King Pong

March 22, 2011 1:23 AM

12-Year-Old Pong Master.

Tricky Balls 2 | extra tricky balls 2 | Six Year-Old Ping Pong Prodigy

A little about beer pong | history of ping pong and links.

posted by nickyskye (50 comments total)

His house is cold and uninviting. There seems to be a lot of stuff, but an overall sense of silence in the home. You can hear the emptiness and the hollowness - the unspoken silence of a picture perfect but broken home - between each bounce. Even the small and disinterested cat, a Siamese I believe, known for their insistence on company, passes by uninvolved with this boy's life. I can see why he learned to master this.
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:03 AM on March 22, 2011 [11 favorites]

so THAT's where douchebags come from! now I know.
posted by mexican at 2:05 AM on March 22, 2011

And they said it would be hard to hit the weak point on the Death Star, just two meters across. The Force is strong in this one.
posted by chavenet at 2:20 AM on March 22, 2011

They gave it away here
posted by a non e mouse at 2:47 AM on March 22, 2011 [4 favorites]

That six-year old is dynamite, but then I see the very large bucket of balls and I think "Does his dad tape tennis rackets to his hands when he isn't playing ping-pong", and it's not so cool anymore.
posted by three blind mice at 3:07 AM on March 22, 2011

Or am I missing some kind of subtext here?

I don't think there's anything other than the ridiculous overdecorated suburban McMansion. Not his fault. And this is likely fake as a non e mouse points out. All he has to do is get close, and then stitch in the ball actually in the cup or falling into the cup from a short height, I'd guess.
posted by floam at 3:12 AM on March 22, 2011

Good spot by a non e mouse: it's digital trickery, and they haven't perfectly removed the actual missed shots. Presumably they do the actual on-target shot from close range, and superimpose it over the missed one.

I'd also be in favour of dialling back on the insulting, mocking or abusing of under-18s, however much of a fool they're making of themselves on YouTube. (I'm thinking of Rebecca Black and the bullied kid, not just this post). We're grown-ups, the kids are doing a perfectly adequate job of mocking each other without our help.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 3:19 AM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is that what we're doing now?

Flag it and move on.

Check out the six year old and the tricky ball shots. Those don't appear to be digital trickery.
posted by three blind mice at 3:20 AM on March 22, 2011

I wasn't observent enough to notice the trickery like a non e mouse did, but what made me pretty confident it must be fake was the, for the most part, lack of a reaction on his face when the ball went in. If this was real, each of those shots would take MANY tries to get right, and there would be jubilation. Unless he's just some sort of pong robot.
posted by floam at 3:33 AM on March 22, 2011

Even without digital editing, the secret behind these kinds of videos is the same secret that a lot of skateboarding videos use - keep shooting the same trick over and over again until you get the shot you want, then edit all the shots together. It would be a lot more impressive to see a continuous shot of someone sinking 50 impossible ping pong ball tosses in a row.
posted by loquacious at 3:33 AM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

loquacious: I'd say this would be pretty impressive even if each shot took 20 attempts. I took that for granted. It's at least not cheating, requiring a serious time dedication and sufficient obsession.
posted by floam at 3:38 AM on March 22, 2011

It's not actually done very well. Apart from the lack of reaction, as floam pointed out, you frequently see overturned cups right themselves, balls freeze while entering a cup, or balls even disappear once inside. It's rather a shame because some of these shots are very imaginative.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:43 AM on March 22, 2011

I feel cheated. The only thing this has in common with the Pong I wanted to see is the digitally generated ball.
posted by No-sword at 3:45 AM on March 22, 2011 [11 favorites]

Or am I missing some kind of subtext here?

It goes sort of like this (unfairly or no): Pong skills == beer pong == frat boy == date rape.

"Dude" is in there, somewhere, as is Jagermeister or Four Loko. And perhaps onions worn on he belt, as is the style. Basically, it's all about how young people suck. This may be true; I don't know because I am too old.
posted by clvrmnky at 3:48 AM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

so THAT's where douchebags come from! now I know.

From the space between your keyboard and your chair?
posted by Optamystic at 3:54 AM on March 22, 2011

What's that terrible music? It sounds like something desperately wanting to become "Smooth Criminal", but never quite getting there.
posted by Harry at 4:03 AM on March 22, 2011

They gave it away here

What am I supposed to be seeing in that moment you linked to?
posted by andoatnp at 4:10 AM on March 22, 2011

andoatnp: Just watch the ball there as it materializes in the cup. The transition isn't smooth at all.
posted by floam at 4:28 AM on March 22, 2011

As noted in the Jimmy Mac trick football tosser thread, defense and teamwork are what the make the draft pick. Spotting and throwing aren't enough to tell how this guy would cut it as a for a QB HB.
posted by Smart Dalek at 4:28 AM on March 22, 2011

I think we've been here before. Best explanation. It's amazing how often someone revives this meme and gets megaviews...
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 4:48 AM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

What the fuck is all this table tennis? I was expecting Pong.
posted by box at 4:49 AM on March 22, 2011 [6 favorites]

They gave it away here

I didn't even make it that far. Much much earlier in the video the ball actually changes color in flight.

Also, that kid is at least 14.
posted by DU at 4:51 AM on March 22, 2011

This is not beer pong. This is Beirut.

_{Nobody rages anymore...}
posted by Aizkolari at 4:53 AM on March 22, 2011

The six-year old is not trickery and doesn't belong in a beer-pong/digital trickery post. [/harrumph]
Here she is a year later.
posted by MtDewd at 5:29 AM on March 22, 2011

May one conclude that many suburban American children are not allowed shoes?
posted by Jode at 5:47 AM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

And they said it would be hard to hit the weak point on the Death Star, just two meters across.

