Hooping!

November 11, 2010 5:23 AM

Can a hula hoop make you cool? Philo Hagen of hooping.org makes a visual arguement for yes.

Just a little confection that I ran across yesterday and am surprised you astute MeFites haven't posted yet. This is my first post which I hope entertains you as much as I have been entertained and enlightened by MeFi posts over the years.

posted by kthanksbai (38 comments total)

That's one hoopy frood alright.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:25 AM on November 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

If by "cool" you mean "an erratically gyrating, flailing idiot with a brightly colored plastic hoop rattling around her ankles" then yes, Mister, a hula hoop can make me cool.
posted by louche mustachio at 5:29 AM on November 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Good find. Thanks for posting, kthanksbai.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:30 AM on November 11, 2010

Stop throwing your clothes all over my city!
posted by elmer benson at 5:32 AM on November 11, 2010

Aw, that was great. I couldn't do any of that when I was six, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it now. Also, Philo's a friend - hi, Philo!
posted by rtha at 5:36 AM on November 11, 2010

Oh, sure, it looks great, and then you wind up like me, in a very small apartment.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:38 AM on November 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

You know. For kids.
posted by avoision at 6:00 AM on November 11, 2010 [9 favorites]

I don't see what all the hoopla is about.
posted by ghharr at 6:02 AM on November 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I was expecting something more like this, though it's not exactly a hula hoop.
posted by williampratt at 6:04 AM on November 11, 2010 [5 favorites]

Can a hula hoop make you cool?

yep, cool as hell.
posted by rog at 6:12 AM on November 11, 2010 [5 favorites]

Way cool, williampratt!
posted by kthanksbai at 6:13 AM on November 11, 2010

Are there still people in the world that non-ironically wear sock garters?
posted by penduluum at 6:41 AM on November 11, 2010

Wow, that shot in the tunnel at the end is gorgeous...
posted by Axle at 6:45 AM on November 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

That's what she said.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:46 AM on November 11, 2010

A hula hoop can only make you cool if you make your own hula hoop.

For those of you doubting your hoopability, put down the $2 one you got at Toys-R-Us, as an adult you need a bigger, heavier hoop. Really, really try this! making a hula hoop is simple and cheap; using them is great exercise.
posted by whatzit at 7:02 AM on November 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Yeah! So glad to see this here, big love for hooping, Philo, and hooping.org!

Self-link to the blue: previously on MeFi
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:07 AM on November 11, 2010

Are we to assume that at 1:15 or so into the video that the first lady with a hoop is hit by a bus?
posted by drezdn at 7:10 AM on November 11, 2010

And anyone named Philo is awesome.
posted by drezdn at 7:11 AM on November 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

My favourite hula hoop video: That Old Pair of Jeans - Fatboy Slim - Dir: Steve Glashier
posted by DanCall at 7:30 AM on November 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

Last year we made ten or eleven hula hoops out of Pex tubing (per instructions in Family Fun magazine, I think) for the local elementary school. The store-bought ones they had there kinked immediately, but the phys. ed. teacher said kids loved to use them anyway.

Our local Lowe's donated the 100' of tubing and some junctions, and threw in four rolls of fluorescent-colored 3M electrical tape that we spiral-wrapped on to make the black hoops look AWESOME when the kids used them. I'd be happy to dig up the URL if anyone wants. It took an hour or so, and the kids are stil using them.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:42 AM on November 11, 2010

I'll just leave this here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFCZKNsP5PY
posted by Jaymzifer at 7:45 AM on November 11, 2010

A Hula Hoop can make you a (more) interesting and (more) fun person. But I think I'm operating with a more restrictive definition of the word "cool" than the poster.

It has a meaning! It isn't just a synonym for "good" "commendable" or "desirable." There are cool things that are also shitty. Like cigarettes.
posted by keratacon at 7:49 AM on November 11, 2010

Are there still people in the world that non-ironically wear sock garters?

