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It’s good to know someone else is obsessed with odd sports — the bloggers at YesButNoButYes have put together a top-ten list of harebrained physical activities, including:
* The World Highland Games: Events like the Sheaf toss where you throw a bundle of straw, the stone put where you throw a rock, and the caber toss where you throw a tree.
* Surf Lifesaving: Combining the grace and beauty of watersports with the thrill of cardiac arrest.
* Extreme Ironing: You see what marriage does to perfectly normal guys?
Do you have an idea for a new sport that’s even more ridiculous than these? There’s a free copy of Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets for the person who comes up with the best one by this Friday at 6 p.m. (If we really like your idea we might even stage a staff game.) The rules: Your sport must be (a) so new that it’s never been played before, at least on this earth, (b) consistent with the laws of physics, (c) relatively cheap to play, with equipment that can easily be obtained by anyone, and (d) an actual physical sport involving at least two players. We want to see some calories getting burned. Extra points if your idea is explained in great detail, based on some weird historical activity we’ve never heard of, or steeped in facts and assorted trivia. Leave your ideas in the comments or email us at tips-at-mentalfloss.com!
link via Neatorama
Comments (24)
Comment
Stupid Sport Contest
Log Ball
2 or more players
Tie a 2-3 foot log to 1 players ankle- this person is “it”. This player’s job is to dodge balls being thrown at him/her by all other players. If the “it”-person is able to catch a ball. The thrower of that caught ball becomes the new “it”.
NOTE: This was a game invented by my sons who were 6 and 7 at the time. Looked like fun!
posted by Sean Tremblay on 8-1-2006 at 9:22 am
I love it!
posted by Mangesh on 8-1-2006 at 12:15 pm
Decibel Derby
Contestants are pitted against one another such that increasing decibel levels are piped through headphones. The contestant must endure 15 seconds of sound source at x decibel level in order to move onto the next (x+1) level.
The only drawback is that this might end up being a one-shot deal for the winner, like the Daffy Duck episode where he ends up detonating himself just to win the contest.
posted by squid on 8-1-2006 at 12:29 pm
Editor and Chief
This game is good for people who have alot of books from the “dollar tree.”
What you do is you get the a book and find as many grammatical and spelling errors you can find. But you only have 15 minutes for every book. Whoever finds the most wins, my cousin told me it could be a drinking game too.
This game came to mind after I found a couple of errors in my summer reading book. This made me feel like I was so smart, but my brother didn’t seem to care and promptly pushed me out of his room.
posted by Rachel on 8-1-2006 at 1:15 pm
apple stealie
my friend pat cusack invented this on college while intoxicated. two teams, 5 players each, have a net on their side of the field filled with apples. the other team has to run and steal apples and put them in their own net. first team to empty the other team’s net wins.
posted by holmes on 8-1-2006 at 1:36 pm
Obviously, I can’t take credit for it, but years ago Mad Magazine invented “43-Man Squamish.”
http://www.collectmad.com/madcoversite/index-quiz_olympics.html
posted by the wolf on 8-1-2006 at 1:59 pm
I’ve created a game I like to call ‘SockerFootball’. The object of the game is to kick a ball into the opponents net. The tricky part is that the players can’t use their hands, but they can use any other part of their body, including their heads (sounds stupid, right?). Teams are 11 men to a side, but most players just run around 25-100 yards away from where the ball (and ‘action’) is. A main strategy in my game is to feign injury, in order to get a top opposing player ejected. The more whimpering you do, the more likely the opposing player will be kicked out of the game, and the better your chances get for victory.
Also, games that are tied will be decided by playing a different sport altogether. This sport is called ‘Just Kick the Ball into the Net’. If you can kick the ball into the net more times than your opponent, you win! No IQ necessary.
