- Let's talk about that.

(playful theme music)

Good Mythical Morning.

- Every year hundreds of kids come together

over their shared passion for Sanskrit roots

and Greek suffixes to fight to become

the best spellers in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

- I love it, and Scripps they've got spelling down

to a t-e-e, tee, so we're not gonna do that,

we're gonna do something that we're good at.

Not spelling, smelling.

Welcome to The First Annual

Burbank Invitational Smelling Bee.

Okay, welcome to the smelling bee arena.

Here's how this is gonna work, there's a few steps.

So the contestant, which is me in this first round,

has an array of smells in front of him,

and I'm going to smell each one of these,

and the first letter of each smell corresponds

to the letters over here on the board.

- Yeah, to a word that I know.

- Right, and I'm trying to get as many of these letters

as I can, so I can make the best possible guess

as to what the word is on the board.

- And then once you're ready to make your guess,

you have to come over here, and you have to spell it,

and you'll be spelling a smell,

'cause the word is a smell.

The person who gets, if you get it right,

then I get the smell dumped on me.

If you get it wrong, it's dumped on you.

- Yes, let's get started.

- Round one.

Okay Mr. McLaughlin, smell your first scent.

- It's like bread, it's sweet.

Cupcake. - Nope.

- Muffin, is it a muffin? - Nope.

- Is it a donut? - Nope.

- I don't know that one.

- Move on. - Moving on.

- You have other letters you might be able to get,

but you didn't get that one.

Yeah, you don't even have another guess.

- Lemon. - What?

- Lemon. - Correct.

So you get an L.

- Apple. - Right there.

- Sauce. - Ooh yeah.

Dang it, there you go.

- Icy Hot. - Nope.

- Menthol. - Nope.

- Mint. - Nope.

- That's what I've been smelling,

it's filling everything, it's so--

Ben-Gay.

Vaporub, Vicks Vaporub. - Nope.

Give up.

- Prunes.

Raisins. - Don't look at me,

I'm not giving you any hints, I don't wanna get dumped on.

- It smells exactly like prunes or raisins.

Am I anywhere close?

Oh, hold on.

Peanut butter.

- I need one final guess Rhett.

- Some kind of icing.

- Some kind of icing is not correct.

Move over to the center here, look, you've got--

- LA, we're in LA.

- You got two out of five letters here, Rhett.

- Blade. - I love

the smell of blades.

- Glade, oh, you know what.

- Remember spelling bee rules apply Rhett, so--

- Can I have the origin of this smell?

- You may, this smell originates from my wicked smaht

cousin Patty's annual bake down in Worcester.

- Bake, a bake, annual bake in Worcester?

It's not glade, it's not blade, for some reason

those are the only things I can think of.

- We need your spelling Rhett.

- Claws, claws.

- Spell it. - C-l-a-w-s.

- That is not correct Rhett, the correct answer is

C- - No, wait, wait, wait,

I was close.

- Oh clam, bake, it's a bake.

- Wicked smaht.

Here you go.

(Rhett screams)

You didn't get the hair.

There we go.

Ew, it stinks.

Ew, that is a smell.

- Round two.

Okay Link, you're gonna have a difficult

time because all I can smell is clams.

Personally. - I too, smell clams.

- Alright, go ahead and proceed with your first smell.

- Smells good, smells like clam chowder.

Smells like the top of a jar.

No, no, no, no, no.

Smells like Spaghetti-Os.

Spaghetti, Chef Boyardee.

- So close.

- Marinara, lasagna, Italian food.

- I need to refer to the judges

because it is technically marinara,

but it's called something else.

- [Stevie] Keep going down that track.

- Marinara tomato sauce.

- Yes, okay. - T for tomato.

- Where's it go, hold on.

- [Stevie] Above the line.

- Above the line. - Put it below the line,

see all that room below the line.

- No, I was trying,

I didn't know if this was the magnetic strip,

and I was trying to put it right on it.

- I smell glue.

Glue. - No.

- Cologne.

Vinegar.

- We need a guess. - Barbecue sauce.

- It's a high sour smell. - Got a guess?

- I've had a lot of guesses,

were any of 'em right?

- No, alright, we gotta move along Link

if you don't have an accurate guess.

- I gotta (exhales through nose)

clear it out. - Clear it out.

- Ooh, now this is where I was smelling a cologne.

- Very specific, gotta be very specific.

- Drakkar Noir.

- Oooh, more specific.

- What? - It's specifically not that.

It's specifically something else.