::checks calves::

yyyyyyup.
posted by FatherDagon at 8:08 AM on November 11, 2010 [4 favorites]

That was fun. I also loved that near-underwater shot in the tunnel at the end with the advancing headlights reflecting off the curved roof. Pure unexpected gorgeousness, although I was a little distracted by memories of this.

The hula-hooper does not get struck by a car at this time.
posted by maudlin at 8:36 AM on November 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Pure unexpected gorgeousness

I thought so too, although internally I was screaming "Philo! Watch out! Get out of the road!"
posted by rtha at 8:47 AM on November 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

this dude is 30 times cooler.
posted by binturong at 8:47 AM on November 11, 2010

I can't stop moving my hips when I watch people hooping. It's less embarrassing than when I watch people having sex on TV.
posted by hanoixan at 8:54 AM on November 11, 2010 [2 favorites]

yep, cool as hell.
posted by rog at 2:12 PM on November 11

Dammit, I was going to link that!
posted by Decani at 9:35 AM on November 11, 2010

After spending a year working with this dude, I am pretty much ruined for other hula hoop acts.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 9:50 AM on November 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best thing about hoola hooping (poor quality but still...pretty funny)
posted by stormpooper at 9:54 AM on November 11, 2010

drezdn: "And anyone named Philo is awesome"

I will vouch for the awesomeness of Philo.

Here's the Curbed LA take on the video
posted by gingerbeer at 12:16 PM on November 11, 2010

Not related (and NSFW language): Hooped!
posted by Evilspork at 1:07 PM on November 11, 2010

As someone who's done a smidge of hooping and has friends who are more serious about it than I currently am, I'm really impressed by that guy. Some of his moves look hard as hell to someone who's tried a few of them. He may not look cool to everybody, but apart from his impressive sang-froid about stripping and dancing around downtown LA in his underwear, exhibiting his middle-aged pasty poochy tummy, he looks pretty damned awesome to me.

Thanks for posting this; it made my day better.
posted by immlass at 2:41 PM on November 11, 2010

I was riding my bike across LA with some friends recently, and while we stopped for a breather at the apex of a bridge across the river east of downtown a dude with a hula hoop rode up going in the other direction. mandymanwasregistered and speicus knew him, I think, but he smiled at us and hopped off his bike and started hula-hooping right there in the middle of the road. It was awesome, and groovy, and totally cool.

klangklangston got a pic, and it makes me smile every time.
posted by carsonb at 4:17 PM on November 11, 2010

I've seen 'em hanging around Harvard or Central Square at events, looks like a cult to me. When the truth comes out, you'll all be shocked at what goes on inside the "inner hoop".
posted by sammyo at 7:24 PM on November 11, 2010

That's between me and my doctor, sammyo
posted by Hoopo at 7:55 PM on November 11, 2010

I recently spent a weekend up at Hornings Hideout when SCI did a 4-night stand. From my vantage point managing the beer tent on the lip of the amphitheater bowl, I saw some brilliant hooping going on, including this one chick wearing a sarong as a skirt who hooped in this endlessly graceful legato arc in front of my bar for like an hour. HUBBA²

Favorite move is the one the dude in the video first does in front of the Guadalajara Jewelers, the parralell-to-the-ground-hoop-from-head-to-toe-&-back-up. Reminds me of a teleporter beam or something. I half expect the hooper to disappear after pulling that move.

My signature move I learned that weekend? "Air hoop".

It was a great time, and as someone who works festival beer tents, the cheesies as a group were some of the best-behaved, please-&-thank-you customers I've served beer to.

Great post!
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:26 PM on November 11, 2010

Speaking of Mat Plendl (BuddhaInABucket's "this dude") I just found this awesome and hilarious video from Johnny Carson in 1986. Wait for the part at the end where somebody hands him a huge hoop.
posted by Secretariat at 10:30 PM on November 11, 2010