I defy you to find a stupider sport.
posted by Bill Eslinger on 8-1-2006 at 2:24 pm
Oh, Bill, you must not have seen the number of posts this blog put up during World Cup time… Them’s fightin’ words!
posted by Mary on 8-1-2006 at 2:32 pm
Live action chess. But not just any live action chess… this game is played by the pieces. The chess players are all nude and the checkerboard is made of pools of melted white and dark chocolate. When two pieces come into the same spot, they must wrestle. The actual rules of chess don’t really apply, actually. The bishop always has to wear a funny hat.
posted by Zack on 8-1-2006 at 2:35 pm
How about World Poker Championships? Oh wait that already exists. Okay how about World Darts Championships? Oh wait, also exists. I’m sorry but I don’t consider those sports TSN, ESPN, and any other sports network that insists on wasting hours on end televising such crap. At least with WWE they perform physical feats and I can justify wasting airtime on it, though not much.
posted by Fred on 8-1-2006 at 2:42 pm
“America Eliminated from the World Cup: Our Month-Long National Nightmare Ends”
Alright, here’s a real entry:
2 teams play each other in a sport I call ‘BackDome2006′, which is only played on the third Monday of every month. The alotted time for the match is one week. The matches shall take place only in empty in-ground pools.
Each team consists of 2 players, a man and a woman (all male teams only allowed in Massachusetts and Hawaii). The teammates stand back to back and wear one uniform shirt which they share. The opposing men face each other during the day, while their teammates on their backs must take naps. At night, the positions are switched, and the women now face each other while the men nap.
The object of the game is to blink less times than your opponent. The player is in charge of counting the amount of blinks charged to their opponent, with a referee available in case a dispute erupts. If a player disputes a count, the referee decides on which team is at fault, and penalizes that team with a Brazilian wax. If a team is waxed bald before the week ends, they lose.
At the end of the week, the final blink tally is counted up and the team with the most blinks is dropped of the coast of the Cape of Good Hope wearing a chum necklace.
posted by Bill Eslinger on 8-1-2006 at 3:01 pm
Ski Bowling: It combines the ramp used in ski jumping anv very large tenpins.
The contestant, wearing skis,slides down the ramp towards the pins,ie. as if one were doing a cannon ball.
No fair extending the arms to make the 7-10 split.
posted by Don on 8-1-2006 at 4:05 pm
Team Scoring Celebration.
This sport combines aspects of ballet, figure skating, gymnastics, improv theater,mime, and synchronized swimming.
That is to say, judging is involved.
a maximum number of 15 players per team is involved. (This is to include players with Rugby Union and Leage experience.)
One team member plays the “scorer”, the others teammates play subsidiary roles in the goal/try/touchdown scoring celebrations.
A group of seven judges will asses and award points for originality, artistic merit, stupidity and “wtf were you thinking”.
posted by Don on 8-1-2006 at 4:16 pm
Great, great, great idea for a contest. There’ll be an article on this in Fringe Sports Central tomorrow. Check it out for some overanalysis of this from the authority on fringe sports.
posted by Fringe Sports Central on 8-1-2006 at 4:50 pm
SudokuJitsu.
This is an attempted improvement on ChessBoxing (see espn.com for the details). ChessBoxing “combines” two activities, allegedly, but in fact they just play chess between boxing rounds. It’s very poorly integrated.
In SudokuJitsu, two antagonists are given identical Sudoku puzzles. The first one to solve correctly is given the UP position associated with college wrestling. They fight. If the DOWN fighter makes an escape, he gets a wrestling point and they they go to another Sudoku phase to reestablish up/down positions. The UP fighter can also score according to normal wrestling scoring. However, the wrestling rules are modified to allow certain jiujitsu holds, submissions and cranks (armbars, guillotine choke, can opener, elbow crank, etc - but not the rear naked choke as then the UP fighter would win every time), simply because SudokuJitsu sounds much catchier than SudokuWrestling. You can win either by points or by opponent’s tap-out.
So the wrestling/jitsu is the dominant part of the game, but the Sudoku element has a great influence.
There is absolutely no historical trivia or tradition I can refer to, other than the endless, tedious media descriptions of Sudoku as “a mental workout” or “mental gymnastics”. (Hm, that gives me another idea … team rhythmic sudoku … oh never mind.)
posted by Derek on 8-1-2006 at 5:12 pm
Man, this stuff about the World Series of Poker/Darts and Soccer not being sports is killing me. It’s like, who watchs that stuff anyway? Haha. You guys should be comedians or something.
