The most idiotic sport or "sport"?

[LBJDemocrat]

I'm reading Scott Ritter's article "Why Cheney Really Is That Bad", and he refers to Coulter's/Limbaugh's target demographic as being fans of NASCAR and professional wrestling.

What do you think's the most idiotic sport?

I'd have to say professional wrestling, if you can call it a sport. I can't understand how someone can enjoy blatantly fake fighting with bad acting. And if the sort of people who watch it also are fans of Coulter and Limbaugh, it's ironic that people who hate homosexuals also like watching steroid-pumped, half-naked men grab each other while lubed up or sweating.

[Redneck Socialist]

1. LOL! It's pretty early in the the day for this sort of thing don't cha think?

:popcorn:

You're about to find out that there are a ton of wrestling fans on this board. Prepare to meet the People's Elbow!

[1gobluedem]

2. Poker

I agree on the wrestling thing but at least it's a sport in the physical sense. Poker is not a sport and should not be televised on a sports channel.

[LBJDemocrat]

6. That's hilarious

On the sports channel? Wow. I didn't know.

[1gobluedem]

13. It's on ESPN2 ALL THE TIME

They might as well show a quilting bee for all the 'action' it generates.

[AllegroRondo]

20. to be fair, ESPN2 also showed Scrabble

and the national spelling bee.

[1gobluedem]

22. Neither of those is a sport either

In my opinion.

[AllegroRondo]

25. yup, ESPN2's record for "sports" isnt that hot

[Twillig]

64. Do note that Entertainment comes before Sports in ESPN n/t

[1gobluedem]

79. Duly noted

But watching people play poker is hardly entertaining. At least in my book.

[Mike Daniels]

41. I second "Poker"

If ESPN2 is that hard up to fill air time they can at least start showing Australian Rules Football and the CFL again.

[Dukkha]

67. oh I hate all those "Texas Hold-em" shows!

if it's that popular with the Maxim crowd you know it's gotta be bad. it epitomizes how lazy Americans have become.

[pokerfan]

73. Can it be on an entertainment channel?

as in the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network?

Is the National Spelling Bee a sport? Why is it on ESPN?

This thread is toxic because everyone is probably a fan of something.

I would wager that there is only one thing we can agree on: Dog fighting is not a fucking sport!

[Zavulon]

3. I don't consider "professional" wrestling a "sport," so

I'll vote for just about any so-called "extreme" sport. There's nothing extreme or interesting about any of them.

[LBJDemocrat]

4. I used to BMX

It was extreme enough to break each of my arms and to warrant an ambulance on another occasion.

[Zavulon]

9. I don't even know what that is...

...is it stunt bike riding?

I've broken 29 bones on my life, 20 of them playing football. Any sport can be "extreme" if it involves a possibility of full-tilt contact with another person or object.

[eyepaddle]

11. It's all whose ox is getting gored I suppose,

Pro Wrestling dropped the pretext that it wasn't fake about ten or fifteen years ago I think. I haven't watched in a couple of years but I used to find the over-the-top silliness hysterical. I viewed it like watching a play--just an incredibly bombastic and machismo soaked one.

As for extreme sports, I whitewater kayak and I've been wrecked a few times in "extremely" touchy and dangerous situations, so I'm with you--they certainly can be extreme! I do tend to avoid hanging around with the "Mountain Dew" athlete-types though.

[skygazer]

5. Bashing other people's hobbies and entertainment

That strikes me as the stupidest sport of all.

[LBJDemocrat]

7. To each one's own. nt

[flvegan]

8. I enjoy pro wrestling.

Jury is still out on the intellectual thought, though.

I don't see it as a sport, as it's not a competition. It's an athletic soap opera, so to speak.

Most idiotic sport, to answer the question? I'll assume you only mean the ones in which people compete, which eliminates dog racing or any of the animal fighting "sports"

Personally, I don't like gratuitous violence between people that's real. I dislike boxing and hate that Ultimate Fighting stuff. I understand the draw, and I don't dislike those that like it, I just don't care for it myself.

[eyepaddle]

12. Well put flv!

The only caveat I'd offer is the animal fighting "sports" are the most idiotic (I know you're fully on board with that sentiment) but I never even think about them, but when you bring it up I can't help but think they are the most idiotic, and repellent as well.

