8 Crazy Championships
Published on July 5, 2008 - 106 Comments
We have all heard of unusual championships such as caber tossing - but I am certain that almost no one will have heard of the six bizarre championships listed here. This is a great opportunity for us all to learn about other people’s interests, and to maybe consider entering ourselves next year!
In Trie-sur-baise, France, a pig squealing contest is held every year. The contest involves standing before a microphone and squealing like a pig. Besides the pig-squealing, there were awards in the Sunday competition for pigging out — this year’s winner ate nearly 4 feet of blood sausage in under five minutes. I am very pleased to be able to present a youtube clip from the contest - but unfortunately the person who added the clip to youtube doesn’t seem to want people to share it easily - so you must go to youtube to view it.
Every year in the small New Zealand town of Taihape, the residents and visitors have a gumboot throwing contest. The aim of the festival is to break the world record for the longest gumboot throw. It is a real fun family event, which includes a number of other competitions like the best-dressed gumboot and ‘shoot the loop’ with gumboots. Gumboots can also be tossed skyward on any day of the year in the official Gumboot throwing lane located in the ‘Outback’, just behind the main shopping centre. The festival takes place on “Gumboot Day”. There is even a kiwi folk song based on gumboots - it is called The Gumboot Song (and you can hear it in the clip above - being sung by New Zealand iconic performer Fred Dagg).
Air Guitar Championships started in Finland in 1996. In these championships the contestants pretend to play electric guitar solos. There are two rounds in this contest. In the first round, the participant chooses his or her favorite song and plays that song in the edited 60-second format. In the second round, the contestant has to play a song chosen by the organizers.
The Extreme Ironing World Championships started in Leicester, UK in 1997. This is an exciting and dangeous sport. Anyone who would like to participate should be ready for ironing a few items of laundry, preferably on a difficult climb of a mountainside, ice or under water. Anybody from any part of the world can participate.
The first World Beard and Moustache Championships took place in Höfen-Enz, Germany, in 1991. The contestants have long, highly-styled facial hair like moustache and beard. Last time these championships were held in Brighton, England in 2007. This time they will be held in Alaska on 23rd May, 2009.
The Wife Carrying Championship is held in Sonkajrvi, Finland every July. To enter this contest, every man must come with a wife (not necessarily his own) who is at least 17 years old and weighs at least 49 Kilograms. If she is less than 49 kilograms, he must add additional weights up to the prescribed weight. He must reach the destination by crossing sand, grass and asphalt. If he drops his wife, he loses 15 points. The winner is awarded with his wife’s weight in beer.
The World Pillow Championship is held in July in Kenwood, California. In this championship each contestant holds a wet feather pillow in one hand and slither along the slippery wet pole (suspended over a pit of mud) to the starting positions. There are certain rules in this contest: the contestants’ hands cannot touch the pole and they cannot use their feet to unseat their opponents. Each contestant must swing the pillow with one or both hands for every 30 seconds until they manage to topple their opponents into the mud.
The World Sauna Championship takes place in Heinola, Finland every August. This championship was started in 1999. The competitors must sit in a 110° sauna and half a liter of water is added every 30 seconds. They must sit erect with their thighs and buttocks on the seat. They cannot touch any surface with their hands and forearms have to be in an upright position and must stay on their knees. The person who sits longest is the winner.
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1. ciunas - July 5th, 2008 at 3:38 am
Very good!
How about the v strange annual cheese-rolling event in Gloucestershire?
http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_rolling
2. Ashyja - July 5th, 2008 at 4:04 am
This site is broken…
3. jfrater - July 5th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Ashyja - why is it broken? It is working fine for me
4. TrilithonOfKutulu - July 5th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Whoa man…this list is broken or something!
5. Tempyra - July 5th, 2008 at 4:31 am
The sidebar is below the comment box and the background is the wrong shade of blue after #6, the writing is the wrong font and extends across the page. That’s what I’m seeing anyway (FF 3.0).
Interesting list :-D. I’ve actually been to one of these places! There’s a photo somewhere of me standing by that corrugated iron gumboot!
6. Tempyra - July 5th, 2008 at 4:32 am
I think it’s the video for #6 that is causing the problem I’m seeing
7. TrilithonOfKutulu - July 5th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Tempyra: I think you may be right. For me that video is where the ‘Latest Lists, Recent Comments etc.’ sidebar is, and the actual sidebar is in a huge column at the bottom of the page. And all the problems you mentioned before as well.
