My cup runneth over ... How bout you and yours?

June 25, 2006 2:51 AM

The Da Vinci CupThink of it as a gathering of tribes... There's a lot of ritual involved. It's probably the biggest single unifying event that our species can muster. Forget the Olympics. Not even close. Poor poor China. Keeping the romans entertained since BC.
posted by Unregistered User (11 comments total)

Well, crap preview farted on me and I didn't think this went through, as I got an error message ; sorry about the typos. Carry on.

Keeping the New Romans entertained since 1839.
posted by Unregistered User at 2:58 AM on June 25, 2006

Is this a poorly written ad for a joke TV series, or just a poorly written joke TV series?
posted by b1tr0t at 3:09 AM on June 25, 2006

I have officially now seen every profession as a reality show concept. If only Mario and Luigi were there. They have this thing in Germany every year that's sort of like the world cup/olympics of catering. Anyone know a link to that show?
posted by parmanparman at 5:02 AM on June 25, 2006

Anyone know a link to that show?

Nothing like this, I hope.
posted by tapeguy at 5:28 AM on June 25, 2006

Sagan had a lot to say about sports in his Billions and Billions publication. I could care less about sports myself, however, I'm very capable of aggression without it, for the record.

Personally, I view sports as an opiate for the masses more than a tool for stirring up the locals.

I consider the historical references where blood is employed as a satiating device against social unrest.

[Today, instead of the Colosseum, we have the pathetically watered down UFC on payperview..]

And then there's that Mayan spectator sport where the participants are killed if the ball touches the ground that would make good pop Fox TV.

not saying all sports have the same effects, but I tend to side with Sagan to a large degree about the social function of sports that harness the 'us against them' meme, in that accumulated aggression is channeled against an external body, which is 'healthy' for the community itself. The Lucifer Principle has much to say about this as well.

It was the height of the Vietnam War chaos in 1971 when football was put on primetime TV as ABC's Monday Night Football.

Besides ritualizing the values and mechanisms of war, this gave men something else to talk about.

Eating up bandwith while reinforcing the needs of the National inSecurity State which has been working hard since WWI to convince Americans that war is permanent, not obsolete.

And now sports is all most men talk about.
Many times I've asked strangers if they've heard of Fallujah and most haven't.

So Fallujah will happen over and over with a new crop of sports- watching young men pulling the trigger against 'the other team.'

I know a former stand-up comic who said the most dead room of glassy-eyed drunks could be roused by starting out with "How about those (insert local team here)?"

The Pat Tillman story with his head literally blown off by 'friendly fire' is the reality that the 'Chicken Little' win-the-big-game-make-daddy-proud
propaganda hides.

let's face it, sport at a National level is jingoism at it's best, so why not combine sophomoronic pop culture of holy grail in service to Big Foam Finger-ism. Not mention purple thumbs...

I mean hell, why not, even Hollywood is getting on side in the War On Terror

They recently transformed an industrial block in downtown LA into a busy Baghdad square, filled with fruit stands, shoe repair shops and rug dealers. At least 60 extras dressed in hijabs, kaffiyehs and polyester-wool blend slacks were herded onto the set to simulate an average shopping day. . . . . Onlookers were later asked to stand back as the pyrotechnic crew blew up a poor old Yugo [Rmemember Poland!]* coupe and stunt men and women, padded under their Arab garb, were thrust into the air with ropes and pulleys to simulate the impact of a bomb exploding.

I'm remined of the story--can't seem to find it-- of WWII or was it WWI -- the stopping of the war on Christmas day to play sports games by both sides long enough to play;then back to killing eachother...


Pop culture meets sports meets War.

Alas, there may be some hope, at the last Orioles game, Dick Cheney was booed when he threw out the first pitch.


*Spoken with a tex-ass drawl
posted by Unregistered User at 6:28 AM on June 25, 2006

Okay.... it's kind of late in the weekend and all, so there's a very good chance I'm missing something, but you do realise that "The Da Vinci Cup" is a comedy series (a spin-off from a show satirising ethnic sterotypes in Australia), don't you, Unregistered User? I'm not being snarky at all - I was just...er... interested to see your comment above about a (self-consciously, intentionally) "stupid" television show commissioned to run before Monday Night World Cup games in Australia.
posted by bunglin jones at 7:00 AM on June 25, 2006

I am interestingly confused by this thread.
posted by mediareport at 7:07 AM on June 25, 2006

GYOFB
posted by briank at 8:09 AM on June 25, 2006

Personally, I view sports as an opiate for the masses more than a tool for stirring up the locals.

Would you pipe down already? England-Ecuador is on the TV.
posted by dw at 8:32 AM on June 25, 2006

Because of our well-earned unpopularity, the US is looking at an indefinite future where the hand of every international fan, and more significantly, every international referee is turned against us in every competition.

It will be interesting to see if the US Olympic movement can survive this.
posted by jamjam at 10:18 AM on June 25, 2006

Unregistered User - The story you are thinking of is told in the wonderful movie Joyeux Noel.

The soldiers don't go back to killing one another after they play football. They are all transferred to more dangerous areas of the battlefield as punishment for fraternizing with the enemy.
posted by sp dinsmoor at 10:21 AM on June 25, 2006