Steve Harvey mis-crowns Miss Universe; Twitter hilarity ensues

Steve Harvey took to Twitter to apologize Sunday night after a slip of the tongue resulted in the wrong woman being crowned Miss Universe.

Instead of crowning Philippines contestant Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, Harvey gave the crown to Colombia contestant Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo before realizing his mistake.

What followed was a profuse apology on Harvey’s part and the unfortunate spectacle of Arevalo being uncrowned by last year’s winner, fellow Colombian Paulina Vega before a stunned Wurtzbach officially received her title.

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In the aftermath of the ceremony, Harvey told gathered reporters, “Nobody feels worse about this than me.”

That may be true, but nobody felt better about the gaffe than Twitter users who collectively utilized their meme-making skills and put them to good use.

But one Twitter user in particular had a fire in his belly over Harvey’s mistake. Donald Trump, who as recently as September owned the organization that includes the Miss Universe pageant, was horrified by the development.

Trump expanded on his thoughts live by telephone Monday morning on NBC’s “Today,” where he was more understanding of Harvey’s situation. But Trump suggested that the right thing to do was to have a new, “beautiful ceremony” to make the women co-winners.

Yet mistakes like these happen in high-pressure awards settings from time to time, including at the 36th Academy Awards in 1964. In that instance, Sammy Davis Jr. read the nominees for scoring of music, adaptation or treatment, and immediately announced John Addison had won the Oscar for “Tom Jones.” The problem was that John Addison wasn’t nominated for scoring of music, adaptation or treatment. He was the winner of a category yet to be awarded, for original score.

As humiliating as things might be for Harvey at the moment, he should rest assured that social media will be preoccupied by some other form of schadenfreude in no time. Odds are, it will also include Donald Trump.

Follow me on Twitter at @midwestspitfire.

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