Stupid is as Stupid Does

When you cross the land, you may stumble across some weird and stupid stuff. These weird things are often times turned into competitions by bored individuals. Heck ESPN writer Rick Reilly even wrote a whole book about them.

If you want to be the stupidest of them all, you should be in Spain right now…not to be part of the World Cup finals experience, which would be unbelievable, not stupid – but to take part in the running of the bulls.

What was once a simple act of transporting the bulls to the market, became a competition between the men to move the cattle faster. They would use tactics of fear and excitement to get the bulls move quicker. This developed into a race to beat the bulls to their pens and attracted more attention developing into the spectacle on the streets of Pamplona that we witness today.

Not only is there no sense in running away from the bulls, how many of us can really pull off the all white look?

If you to argue about which other sports can be in the mix about being the dumbest, you have to include the following couple, but I think they all come in after the running of the bulls because it is the only one where you can leave with a hole in your body.

Cheese-rolling event on Cooper's Hill in Gloucester
The event where they begin by rolling a wheel of cheese down a hill and then have everyone chase it, often tumbling head over heels to be the first one down and claim the cheese as your own. Unfortunately for youtube viewers everywhere the 183 year history of this event ended in March because, get this – it was unsafe.

Wife Carrying
Popularized in Scandanavia where the wives are sometimes just as big as the men that are carrying them, this “sport” has grown in popularity for some reason. Competitors throw their WAGs on their back and carry them through an cross-country course consisting of obstacles that they must climb or water they need to wade through. The winner of the race is often awarded beer equivalent to his wife’s weight.

Competitive Eating
How this became a sport is beyond me. I enjoy eating, but that is mainly because I like the taste of food, I savour it, enjoying every bite, mmmm food. I don’t enjoy the sight of people stuffing themselves with food to the point of being sick. YOU ARE WASTING A GOOD HOT DOG! Give me competitions about food that involve the best of “insert tasty food”. The organizers and participants should be ashamed for contributing to obesity. By the way my personal best for hot dog eating is 13 (in one hour) and the other personal food best is 10 McDonald’s cheeseburgers, 1 fries and 1 McFlurry in one sitting.


Have you participated in any stupid sports? What are your competitive eating personal bests?