninth through twelfth grades, serving the communities of Lexington, Lake Murray, and Oak Grove South Carolina. Lexington High School is the second largest public high school in the state of...
. She has modeled in numerous advertisements for such companies such as Nautica and Wrangler
Wrangler Jeans
Wrangler is a manufacturer of jeans and other clothing items. The brand is owned by the VF Corporation, who also own Lee, JanSport and The North Face, among others. Its headquarters is in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, with production plants in a variety of locations throughout the world...
and has appeared in national magazines such as Seventeen
Seventeen (magazine)
Seventeen is an American magazine for teenagers. It was first published in September 1944 by Walter Annenberg's Triangle Publications. News Corporation bought Triangle in 1988, and sold Seventeen to K-III Communications in 1991. Primedia sold the magazine to Hearst in 2003. It is still in the...
, Cosmo Girl
CosmoGIRL!
CosmoGirl was an American magazine based in New York City, published from 1999 until 2008. The teenage spin-off of Cosmopolitan magazine, it targeted teenage girls and featured fashion and celebrities. It was published ten times a year and reached approximately eight million readers before folding....
and American Cheerleader.
Upton later signed a deal with Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
's modeling agency in New York City.
Upton has been enrolled in Appalachian State University
Appalachian State University
Appalachian State University is a comprehensive , public, coeducational university located in Boone, North Carolina, United States. Appalachian State, also referred to as Appalachian, App State, or simply App, is the sixth largest institution in the University of North Carolina system...
. She has moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
/ North Hollywood to continue modeling.
Alongside numerous other YouTube celebrities, Upton appeared in Weezer
Weezer
Weezer is an American alternative rock band. The band currently consists of Rivers Cuomo , Patrick Wilson , Brian Bell , and Scott Shriner . The band has changed lineups three times since its formation in 1992...
's music video "Pork and Beans
Pork and Beans (song)
"Pork and Beans" is a song by the American alternative rock band Weezer, released on its 2008 album Weezer. It was released in digital form on April 24, 2008. The track debuted at number 19 on Billboards Modern Rock chart, and spent eleven weeks at number one. Critics generally liked the song,...
," which was released on May 23, 2008 where the microphone she held became a lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
. In the same video, she blends "Maps" in a Blendtec
Will It Blend?
Will It Blend? is a viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various unusual items in order to show off the power of his blender...
blender.
Upton was a contestant on The Amazing Race 16
The Amazing Race 16
The Amazing Race 16 is the sixteenth installment of the reality television show The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race 16 features eleven teams of two, each with a pre-existing relationship, in a race around the world....
, where she is credited as Caite Upton. She and her teammate, ex-boyfriend Brent Horne, placed 3rd.
Infamous response
As part of a question and answer portion of the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant, Upton was asked by the questioner, Friday Night LightsFriday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team...
actress Aimee Teegarden
Aimee Teegarden
Aimee Richelle Teegarden is an American actress. She starred as Julie Taylor in the NBC series Friday Night Lights, Jenny Randall in the horror film Scream 4, and Nova Prescott in the Disney film Prom.-Career:...
: "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?" Upton responded:
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some . . . people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as in South AfricaSouth AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and, uh, the IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, everywhere like such as, and, I believe that they should, our education over HERE in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countriesAsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, so we will be able to build up our future, for our children.
According to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, video clips of her response on the website have had over 51.3 million views. It was the site's most viewed video for the month of September 2007. Many YouTube users made their own parodies of the incident. The Yale Book of Quotations designated the response the second most memorable quote of 2007. Upton won a World Stupidity Award for the Stupidest Statement of the Year.
As a guest on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's The Today Show, Upton told Ann Curry
Ann Curry
Ann Curry is an American television news journalist and co-anchor on NBC's morning television program Today. She is the former news anchor on Today, a role she began in March 1997, and was the host of Dateline NBC from 2005-2011.Curry is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Biography:Curry was born in...
and Matt Lauer
Matt Lauer
Matthew Todd "Matt" Lauer . is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1997. He was previously a news anchor in New York and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond...
that she was overwhelmed when asked the question and did not comprehend it correctly. The Today Show hosts gave Upton another opportunity to answer. She responded:
Well personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don't know anyone else who doesn't. And if the statistics are correct, I believe that there should be more emphasis on geography in our education so people will learn how to read maps better.
Both Curry and Lauer, along with unseen crew members, applauded her response.
Parodies
Upton also attended the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards2007 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, honoring the best music videos from the previous year, took place on September 9, in Las Vegas at The Palms. The 2007 VMAs were the smallest VMAs ever held in MTV history, eliminating 13 awards, re-naming many of the remaining awards, and having only four...
, where she performed a parody of her famous response.
She also appeared on an episode of the TLC
TLC (TV channel)
TLC is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks...
series King of the Crown
King of the Crown
King of the Crown is an American reality television series that debuted on TLC in 2009. The show follows the life of pageant coach Cyrus Frakes and his assistants of Gowns and Crowns as they prepare beauty pageant contestants to compete....
and on a 2009 Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
's Tosh.0
Tosh.0
Tosh.0 is an American television series hosted by comedian Daniel Tosh, who provides sarcastic commentary on online video clips, society, celebrities, and other parts of popular culture.-History:...
as a "Web Redemption".
In September 2009, Upton appeared in a television advertisement for Wonderful Pistachios, as part of their "Get Crackin'" campaign. In the commercial, she wears a pageant gown and a sash reading "Miss Wonderful," and says: "I personally believe that cracking shells will help Americans who don't have maps [pause] to build a better future."