It's not impossible. I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home, they're not much bigger than two meters.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:21 AM on March 22, 2011

His house is cold and uninviting. There seems to be a lot of stuff, but an overall sense of silence in the home. You can hear the emptiness and the hollowness - the unspoken silence of a picture perfect but broken home - between each bounce. Even the small and disinterested cat, a Siamese I believe, known for their insistence on company, passes by uninvolved with this boy's life. I can see why he learned to master this.

I'm sure you're right. Their lives are sad and empty because they have money.
posted by En0rm0 at 6:28 AM on March 22, 2011 [4 favorites]

I think this would've been a much better soundtrack for that vid
posted by Redhush at 6:47 AM on March 22, 2011

I'm sure you're right. Their lives are sad and empty because they have money too much time on their hands.
posted by alfanut at 6:50 AM on March 22, 2011

> Their lives are sad and empty because they have money too much time on their hands.

I propose that anyone who comments on a website that anyone else has too much time on their hands should get insta-banned.

I wish these were real, though. I loved how he never showed emotion when he got a trick shot in. Consummate perfectionists are never satisfied. Alas.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:22 AM on March 22, 2011 [3 favorites]

I assume this kid's video is fake, but here's a real table tennis ball video you might like.
posted by Tube at 7:46 AM on March 22, 2011

the music is really awful
posted by ReWayne at 8:10 AM on March 22, 2011

Tube: "I assume this kid's video is fake, but here's a real table tennis ball video you might like"

Fire and explosion does it for me every time.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:31 AM on March 22, 2011

> but here's a real table tennis ball video you might like.

Man, I had no idea that ping pong balls would just burn away completely like that.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:36 AM on March 22, 2011

The balls don't bounce naturally. The velocity is too even.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:42 AM on March 22, 2011

DU: Also, that kid is at least 14.

I think that DU's ability to so confidently and accurately distinguish between a 12 and 14 year old from a low quality video is as dubious as the video.
posted by ericost at 8:50 AM on March 22, 2011

Man, I had no idea that ping pong balls would just burn away completely like that.

From Wiki-"The main disadvantage the material had was that it was flammable..."
posted by MtDewd at 8:58 AM on March 22, 2011

His house is cold and uninviting. There seems to be a lot of stuff, but an overall sense of silence in the home. You can hear the emptiness and the hollowness - the unspoken silence of a picture perfect but broken home - between each bounce. Even the small and disinterested cat, a Siamese I believe, known for their insistence on company, passes by uninvolved with this boy's life. I can see why he learned to master this.

There's also the lack of wall-to-wall carpeting.
posted by philip-random at 9:17 AM on March 22, 2011

I keep expecting Blinky to be lurking in the background.
posted by bayani at 10:49 AM on March 22, 2011

You know the guy, in that skit, who looks bemused and then says, "Wait, I came in here for an argument!" And the other guy says, "No, you came in here for an argument."

I feel like that first guy. King Pong my ass Jet 600 shakehand paddle.
posted by Errant at 11:37 AM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

The video is in HD on the kid's Youtube channel. Here's the "materializing" moment. But I don't see it materializing, I see it bouncing off the edge before it falls in the cup. It looks more like it's materializing in the blurry video linked in this post. And where in the video does the ball change color? And I'm not seeing cups righting themselves or anything.
posted by zsazsa at 11:48 AM on March 22, 2011

Lol, nothing like a really unapproved of FPP. Oh well guys. My bad.

I don't see how it was faked and in my cyber naivete just oohed and ahhed at all those stunts. Guess I got suckered. But I enjoyed it while it lasted. :)
posted by nickyskye at 1:45 PM on March 22, 2011

"This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Slade Manning. Sorry about that."
posted by Sys Rq at 2:49 PM on March 22, 2011

I propose that anyone who comments on a website that anyone else has too much time on their hands should get insta-banned.

Wow, soo rry! I think time on websites like Meta is time well spent. Bouncing a ping pong ball into a cup, not so much. Here's an equally pointless activity for your edification
posted by Redhush at 2:54 PM on March 22, 2011

> Lol, nothing like a really unapproved of FPP. Oh well guys. My bad.

Ah, but the plus side is that we (I) learned that ping pong balls totally vaporize.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:57 PM on March 22, 2011

> Bouncing a ping pong ball into a cup, not so much.

One day, that skill might save a life. You never know!
posted by Burhanistan at 2:58 PM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

The kid in the vid, Slade Manning says, "The people in the video are actually 14 and 13 but I guess people think it's cooler if it was a 12 year old so whatever no problem or anything" and to the question, "were any of these actually real?"

His reply, "All of them, Slade366 1 hour ago"
posted by nickyskye at 5:03 PM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

I watched some other videos. It seems like the family hobby is throwing things at targets in challenging ways.
He's obviously extremely dedicated. Some of those shots probably took about 2-5 hours to get the good take.

It would be cool to see what his dedication could produce in music or sport.
posted by zephyr_words at 10:02 PM on March 22, 2011

Wow, went through the comments, he said that this shot took 14 hours to make.
posted by zephyr_words at 10:06 PM on March 22, 2011

I love it. Fake or real. It's damned well done.

But seriously, even if it's real, particularly if it's real, how dare this young man and his friends spend so much time perfecting meaningless yet astonshing tricks when they could be hanging out at 4chan calling each other newfags?
posted by philip-random at 11:31 PM on March 22, 2011 [1 favorite]