- CK1. - Nope.

- Two or three. - Nope.

We're gonna have to move along Link.

- Well come on, give me half a letter.

- Can't do that.

- Like cut the letter in half.

- Can't do that. - Perfume.

- No, let's move along.

You got two more chances here.

- Mmmm, smells tasty, I'm hungry.

- I'm hungry, smells tasty, I'm hungry.

- Hold on, I've smelled this before.

- You have, you've smelled it.

- It's like gravy. - Oh gosh.

- It's a food, it's definitely a food.

Man, dang it, what is this?

Sausage. - Yes.

- Jimmy Dean sausage.

- Nice Link, and the last one.

- Pickles.

- Nope.

- It's such a strong smell.

- It's very strong, and very specific,

I think you should get this one.

Oh, he's really going in for it.

Is that helping?

- Oooh, now it's burning, cleaner.

Pine sol.

- Cleaning, the burning is a hint, dude.

The burning is a big hint for this.

- Uh, bleach.

- Alright Link, you gotta--

- Grease Lightning.

- Nope, okay, we gotta move along.

- Turpentine, paint. - Hey, hey,

I only had two letters in the last round, step over.

Mr Neal, can you spell this word?

(Link makes letter sounds)

- Okay, that's one way to spell it.

(Link makes letter sounds)

- Trust.

- The smell of trust. - The smell of trust.

- Tras-, Trash.

Trash, t-r-a-s-h, trash,

- Congratulations Link, unbelievable.

- Alright.

- I'm having a bad spelling bee.

- Round three.

Mr. McLaughlin, your first smell.

- Let me just say that, don't ever order

clam-flavored coffee, because I know

exactly how that smells, like me.

- Take it in. - It's a deodorant.

Soap, Ivory soap.

Dove, Dove soap. - Nope, nope.

- Is it a soap? - Nope, nope.

- Is it a deodorant?

Old Spice. - Nope.

- Arrid Extra Dry, is it a deodorant?

- Nope. - Is it used

to clean anything? - Yes,

why am I helping you?

- Dish soap. - Nope.

- Shampoo. - Take one last slug at it.

- Is it a shampoo?

- Nope. - Is it a body wash?

- Move on man.

Not gonna happen.

- Oh, oh, oh, oh, I know this one.

Potatoes.

- No.

Not potatoes.

- Corn. - Nope.

- It smells like the peel of a potato.

- Nope. - What is that?

It smells good.

- Does it, that's interesting.

- Like a wet potato.

- Oh, now you're onto it.

- Broccoli. - Nope.

- Cauliflower. - Nope.

- Corn. - No, you said corn.

- Green beans. - No, ooooh.

- Asparagus. - Yes.

- Really? - Yes.

- Woooh, okay.

- There you go, right there.

- I have to get through the clams and the coffee.

- Prunes. - Nope.

- It smells just like prunes, I had that in the first round.

Is it a dried fruit, raisins.

- Yes.

- Popcorn, butter. - No.

- Doritos. - Yes.

Dang. - It took me a second.

- Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Ha ha ha ha, that could only mean so many different things.

I mean, I gotta think that it's lard, right.

I mean is lard a smell?

I mean lard has a smell.

Oh gosh, it can't be card, can't be bard,

can't be guard, 'cause that's not how you spell guard.

I'm going to go with lard,

l-a-r-d, lard.

- You're correct, but you misspelled it.

No, you didn't.

- Oh brother, get ready Link.

- Wow!

- Fatty.

- I feel like bacon.

- Round four.

Mr. Neal I se you have a new haircut for this round.

- I'm totally ready for smelling bee action.

- Smell your first smell.

- Mmm, candy.

Gummy bears.

Sour bears.

What's those things called, sour bears?

- Not bears. - Sour Patch Kids.

- Not bears. - Worms.

Gummy worms, nerds.

- You're not that close, I think you might want to move on.

- Fruity snacks.

- Fruity snacks in general, no.

- Ew, oh.

After this one smelled so good,

I went too deep with this one.

- This one's bad, I'll give you that.

Just take it in deep, though, really take it in.

- Chase's socks.

- Oooh, well I don't know,

what do you do in your socks Chase?

- Oh gosh, it stinks, it smells sour.

- Spoiled milk. - Oh, no.

Starts with milk.

- Starts with milk?

- You'll understand later.

- My stomach hurts.

- Yeah, you should probably quit smelling it,

and move on to the next one.

- Gosh, come on man.

- You'll be just fine.