As the world steadily crumbles around us, a lot of my friends have been taking refuge in comedy panel shows like Dropout’s Game Changers and Make Some Noise, or British staples like Taskmaster. These are all great and I enjoy them very much. But by winding through the absurd labyrinth of panel show clips on TikTok, I somehow stumbled upon one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen, one that’s laser-targeted at word/grammar/literature nerds like me. It’s a panel show with a rotating cast of comedians, not unlike those previously listed, but it’s framed around an event that some of us might look back on with fear and dread: a spelling bee.
Stick with me, and allow me to introduce you to Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee.
Guy Montgomery, for those unaware of the intricacies of the New Zealand comedy scene, is a comedian perhaps best known for his podcast series, The Worst Idea of All Time. In it, he and Tim Batt review the exact same movie once a week, every week, for a year, which does indeed sound like the worst idea of all time. In 2020 and 2021, during COVID-19 lockdowns, Montgomery began hosting goofy spelling bee competitions over Zoom with a bunch of comedians he knew who were bored sitting at home. These turned out to be fun enough that Montgomery then attempted the idea at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2022 and 2023, and the spelling bees there were such a hit that Montgomery managed to get it on Discovery NZ. Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee ran for a few seasons over there before Australia took notice, and is now in its third season on Australia’s ABC network.
How did a ramshackle Zoom spelling bee get so popular? Possibly because it’s anything but a typical spelling bee. Set in a 70s-looking studio, it sees four comedians compete to win (a trip to the next episode) by spelling words correctly and earning points across multiple rounds. Montgomery plays an enthusiastic, chaotic game show host whose entire goal seems to be to mess with the spellers at every turn, whether that’s by giving them excruciatingly hard or even nigh-impossible words, tripping them up with deceptively simple ones, or otherwise confusing them with bad information that will lead to wrong spellings. Helpfully, everyone involved is a comedian, so while Montgomery is gleeful in his mischief, contestants take it on the chin and occasionally find ways to dish the tricks back out.
Every episode begins with the aptly titled “Spelling Round,” in which each contestant can choose to spell a baby-easy word worth one point drawn from the Coward’s Cup, an extremely regular word worth two points from the Person’s Purse, or a very challenging word worth three points from the Bucket of Bravery. Montgomery is ruthless, with bucket words like “deoxyribonucleic acid” and “Rumpelstiltskin” (that “el” is tricksy!) and “denouement,” just to give some examples from a single episode. Contestants can ask for a language of origin, a definition, or for the word to be used in a sentence, but Montgomery goes out of his way to make every single one of these options as unhelpful as possible, or even hilariously insulting. For instance, when Matt Heath struggled with the word “coward,” Montgomery uselessly offered him the sentence “Good luck, you coward,” and the definition, “Someone afraid to spell a harder word.”
The middle of the show features several rounds that are different each time, with self-explanatory titles such as “Hard Words For A 13 Year Old,” “Spell The Audience Member’s Name,” “Spell It On A Calculator,” “Spell It Like A Six Year Old,” “A Clever Round Of Spelling Things Interestingly and Creatively (ACROSTIC),” “Spell The Crime, Do The Time,” “Spell The Smell” and “Wingdings.” Montgomery manages to draw a lot of humor in these rounds not just from the gimmicks, but also from the deliberately unfair pacing of which words are doled out, to whom, and when. He’ll often follow up giving one person a nigh-impossible world by giving someone else an embarrassingly simple one, or put contestants in situations where they couldn’t possible even guess the word they’re supposed to be spelling in the first place.
These middle rounds typically include the other star of the show, Montgomery’s assistant, in some capacity. The New Zealand version had Sanjay Patel in this role, while Australia brought in Aaron Chen for season one and two, and has Sam Campbell on season three. Patel is great, but Chen easily elevates the Australian show to a whole new level with his dry, deliberately awkward humor, ridiculous costumes, and genuine glee when a joke lands—especially if he manages to get Montgomery laughing (not difficult).
The final round, The Buzz Round, is probably the one that involves the most actual spelling prowess. Montgomery will give word after word tied together by a particular theme, and contestants will buzz in to spell, continuing to buzz and spell until time runs out. It’s here that someone typically rises above the rest in a somewhat fair-ish way (though Montgomery loves to throw ridiculous words in here, too) before the end of the show, where the contestant with the most points wins a ticket to reappear and compete in the next episode. The person with the least points has to sit in a corner wearing an old-fashioned dunce cap.
So yes, this is a show for word nerds. It’s shockingly fun to lean in and try to spell words along with the contestants, and to enjoy the frequent dramatic irony of knowing more about the zany spelling situation a contestant has been placed in than they do themselves. It’s also just such a joyful game. Montgomery, Patel, Chen, and all the contestants are talented comedians, certainly, but no one’s trying too hard to stay in character or put on a performance. They’re all giggling, and playing, and just enjoying the weirdness of it all and how bad they all are at spelling as grown, professional adults. Every time I finish an episode I feel a little happier for having spelled and laughed along with them.
When I started writing this up, I was initially going to complain about how there was no good and legitimate way to watch Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee in the U.S., and beg Mr. Montgomery to put it somewhere I could easily support it. However, I discovered through research for this piece that at some point, the first two seasons arrived on Apple TV. I’ve thus far only managed to see the handful of full episodes and snippets available on YouTube, so you’d better believe I’ll be settling down to catch all the ones I’ve missed immediately. As mentioned, there’s a third season currently airing in Australia with comedian Sam Campbell joining Montgomery, but that doesn’t seem to have made it over to Apple just yet. Guy Montgomery, if you’re reading this: have some pity on us over here in the States and make sure we can get those new episodes at some point. I’m officially under your spell.
