As the world gradually falls apart around us, many of my friends are taking refuge in comedy shows like Dropout’s. Game changer And Make some noiseor British essentials like Tyrant. These are all great and I really appreciate them. But while scrolling through the absurd maze of panel show clips on TikTok, I somehow stumbled upon one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen, a show laser-focused on word/grammar/literature nerds like me. It’s a panel show with a rotating cast of comedians, much like those listed previously, but it’s framed around an event that some of us might look back on with fear and dread: a spelling bee.
Stay with me and allow me to introduce you Guy Mont-Spelling Bee by Guy Montgomery.
Guy Montgomery, for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of the New Zealand comedy scene, is a comedian perhaps best known for his podcast series, Worst idea ever. In it, he and Tim Batt review the exact same movie once a week, every week, for a year, which indeed seems like the worst idea ever. In 2020 and 2021, during COVID-19 lockdowns, Montgomery began hosting wacky spelling bees on Zoom with a group of comedians he knew who were bored sitting at home. These proved funny enough that Montgomery then tried the idea at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2022 and 2023, and the spelling bees were so successful that Montgomery managed to get it on Discovery NZ. Guy Mont-Spelling Bee by Guy Montgomery ran for a few seasons there before Australia took notice, and is now in its third season on Australia’s ABC network.
How did a ramshackle Zoom spelling bee become so popular? Maybe because it’s anything but a typical spelling bee. Set in a 70s-style studio, it sees four comedians compete to win (a journey to the next episode) by spelling words correctly and earning points over multiple rounds. Montgomery plays an enthusiastic and chaotic game show host whose only goal seems to be to mess with spellers at every turn, whether by giving them excruciatingly hard or nearly impossible words, tripping them up with deceptively simple words, or otherwise confusing them with bad information that will lead to bad spellings. Fortunately, everyone involved is comedians, so even though Montgomery gloats about his misdeeds, the contestants take it on the chin and sometimes find ways to return the tricks.
Each episode begins with the aptly titled “Spelling Round,” in which each contestant can choose to spell an easy baby word worth one point from the Coward’s Cup, an extremely regular word worth two points from the Person’s Purse, or a very difficult word worth three points from the Bucket of Bravery. Montgomery is merciless, with words like “deoxyribonucleic acid” and “Rumpelstiltskin” (that “el” is tricky!) and “denouement”, just to give a few examples from a single episode. Applicants can ask for an original language, a definition, or the word to use in a sentence, but Montgomery goes out of her way to make each of these options as unnecessary as possible, even insulting. For example, when Matt Heath struggled with the word “coward,” Montgomery unnecessarily offered him the phrase “Good luck, coward” and the definition: “Someone who is afraid to spell a harder word.”
The middle of the show features several different rounds each time, with self-explanatory titles such as “Difficult Words for a 13-Year-Old”, “Spelling Audience Member’s Name”, “Spelling on a Calculator”, “Spelling Like a Six-Year-Old”, “A Clever Round of Interesting and Creative Spelling (ACROSTIC)”, “Spelling Crime, Doing the Weather”, “Spelling the Smell”, and “Wingdings”. Montgomery manages to wring a lot of humor out of these tricks, not only from the gimmicks, but also from the deliberately unfair pace at which words are doled out, to whom and when. He will often give one person a nearly impossible word while giving someone else an embarrassingly simple word, or put contestants in situations where they couldn’t even guess the word they are supposed to spell in the first place.
These middle turns usually include the other star of the series, Montgomery’s assistant, in some capacity. The New Zealand version had Sanjay Patel in this role, while Australia brought in Aaron Chen for seasons one and two, and Sam Campbell for season three. Patel is great, but Chen easily elevates the Australian series to a whole new level with his dry, deliberately awkward humor, ridiculous costumes and genuine joy when a joke lands, especially if he manages to make Montgomery laugh (not difficult).
The final round, The Buzz Round, is probably the one that involves the most spelling prowess. Montgomery will speak word after word linked by a particular theme, and competitors will buzz to spell, continuing to buzz and spell until time is up. This is where someone usually rises above the rest in a somewhat righteous way (although Montgomery also likes to throw around ridiculous words here) before the end of the series, where the contestant with the most points wins a ticket to reappear and compete in the next episode. The person with the less points has to sit in a corner with an old-fashioned dunce cap.
So yes, it’s a show for people who love words. It’s incredibly fun to lean in and try to spell words with the contestants, and enjoy the frequent dramatic irony of knowing more about the wacky spelling situation a contestant was placed in than they do themselves. It’s also just such happy Thu Montgomery, Patel, Chen and all the contestants are certainly talented comedians, but no one tries too hard to stay in character or put on a performance. They all laugh, and play, and just enjoy 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 that I spelled and laughed with them.
Unfortunately, there is no effective and legitimate way to watch Guy Mont-Spelling Bee by Guy Montgomery in the United States right now. It’s on Apple TV, but not here. I beg Mr. Montgomery to put his show in a location where I could easily support it. I managed to see a handful of full episodes and previews available on YouTube, but many episodes and spelled words still remain a mystery to me. As mentioned, a third season is currently airing in Australia with comedian Sam Campbell joining Montgomery, and I’d love to see that too. Guy Montgomery, if you’re reading this: have mercy on us here in the United States and give us the bee. I’m officially under your spell.
Correction as of 04/21/2026, 4:49 p.m. ET: Guy Mont-Spelling Bee by Guy Montgomery is on Apple TV, but unfortunately not in the United States.
