A five-year-old girl unintentionally made a primary school nativity show a lot more amusing by flipping off the crowd throughout the majority of the performance.
Ella Legge was dressed as an angel when she took to the stage on Tuesday, December 10, though I think it’s safe to say her actions were quite out of character.
Youngsters often try to capture their parents’ attention when they’re put in the spotlight, but rather than offering a subtle wave or a knowing smile, mum Carla Bovingdon was shocked to see Ella throw her the middle finger.
Hilarious photos of the memorable performance show Ella looking concerned as she displayed her finger, which, it turned out, had a hangnail. The issue was a very minor one but the poor girl was so worried that she felt the need to make her mum aware of it.
Speaking of the incident, Carla, who lives near Maldon, Essex, commented:
It was so funny because she didn’t realise what she was doing.
She likes to let me know if she’s at all injured, so she was basically trying to show me what she had done from across the room. It was the tiniest little hangnail as well.
It was pretty much for the majority of it she was there with her middle finger up. Because I didn’t run over there she kept holding it up as if she was saying, ‘mum, look!’
It had to be my child. I had to keep mouthing ‘put your finger down’ discreetly, but then I just accepted that she was going to be standing there with her finger up.
At one point, Ella decided to lift up her other hand to compare the injured middle finger to the healthy one. Unfortunately, that meant she was then doing twice the offending.
Thankfully, the angel’s innocent mistake was forgiven by the audience, who knew that she didn’t mean to swear at them, though it would have been easy to believe otherwise as Ella kept up the sign for around 20 minutes of the half hour performance.
Carla continued:
A couple of the teaching assistants had a bit of a giggle. I think where she was standing, and the fact that you don’t watch one child the whole time, I don’t think everyone noticed.
A few of the older children whispered, ‘Ella’s got her finger up’. Everyone seemed to know what she was doing, but yeah there were a few laughs here and there.
I was thinking, ‘oh god, Ella please stop.’ Because she was doing it so innocently I think most people were thinking, ‘oh bless her’.
She’s quite endearing normally and is really cute. She likes pretty dresses. Being an angel was perfect for her.
The amused mum shared photos of her daughter’s performance on social media, where over 7,000 people expressed their delight at the scene.
Though it was an honest mistake, Carla has warned her daughter not to raise her middle finger in the future. However, the youngster still isn’t quite sure what she did wrong.
Carla explained:
She wanted to say thank you to everyone for liking her picture, but then she said, ‘I don’t know what’s funny though’. She doesn’t get what the joke is.
She just thinks she looks cute, but doesn’t know why we’re all laughing which is quite funny. When she’s older I will get [the photos] out again to show her.
Thankfully Ella had learned her lesson when it came to the second performance of the nativity, and despite ‘a bit of clowning around’ the five-year-old made it through without swearing at anyone.
Still, I’m sure Ella’s family won’t let her forget that initial blunder anytime soon!
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.