It's Madness, I Tell Yah! Madness!
March 19, 2014 12:03 AM   Subscribe

Bored with basketball but want some Tournament action in your March-to-Early April? MentalFloss.com has collected* a list of (More Than) 11 OTHER March Madness Tournaments, covering books, music, TV, webcomics, various flavors of sci-fi and fantasy, plus bunny slippers, hot dog toppings, the (previously here) WORST Company in America and MORE!

Absent from the list is the perennial Name of the Year competition, which due to organizational disorganization got moved to later in the year in 2013 and is expected to do the same this year.

*compiled by the lovely, talented and pseudonymous Miss Cellania, who has used Metafilter as a source in much of her blogging, so I decided to return the flavor.
posted by oneswellfoop (34 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Just be sure, whatever you do, don't call your 3rd-month-of-the-year single elimination bracket-style tournament "March Madness", because that might lead to trouble.
posted by hippybear at 2:18 AM on March 19, 2014


I've decided not to make a bracket and join the pool this year. I'm just going to walk around and hand out a dollar to each of my coworkers. It's just as well, I had Mount Saint Mary's going to the Final Four.
posted by Rob Rockets at 3:19 AM on March 19, 2014


Here's a Fruit & Veg (& Herb) bracket. Surprised myself with a seaweed/potato final, but inevitably potato won because chips (fries).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:25 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Here's a Fruit & Veg (& Herb) bracket.

My god that was painful. With, I think, four exceptions, every one I eliminated felt like a terrible personal loss.
It came down to Apple v Green Bean & Potato v Bell Pepper (red) / Apple v Potato / Potato.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:42 AM on March 19, 2014


No one should ever be forced to choose between carrots and mushrooms.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:43 AM on March 19, 2014


Beet eliminated in the first round, too. AUGH.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:44 AM on March 19, 2014


Is this what it feels like when you care about a Sports Team?
posted by Wolfdog at 4:46 AM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


Not even sure I want to follow the Consumerist one again, especially as we can expect a repeat of the rationalizations for why EA should be in the running, let alone win.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:50 AM on March 19, 2014


A Condiment Madness where meat sauce and celery salt are not invited to play is rigged. Chicagoans are probably wondering where their tomato is at, too.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:54 AM on March 19, 2014


This is just heartbreak organized in powers of two.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:55 AM on March 19, 2014


Absent from the list is the perennial Name of the Year competition, which due to organizational disorganization got moved to later in the year in 2013 and is expected to do the same this year.

According to Twitter,
Name of the Year ‏@NOTYtourney Feb 28
The bracket is set and will arrive around ncaa tourney time. We've expanded to 65 names with the first ever NOTY play-in game.
So it should be immininent. ::cross fingers::
posted by Foosnark at 5:12 AM on March 19, 2014


Putting Onion vs Potato in the first round was awful. The answer is obviously onion and potato. My Final Four was Watermelon, Sweet Potato, Collard Greens, Bell Pepper (red) or "Holy shit man, you really are from the South."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:17 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Not the place to talk about heavy heavy monster sounds?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:23 AM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


Avocado vs. garlic in the final is the worst. Can't we just get along and make beautiful guacamole?
posted by uncleozzy at 5:30 AM on March 19, 2014


Round 1 voting is now open in L.A. Taco's Taco Madness 2014.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:36 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Jezebel's Drugs Vs. Alcohol bracket is a thing.

(If you're not sick of basketball yet, by the way, you might want to sign up for MeFinal Four Pick 'Em.)
posted by box at 5:42 AM on March 19, 2014


I've actually gone to the trouble to set up a "What If This Were Football" and a "What If This Were Academics" pool for this year's tournament, if anyone is interested.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:48 AM on March 19, 2014


Artichoke v. Avocado in the first round? Did they even try to properly seed this Fruit & Veg bracket?
posted by Area Man at 6:13 AM on March 19, 2014


They seeded it alphabetically because they wanted to keep the seeding arbitrary. Why you'd want to keep seeding in a bracket arbitrary, I haven't the foggiest.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:19 AM on March 19, 2014


I like to try and tell myself that I have a sophisticated palate, but when I end up with lettuce v cucumber in the Green Veg Regional Finals, I know I am just fooling myself.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:21 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Vegetables don't have seeds, if it has seeds it's a fruit.
Wait, what were we talking about again?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:36 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


My final four was avocado, lime, garlic and cilantro. I think I subconsciously wanted to make sure the final four was something you could make a delicious snack out of...
posted by aka burlap at 6:45 AM on March 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


You've got to be pretty conversant with evangelical (and post-evangelical) culture to catch all the references, but my favorite is this March Madness bracket from American Jesus.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:49 AM on March 19, 2014


I'm not really feeling the bracket love this year. io9 has a decent ultimate franchise bracket tourney, but can't get past the popularity contest aspect of it. And it's a chain of 67 consecutive two choice polls. I'm also scarred by past experiences, like a few years of a muppet bracket where the runners didn't seed anything, and arranged everything on attribute based groupings like whether they came from Fraggle Rock or Sesame Street. Great for exposure, but missing the point entirely.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:45 AM on March 19, 2014


God I never hear about that stupid ComicMix bracket thing until after it's already started and they never add Decrypting Rita to their mega list for next year when I drop the link. Not that I have a teeming horde of devoted fans that are used to being urged to go stuff ballot boxes for me anyway.
posted by egypturnash at 8:06 AM on March 19, 2014


I can't believe how hard I found some of those choices. I laughed out loud at my own discomfort!

But ultimately it was what I knew it would be: Potato over Apple in the Final, potato takes home the trophy (which I hope is four feet tall and features a chromed garden spade).
posted by wenestvedt at 8:38 AM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


Not a tournament but a motorcycle adventure rally: March Moto Madness. It's usually cold and damp, there are no showers or hot running water except in the kitchen, and this year about 300 riders will show up to ride, tell tall tales, sit around the campfire and eat like kings.

That's me at the 0:17 mark of the video. *waves*
posted by workerant at 8:49 AM on March 19, 2014


the trophy (which I hope is four feet tall and features a chromed garden spade).

Actually first prize is I eat you.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:23 AM on March 19, 2014


The Nic Cage bracket is diabolical (I happened to catch Drive Angry on TV a few weeks ago and it reignited my love for Nic Cage; he is just so goddamn perfect in that glorious mess, which has probably the best shootout ever filmed).
posted by uncleozzy at 11:24 AM on March 19, 2014


Please never tell my wife that I picked The Rock over National Treasure.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:35 AM on March 19, 2014


This is the only Madness recognized in our house.
posted by Lou Stuells at 3:46 PM on March 19, 2014


Of course, Disney's doing a pseudo-tourney... but it's not for characters, it's for Theme Park Attractions. I'm Old Skool, so I'm all in for the Matterhorn Snowmen.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:49 PM on March 19, 2014


Don't forget the Tournament of Bad!
posted by SisterHavana at 2:26 PM on March 20, 2014


This list was constructed with the help of Metafilter.

And the circle is complete (and has begun consuming itself).
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:34 AM on March 21, 2014 [2 favorites]


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