[seemunkee]

10. My daughter like pro wrestling

She's gone to a few shows up in Philly and has a great time. Thanks for insulting her.

[LBJDemocrat]

14. Sorry

I edited my post to make it less offensive.

[Burma Jones]

15. Professional Wrestling is great theatre

A series of morality plays and a presentation of what its fans wish the world were like. But a sport? No.

I used to get a lot of crap from College roommates 20 years ago when I would get "caught" watching Wrestling. After awhile, they came around....

For idiocy, I would say that the way we treat politics has become a supremely stupid "sport" with only two teams playing and with many people giving more attention to whether they like the Red Sox or the Yankees.....

[redqueen]

16. NASCAR!

UGH! Drivin around in a frickin circle.

:wtf:

[southpaw]

42. A friend once said...

that if he felt the need to watch a bunch of red-necks driving in circles, he could go and watch the WAL-MART parking lot on a busy night.

[redqueen]

46. *snort!*

:rofl:

[skygazer]

48. I tease my SO when he watches NASCAR

I tell him it's just watching people go around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and I keep it up as long as I can or before he goes absolutely crazy and chases me out of the room. :rofl:

[redqueen]

51. heheheheheheheh

ah, ain't love grand :)

[Deep13]

17. competition eating nt

[RebelOne]

18. Hunting. That is, if you want to call it a sport.

It is only a sport if both sides are equally equipped. And the animals don't even know there is a game going on.

[madinmaryland]

23. Hunting is NOT a sport. Unless you have no weapons and have

to catch the creature with your bare hands!

[Dangerously Amused]

30. Seconded.

With the caveat that in order to be considered a "sport" (in flvegan's definition, also mine) human interaction has to be involved.


Yeah. Let's set up a salt lick or decoy or whatever to bait the animals, because we're too lazy/impatient/clumsy/uneducated/lame to sneak up on it ourselves. Then we'll sit downwind of it, and cover our scent with a masking agent. Which isn't cheating, don'tchaknow, because the good lord gave man the intelligence to invent masking agents. We'll hide our visual presence in a manufactured camouflaged blind, because we're too lazy to go to the effort of making our own out of natural materials, and we're too spoiled to have to find a really good hiding spot which might be, you know, uncomfortable after awhile given our beer guts and tender white asses. Then we'll kill the animal using powerful weapons with scopes and laser sights or whatnot, because lord knows we're not anywhere close to being fit or skilled or smart enough to kill them with weapons we made ourselves. Then we'll use our ATV to drag the carcass to the car. Then we'll pay someone else to do the dirty work of gutting and skinning and processing it, because that part is messy and (secretly) kind of gross. Then we'll go out to the bars and thump our chests in a masturbatory display of machismo.

Yeah, real level playing field there. Great "sport."

[Oeditpus Rex]

43. ...

:applause:

:loveya:

[Dangerously Amused]

45. ...

:* :* :*

[flvegan]

52. Gawd, but that was beautiful.

Sometimes, they hang parts of the animal in a den to prove they done it, too. Helps with "nice rack" jokes.

[blockhead]

59. wow. is this broad enough?

[Dangerously Amused]

65. Maybe, maybe not.

I live in a state where there are a LOT of hunters, and over the years I have known quite a few of them. All of the hunters that I have known either fit that description, or would if they could (ie might not have an ATV or a laser sight, for example, but sure wished they did). So from MY experience, yes, the description was pretty accurate.

NOW, I'm sure there are hunters who respect the animal and level the playing field to hunt as, say, the Native Americans did. I really have no quarrel with that. It's just that, sadly, I have never met even a single hunter with that level of integrity.

Your mileage may vary.

[blockhead]

66. hmmm....

I also live in a state where there are a LOT of hunters. All of the hunters that I know(me included), don't fit that insulting discription.

[TheMightyFavog]

68. You do know that the use of laser sights while hunting is prohibited in most states?

I know for a fact it's prohibited in Wisconsin.

[Dangerously Amused]

74. Yep, I did know that.

It's also illegal to shine deer, to hunt/carry a firearm while intoxicated, and to hunt outside of scheduled hunting hours, among other things. Kind of like it's illegal to drive in excess of the posted limit, and to smoke pot. Laws don't prevent people from doing things, they only provide a penalty for those who get caught. Which, let's face it, is a very small percentage of those doing it.