I saw a kick ass movie about the air guitar championships called ‘Air Guitar Nation’. THAT was cool.
8. Tempyra - July 5th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Oh and the latest lists section of the sidebar is out of order (unless it was intentional); this list is ‘older’ than the 4th of July list.
9. nick - July 5th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Messing up in Firefox 3.0. Working fine with IE Tab under Firefox 3.0, though.
10. stevenh - July 5th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Jamie:
The second ‘includes’ of #6, 5 4 3 1 are 404’s.
Also there is an advert that has an auto-refresh “http:||servedby.morningfalls.com”, just under the cafepress link that sometimes locks up the Phishing Filter (IE7)
11. seashell - July 5th, 2008 at 5:19 am
I’m not having the same troubles as the others, I just can’t veiw some of the pictures, specifically the second pics for each competition. Using IE. But other than that, very interesting. I’ve heard of similar pig squealing contests, and wife carrying contests here in the US. But I’ve never seen pics of either. Good job, jfrater. You always give me exactly what I expect, something I never knew before. I like dependable. I also like unpredictability, and I always get that, too. Thanks for being here!
12. Cyn - July 5th, 2008 at 5:21 am
i’ve made sure J knows of the page load issues. just keep in mind the time difference. it’ll be corrected as soon as he’s able to do so.
so thanks for ya’ll’s patience. meanwhile ..most of the list, pics and the rest of site seem fine enough to read, comment and oh yeah…check out some ads.
13. Phillies - July 5th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Confirming that I’m having the same problems as well. Firefox 3.0 browser too
Interesting list. The pig squealing video was hilarious. “These athletes train year round for this competition.” Athletes, HA
14. Diamond_Dragon - July 5th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Got a problem too with firefox 3 too.
Should I be worried as I live in Sweden, that 3 of these entries are from a neighbour country?
Are they contagious? Am I soon gonna start playing air guitar in a sauna after running around with my wife on my shoulder?
15. Harsha - July 5th, 2008 at 6:01 am
JF the new FF3 loads the page first and then the CSS components.I know that’s stupid. But,you need to tweak the CSS code a bit, I guess. Cheers! Nice List btw!
16. jfrater - July 5th, 2008 at 6:03 am
How is it now? I have made a number of changes
17. green - July 5th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Funny contests! I’d love to go witness some of these events… the sauna thing has to be dangerous! I wonder how many have passed out.
18. astraya - July 5th, 2008 at 6:08 am
I remember seeing a news report about a bird-calling competition in Australia. The event finishes with a massed kookaburra call.
I’ve had no problems using Safari for Mac, except that “crazy competitions” appears below “patriotic films” in the sidebar.
19. green - July 5th, 2008 at 6:08 am
page still looks “funny” unless the comments section is supposed to be striped white and blue
20. Harsha - July 5th, 2008 at 6:09 am
What I meant is the CSS code is loading only partially…
21. green - July 5th, 2008 at 6:09 am
and it says the list was posted on July 2?
22. jfrater - July 5th, 2008 at 6:15 am
okay! Try that - it appears to be a youtube problem - I think I have fixed it.
23. stevenh - July 5th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Yes, much better.
But that auto-refresh advert has got to go!
24. jfrater - July 5th, 2008 at 6:22 am
stevenh: hmm - where is the auto-refresh ad?
25. stevenh - July 5th, 2008 at 6:39 am
i think it’s gone now
… it was in an iframe just below the cafepress advert
26. SocialButterfly - July 5th, 2008 at 7:21 am
OMG! I am sooo entering the pillow fighting contest! That would be so much fun…
27. Mikko - July 5th, 2008 at 7:27 am
YYEEEAAH Finland! No the sauna is not dangerous, or of course at some point many may throw up, I think. We have also gumboot and cellphone throwing here.
28. Ghidoran - July 5th, 2008 at 7:39 am
You say 6 entries inthe intro, but there are 8!
29. adrian - July 5th, 2008 at 7:41 am
wow! nice list… it’s just that you didn’t include the cellphone throwing contest in finland. that one’s really cool!
