Flew On The Pitch And We're 'Aving A Laugh
May 31, 2014 11:30 AM   Subscribe

Yesterday, during the pre-World Cup friendly between England and Peru being played at Wembley Stadium, there were three goals scored, but the moment that captured the most attention has been this unbelievable, incredible paper airplane toss.
posted by BeerFilter (24 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
That was delightful for reasons which are difficult to articulate but which I nevertheless feel quite strongly.
posted by elizardbits at 11:38 AM on May 31, 2014 [10 favorites]


Yeah, being in a crowd like that when something such as this occurs is completely life-affirming in an indescribable way.
posted by nevercalm at 11:39 AM on May 31, 2014 [2 favorites]


Adventure, tension, jeopardy, release and eventual emotional satisfaction. A++ would YouTube again.
posted by jaduncan at 11:40 AM on May 31, 2014 [5 favorites]


I saw that on BBC News today and the newsreader was having such a hard time not bursting into laughter, especially when it hit the Peruvian footballer. Sadly, because it was BBC and not ITV, they couldn't get clips of the close-up footage that the Youtube video has.

The only reason I'm not standing up and applauding is that it means now at every large event, there will be douchebags making really shitty paper airplanes and throwing them very badly. And then stadiums will start digging through bags to remove all paper, and everything will suck.
posted by Katemonkey at 11:47 AM on May 31, 2014 [16 favorites]


I hope that the ground crews have to develop anti-paper-aircraft slingshot technology. The fans will respond with zeppelins. Remote controlled helicopters will soon follow. Before long, the air above all major sporting events will be awash in aerial combat. People will stop watching the games. New events based on air combat will be staged to great success.

Until one day, a young bored fan in the cheap seats down at the base of the stadium wads together a bunch of paper into a ball and kicks it out onto the field...
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:53 AM on May 31, 2014 [56 favorites]


I would love to try this the next time I am at a (American, college) football game! Unfortunately, some people take throwing paper airplanes in stadiums quite seriously.
posted by TedW at 12:04 PM on May 31, 2014


Fake?
posted by colie at 12:09 PM on May 31, 2014


Not fake. Watched the match live on television, it wasn't caught by the camera, but the commentator mentioned it, something like "a paper plane just got the biggest cheer of the night ..".
posted by wilko at 12:17 PM on May 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


This is my favourite bit of football crowd fist-raising.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:20 PM on May 31, 2014 [11 favorites]


Then there's always Jason Puncheon doing what he wants.
posted by BeerFilter at 12:35 PM on May 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


The difficulty with being the launcher would be knowing that your life had peaked.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:32 PM on May 31, 2014 [9 favorites]


> The difficulty with being the launcher would be knowing that your life had peaked.

Nonsense. History will note this event as the beginning of the balsa age.
posted by davelog at 1:39 PM on May 31, 2014


Yeah, being in a crowd like that when something such as this occurs is completely life-affirming in an indescribable way.

Right up there with leaving the house.
posted by phaedon at 2:54 PM on May 31, 2014


They went off afterwards and had a nice cup of tea whilst discussing how to put a payload on the next one.
posted by arcticseal at 3:45 PM on May 31, 2014


I thew a plane into the air,
Where it lands I know not where,
But maybe in a player's hair.
posted by eriko at 4:09 PM on May 31, 2014 [9 favorites]


Drones everywhere.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 5:29 PM on May 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Airplane thrower earned that Hogwarts letter. Whew.
posted by town of cats at 8:24 PM on May 31, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh man, once I was strong-armed into going to this terrible match between retired Real Madrid players and retired Bayern Munich players (called, like, Legends or something?). In the second half, after Bayern had scored three own goals, people started throwing paper airplanes. Hundreds of paper airplanes, then thousands. It was amazing, totally worth the ticket price.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 12:34 AM on June 1, 2014 [1 favorite]


"The UAVs, man. They're flyin' 'em over football matches to watch the fans."
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 1:56 AM on June 1, 2014


The only reason I'm not standing up and applauding is that it means now at every large event, there will be douchebags making really shitty paper airplanes and throwing them very badly.

I think you can safely stand and applaud. If the douchebags' making and throwing skills are as deficient as you say, none of their planes are likely to make it onto the field, and the attraction will quickly wane.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:01 AM on June 1, 2014


These two small children on the pitch at half time in a Dublin club GAA match is also a classic.
posted by kersplunk at 4:11 AM on June 1, 2014 [2 favorites]


Back in the day I worked in Union Square in SF and there was an abandoned office on the top floor of a corner building overlooking the square. A co-worked and I discovered in a desk an entire package of balloons. During downtime we would blow them up and release them across the square to see what would happen. The sunlight warmed the air inside enough to give them lift and the wind down the streets gave them direction. There were little joys like when a man picked up one up of the balloons and handed it to a child, or when a balloon drifted into a flock of pigeons and pop, scattered them up and away. But the ultimate dream, the longshot, the one thing we knew would never happen but secretly wished for every time, was the sculpture in the middle of the square. The wreath is just big enough for a balloon. Every so often we got within maybe 30 or 40 yards.

But then one day, and I don't remember if it was his or mine, one of the balloons started drifting gently across the square. Really slow and lazy-like, headed straight for the sculpture. Every second the tension was just ratcheting up, this was going to be the one in a million shot through the wreath. We were laughing and yelling at the balloon as it got closer, closer. Watching that paper airplane video and see the reaction, I remembered the moment so well. We started jumping up and down and screaming 'GO GO GO!' and it was just pure hope. Adrenaline even, for what seemed like an eternity. At the very last second the balloon bounced off the side of the spear and kept on floating. The agony and comedy was too much and we both had our hands on our heads in disbelief. It was beautiful. We watched the balloon float all the way across the rest of the square and up and away over Chinatown towards North Beach. It just kept going until it was out of sight in the sky.

Several people came into the office wondering just what the hell was going on, and there was no way to even explain it. Just pure hope and joy in the face of the universe. Such a beautiful shared moment that I got to live again watching that paper airplane. Thanks for posting!
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 7:16 AM on June 1, 2014 [9 favorites]


Paperman is what this reminded me of.
posted by chavenet at 8:14 AM on June 1, 2014


This is my favourite bit of football crowd fist-raising.

Oh Jesus, that's adorable.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:30 AM on June 2, 2014


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