[TheMightyFavog]

31. Ummm...

"And the animals don't even know there is a game going on."

:rant:

Ummm... You obviously never have gone deer hunting in Wisconsin.

Once the weather turns cold, and the deer hear the popping sounds, the deer know that they have to bed down when the sun comes up.

Quite seriously, you could walk past a deer bedded down not 10 feet away from you during the gun deer season and not know it. When I used to hunt, it happened to me a few times.

I always hunted from the ground, I didn't do the tree stand thing because the gun I used was a .44 magnum carbine. This pistol caliber meant that the ideal range for me was about 25-50 meters, as opposed to most rifle calibers, where you could easily take shots at ranges from 150-200 meters.

By the way, even though in all the times I ever went hunting, I never brought in anything. The only things I ever hit were a few trees. (Sure, they's have impressive racks, but you'd need a chainsaw to field dress them. :p) Besides, I was taught by my family that you do not kill and animal unless you intend to eat it.

And for the record, even though I do not hunt anymore due to a nervous breakdown I had years ago (I still don't think I can trust myself with a gun.) I support hunting. They keep wildlife population levels steady (especailly in Wisconsin, where the Deer's natural preadators were driven out a long time ago) and make our roads safer. (People have been injured and even killed in car-deer accidents.) Plus, they serve as a big source of income for tens of thousands of small mom-and-pop buisnesses here in Wisconsin. (If it weren't for deer season, many of these buisnesses would have to close their doors.)

[RebelOne]

34. Excuse me, but I know quite a bit about hunting in Wisconsin.

I am a copy-editor for 10 state outdoors magazine and Wisconsin is one of them. And the majority of the stories I read are not about meat hunting trophy hunting. The meat is just a byproduct. Sure the deer smarten up during hunting season, but they are still not equally armed as the hunter is. So that is why it is not a "sport."

[mainegreen]

40. Funny, most of the hunters I know eat their catches.

Deer, Turkey, Moose, Fish.

Eat them. Sure if it has a big rack, why not mount it. But the hunters don't eat their catch thing is total BS.

(In fact all the hunters I know eat their catch and/or distribute their catches to family/friends)

[benEzra]

58. It is my impression that ordinary hunters don't write for outdoors magazines...

professional hunting writers do, who may have different priorities and/or focus.

Every hunter I know eats what they shoot, which IMHO is no less moral and probably more humane than buying hot dogs, hamburger, and chicken at the grocery store. The head is not considered edible, so there are a lot of deer heads on walls, but all the edible meat is consumed.

I personally don't hunt (most gun owners don't), but I have nothing against it, and I may try it someday; deer are very plentiful here in eastern NC.

[alarimer]

57. I agree with you

Although I have issues with the way they hunt deer here in Texas, with corn feeders and stands set up at those feeders. Seems unsporting to me to bait them in and then kill them without having to do much of anything. But I have no idea if that is because of the terrain (more brush country than forest) or what.

[hyphenate]

63. Hunting for population management is one thing

Trophy hunting is another thing altogether. That's disgusting and completely repulsive. That's the main thing I don't understand--why is it so important to hang a fucking head on the wall? We've long gone past the point in our evolution where we need to kill an animal for survival purposes.

One of the most horrendous practices I know is where the "hunter" uses dogs to tree an animal (usually a mountain lion) and the "hunter" comes up and shoots the animal point blank in the tree. What the fuck is that? Anyone who condones that kind of behavior deserves to be the cougar's next meal.

[Left Is Write]

19. Extreme Fighting.

[pokerfan]

75. Are you referring to MMA fighting?

Mixed martial arts? Ultimate fighting?

I like it a helluva lot better than I like boxing where the gloves and the rounds are designed to prolong the punishment.

I'm not a fan when it's just two brawlers knocking the crap out of each other, but when it's two skilled ground fighters, think Jiu Jitsu, i.e. submission fighting, I see a an elegance and even a beauty to the sport.

[edbermac]

21. Curling

:boring:

[Lautremont]

47. A rebuttal in video form:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKgRDLTrhGQ

Just happened to see this. It makes curling seem a little more exciting.

[jgraz]

70. bush is an assmunch.

