I can count to a million by primes...

[clayhornik]

Chris Eigeman is on Malcom in The Middle.. I know these are reruns from a few years ago, but I passed them up. Thanks to the magic of re-runs, I get to see him as Malcom's teacher, a ex-dot commie after his business went bust. Like in Whit Stillman's movies, he's a jerk.
He drives Malcom's class to become more competitive... with disasterous results. To tip them over into crazy, after a week of hard competition, Malcom announces that he can count to a million by primes. He does this, and his classmates follow his lead... a dozen geeklings, chanting numbers, before they snap, run outside and roll in mud.
Maybe I should have been watching this show this first time out... I mean, any sitcom with prime numbers as a plot point can't be all bad.

Comments

[boyfacedgirl.livejournal.com]

Malcolm happens to be a lightening calculator savant. I think this was established in the first show or soon after, much to the shock of the parents. Malcom tries to hide his giftedness because he wants to hide in the crowd and not get placed with the nerd kids. He also cheats for his older bully brother Reese to keep him out of special ed, and coaches the youngest, Dewey on how to answer test questions, so he will place low on the aptitude tests to save him from getting placed with the nerds. However, Dewey wants to be placed with the gifted class and is a disturbingly cagely young fellow who keeps getting sketchier as the show goes on.