My idea for a sport would be Extreme Relay Racing. Xtreme Relay Racing is also acceptable. It has to be extreme though. Teams of ten compete in elaborate relay races involving, but not limited to, events like pie-eating, puzzle-solving, clock-making, ring-tossing, and running. The races could be designed differently every time, and anyone at home can play along if they like as well. A good time had by all, and every race can be ended by smashing a pinata (which can be integrated into the race or not).
posted by Brad on 8-2-2006 at 1:36 am
My brother and I had a game when we where kids that we called air. You take two bean bags and put one of the players head between them. The other player has to lie on top of the bean bags/head to stop the air supply. When the player between the bean bags give up he taps the other player submission wrestling style to give up. Then you change position to see if you can beat the first time. Your not allowed to move when your between the bags. If you faint you loose. Simple and fun for all ages you might want to avoid combining it with drinking.
posted by Jonas on 8-2-2006 at 3:49 am
Here you go, taken from Wikipedia:
Kush Lash is a simple backyard sport that includes a Nerf football and a hammock. It’s grown into a favorite past time for many college students. The goal is to throw the football at the hammock from 30 yards away to collect points. Hitting the hammock is one point, bouncing the football into the hammock is three points, and landing the football in the hammock is five points. Players can take turns alternating throws or have multiple sets with multiple throws so long as each player has had an equal number of throws. The standard is three rounds with three throws each. Also, whoever gets the announcer his or her first beer, goes first.
Kush Lash as introduced by College University: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/321964
posted by Pat on 8-2-2006 at 11:23 am
For many years I use to go to a local bar in Coconut Grove, Fla. on Thursday nights to play “Businessman Bowling”. The requirement is that you be dressed in business attire. Empty beer bottles are placed on the floor at the end the bar in the same number and configuration as bowling pins. You the run toward the “pins”, dive and curl up into a bowling ball and see who knows down the most pins. This game is even better after happy hour martinis.
posted by Peter O'Connell on 8-2-2006 at 2:05 pm
Here’s a soon-to-be popular stupid sport of ‘jello dodgeball’.
Rules
Give each team 4-5 boxes of Jello. (each team gets a different flavor).
Have each team fill balloons with the jello mix (be creative to find ‘just’ the right way to fill the balloons.)
Put the balloon batches in the refrigerator (or freezer if you just can’t wait) and let the jello set up.
When the jello is ready…. play ‘dodgeball’!.
If there are several teams you can even set up a tournament.
To win the game… be the team who has the last person standing without jello on his/her head (or body).
*** Cheerleader jello wrestling is optional ***
posted by Tim Rodgers on 8-3-2006 at 9:52 am
I was recently reading about the ancient sport of Cuju (an old Chinese that evolved from being pretty much like soccer in it’s earlier form and then in the tang dynasty became a game in wich two teams are divided by a large net, that is several metres tall. On top of the net is a cicular goal about one third of a metre in diameter in which the two teams try to place the ball in only using their feet.) and thought it sounded like it would be a lot of fun, and since my friends and I have been playing a lot of soccer since we diagnosed with world cup fever I talked them into walking over to the basketball court. We devolped a new game we started calling soccer/basketball, but now call broken nose (which will be obvious after the explination).
You have two teams of anywhere up to six on each team. It plays like soccer where you can not use your hands except for one member of each team stands by each baketball hoop and acts as a goalie and can not step past the three point line. There is also another player on each team that can not cross half court and can use his hands only when he is in the paint. Points work,
1 for hitting the backboard past half court,
2 for getting it in the basket past half court
3 for hitting the backboard behind half court
4 for getting it in the basked behind half court and
8 points from getting a basket anywhere inside the three point line around the other teams goal.
We call it broken nose because we have a feeling someone is going to break their nose from a ball getting kicked in their face.
posted by David on 8-3-2006 at 2:56 pm
World Macrame Competition.
First Round - contestants must show knowlege of knot tying -List of knots is given to follow.
Second Round - contestants must recreate a model project with no written instructions.
Final Round - Freestyle macrame (originality counts - must use preapproved knotting materials).
*In all rounds points are awarded for least amount of mistakes and fastest time.
posted by Lauren on 8-4-2006 at 9:13 am
After several beers on a rather hot and steamy Memorial Day this year, we combined the great sports of Croquet and Bocce into one rousing game of Bocquet. You use the basic rules of each game except bocce balls can send croquet balls and vice versa. Players also became added obstacles. It may not seem like a sport per se, but it is. Oh, it is, my friends.
posted by Cari on 8-4-2006 at 10:54 am
Full contact knifesports. The winner keeps the knives, while the loser forfeits a bit of blood. Kind of like poker, only without bidding and with the possibility of losing a kidney. Makes you think twice about bluffing, huh?
posted by Andrew on 5-22-2007 at 1:40 am