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Renae Dir is dunked in the “Stink Tank."

Teacher lights up small screen
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: October 22, 2020

A Valley Center math teacher got dunked in slime and won $100,000.

Renae Dir, who teaches at Valley Center Middle School, competed on "Ellen's Game of Games," a show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, this fall, together with her husband, Clayton.

Their episode aired Oct. 13.

Dir said being on the show was "an absolute blast."

"Overall, we are just shocked that we got chosen to go on the (show) and very grateful for the experience," Renae Dir told The News this week. "We feel very lucky."

Dir said she and her husband have watched all of the show's seasons on Hulu and "loved them."

"We would actually pause the show as we watched and played along on the ones that we could," she said.

After watching the second season, Dir had the idea to audition for the show, so they Googled how to apply. 

In January 2019, the couple sent in an audition video as well as basic information about them. They didn't hear anything from the production company until May 2020.

"They called us and said they would like to do a Skype interview with us for Season 4," Dir said. "We had the interview in May, but COVID kept pushing everything back. We finally heard in August that they would like for us to be on the show."

The couple went to Hollywood during the last week of August and taped the episode at the Warner Bros. Studio.

They spent a week filming and had to quarantine at a hotel.

"We had fun there, just relaxing in Los Angeles," Dir said. "It was a little nerve-racking, but I had a lot of confidence in my husband and I because we do well working together in couple's games. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will never forget."

Dir and her husband played a game called "Stink Tank."

Dir sat in a chair above a container of slime, while playing against another married couple, who was from Pennsylvania. The chair was attached to a crane that moved in every direction. Dir and the other wife took turns betting how many of a certain category they thought their partners could name.

Clayton was able to name four small-dog breeds that were in the 2019 Westminster dog show. The win gave the opposing team a strike and forced DeGeneres to dunk their opposition in the "Stink Tank." The Dirs won the next two rounds, when the opposing husband was unable to name five cuts of French fries and five of the largest lakes in the country, to win and move on in the competition.

Even though she and her husband won the first round, Renae got dunked in the "Stink Tank" on her way out.

Clayton was on the final game called "Know or Go," where the finalists from the night's four games stood on a trap door and had to answer general knowledge questions. If they got a question wrong, they would fall through the trap door.

Clayton answered four questions correctly — the definition of twins, what IHOP stands for, the definition of yahtzee and a question about Harry Potter — and was the final contestant standing for a chance to win $100,000.

Clayton did the rest, answering seven general knowledge questions in 60 seconds.

After the show aired, Renae told The News the couple will use the money to help buy a new house in the future, pay some of Clayton's student loans, set up college funds for their future children and donate some to Beauties and Beasts, "our favorite animal charity."

"We have not gotten any money yet, so we are anxious to see how much taxes will take," she said. "We are estimating about 40 percent."

Renae has taught in the Valley Center school district for five years. Clayton is a physical therapist.





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