Actually I posted in the wrong spot, but why waste the post?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

69. But it combines the thrill of shuffleboard with the excitement of sweeping.

;)

[begin_within]

24. Boxing.

Give me straw wrapper blowing any day.

[kay1864]

36. Straw-wrapper blowing ROCKS!

The way they go for accuracy, or form, or both.

It's a crime, a damn CRIME, that SWB is not in the Olympics. At least the WSWBF is a legitimate organization, with letterhead and everything.

One day, one day... :bounce:













:rofl:

[RedCappedBandit]

26. "pro" wrestling is so utterly worthless..

I think the same of nascar.

[unpossibles]

27. golf, although I don't consider it a sport

any game you can play while drinking is not a sport.

[Fleshdancer]

56. I tell people golf isn't a sport unless there's a windmill involved

:D

[Crabby Appleton]

62. yep, you gotta time your shot just right . nt

[dropkickpa]

61. I beg to differ!

Slosh-ball is a sport where drinking is integral!!
http://www.jacobin1.com/Sloshballorg.html

[cloudbase]

28. Dog fighting.

Take that, Marbury!

Edit: synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. Throw a shark in the pool, and then you'd have something.

[cynatnite]

29. Stupidest sport would be boxing and the like...

They do that fighting on TNN, I think. It's completely idiotic and very real. Prowrestling is a damn site better, IMO, because of the fact that it is NOT real. That other is and it's extremely dangerous.

[Mojambo]

72. If you're referencing MMA then I'd submit that statistically it is very safe

Much safer than both football and boxing.

[jobycom]

32. First you're talking about sports, then you bring up Stephen Seagal movies?

"I can't understand how someone can enjoy blatantly fake fighting with bad acting. And ... it's ironic that people like watching steroid-pumped, half-naked men grab each other while lubed up or sweating."

[Dukkha]

33. not a sport but the stupidest by far are monster truck shows

The movie Idiocraccy is an excellent commentary on dumbing down effect modern civilization is experiencing now and what society is heading to.

[DS1]

35. Truck Drag Racing

alternatively, anything with a jet engine

[IndianaJones]

37. billiards, darts, surfing. nt.

[Initech]

38. The professional Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament

http://www.usarps.com

[charlie and algernon]

50. I watched the "Championship" on ESPN last month. HILLARIOUS!

the best part was how the announcers were desperately trying to make it sound like the competitors had any skill.

[krispos42]

76. OMG, that's hilarious!

And they even have referees...




What does that referee tell his family?


"Mom! Mom! I got a job!"

"Oh, dear, that's wonderful! I told you that you could do better than delivering newspapers! Did Arby's hire you?"

"Even better! I'm a referee!"

"My goodness! My son is a referee! Goodness! What kind of sport? You love football, is it in football?"

"No, Mom, professional rock-paper-scissors!"

<long pause>

"You've been smoking crack again, haven't you?"

[seemunkee]

39. cup stacking

Not that it isn't a cool skill but that they are putting it in school PE programs is an abomination.

[BulletproofLandshark]

77. Seconded

I didn't know it was starting to make its way into PE programs though. What's next, replacing paper football for the real thing?

[Oeditpus Rex]

44. That would be the 'sport'

of calling other sports "idiotic."

[mitchum]

49. Hungry Hungry Hippos

c'mon...

[benEzra]

53. Dodge ball on ESPN8..."the Ocho"...

[ruiner4u]

54. If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball...

[THUNDER HANDS]

55. watching pro wrestlers who know how to perform

is like watching ballet, opera, a soap opera, and boxing/martial arts all mixed into one.

It's truley a great performance art, worthy of respect.

It's a shame it's really gone downhill in the last 6 or 7 years, but from 1997 to 2001, the WWF was about as entertaining as you can get. I used to love it.

[hyphenate]

60. Anything that glorifies

the abuse, killing or deaths of animals. And unfortunately, there are a lot of them.

That said, I must say that anything which integrates a lot of aggression is questionable to me as a "sport."

[jgraz]

71. Rochambeau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock%2C_Paper%2C_Scissors

[Dr. Strange]

80. Not as bad as Roshambo

roshambo

[SKKY]

78. Professional Bass Fishing...

...When I saw that, and heard the announcer call professional bass fishing "The next NASCAR.", I about shit myself.

[azmouse]

81. Anything that involves a skateboard.