I didn’t watch the Miss USA pageant last night on Reelz, in which Miss Oklahoma,Olivia Jordan, won. But I don’t need to have seen it in order to observe that we seem to take so much glee in the onstage flubs by contestants during the question and answer period, you’d think they were the main source of entertainment, the reason for the pageant’s existence under the masquerade of bathing suit strutting. I couldn’t help but notice the difference in style and substance between the questions asked of contestants generated by the pageant and by viewers.

Questions about race and politics seem designed to shame and embarrass contestants and then go viral