30. elianara - July 5th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Another crazy event held in Finland is the Swamp Soccer World Championships http://www.swampsoccer.fi/index.php?c_la=en
31. Liisa - July 5th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Oh yeah! We Finns can get a little crazy about our saunas… but it really is a healthy thing.
32. Vera Lynn - July 5th, 2008 at 8:02 am
Wow. I don’t get any of the techno stuff. This is a language that I completely don’t get.
#10 stevenh Huh??
Fun list. I remember the moustache guys from an earlier list. Too bizarre. Would never kiss these men. Well maybe on their forehead, if they were my dad or something.
33. Vera Lynn - July 5th, 2008 at 8:31 am
#7 The Gumboot Throwing Festival
In some odd way, this picture reminds me of “The Wicker Man”
34. WarningDontReadThis - July 5th, 2008 at 8:47 am
hehe, very funny list
I would love to see nr 2 live.
35. chiku - July 5th, 2008 at 8:51 am
No Punkin Chuckin?
http://www.punkinchunkin.com/main.htm
36. segue - July 5th, 2008 at 8:56 am
lol!
What some people won’t think up for a few laughs a moments worth of fame.
All in good fun.
Wonderful list, something just for giggles for a change. I truly believe we all need a mental vacation now and again, so thank you for a good time!
37. infallibleangel - July 5th, 2008 at 9:03 am
hahaha. Very good list!
Oh, I love the Finnish.
However, check this one out: It is the “Trenary Outhouse Races” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-BoeFI8k0w
This is one from where I grew up (Finnish immigrants settled there… coincidence?)
38. Phillies - July 5th, 2008 at 9:06 am
All better now, thanks!
39. infallibleangel - July 5th, 2008 at 9:07 am
P.S.
This festival takes place in Upper Michigan (U.P.).
40. Spanner in the works - July 5th, 2008 at 9:29 am
I love it. Thanks.
There’s one of these in England, the west of England, I think (I really ought to know being a Brit: probably someone from New Guinea will put me straight) where people launch themselves down a really steep hill with no idea but to be the first to get to the bottom. Doesn’t matter how or in what shape. This is so famous it gets shown on our prime-time public-channel TV news every season where we live in South America .
33. Vera.
‘The Wicker Man’ is great. I saw it very early on British TV, and am not sure it mightn’t have been premiered there before general release. Edward Woodward is splendid. Perhaps his pinnacle performance was ‘”Breaker” Morant’. I believe that’s in the 1000 films to see before you die, and if it ain’t it ought to be. You just need to be prepared: it will leave you emotionally drained like a wrung-out dish-rag afterwards. And it won’t have you cheering for the British Empire. In its way it’s a kind of black converse to ‘Zulu’ .
41. stevenh - July 5th, 2008 at 9:35 am
re: 32. Vera Lynn, Sorry. A geek thing
42. Spanner in the works - July 5th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I suppose my following comes under ‘closely related items’, but does anyone remember those TV shows where the public had to compete against one another in incredibly comical and inventive pratfall contests? Like dressing up in a huge fat roly-poly foam plastic body suit and try to be first up a slope of marbles (I just made that up, but it’s the style). It went international in Europe under the name ‘Jeux dand Frontiers’ I believe, and the Japanese did a version that closely resembled medieval torture. Maybe its still around. I’m not sure whether the Brits invented it, but the original version there was a total hoot. The two commentators could hardly do the show, they just continually corpsing, and sometimes paralyzed. They must have both died of apoplexy eventually.
43. Spanner in the works - July 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Jeux sans Frontiers
44. jconrad - July 5th, 2008 at 10:25 am
is number 8 Richard Kuklinski in one of his good moods
45. schiesl - July 5th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I love how the beard people are really dirty, haha. “My wife does me every morning” and the “size does matter” comment. priceless. I loved the Bridge beard
46. Polly Odyssey - July 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am
What? No mention of the “Dig to China with your ear” contest from Homestar Runner?
47. Mom424 - July 5th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Great list, just perfect for a Saturday morning. The music for the ironing video made me giggle.
Spanner in the Works; You are entirely correct about Breaker Morant. I haven’t seen it in years and can still remember the heart-wrenching feelings it inspired.
48. segue - July 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
****
40. Spanner in the works
…Edward Woodward is splendid. Perhaps his pinnacle performance was ‘”Breaker” Morant’…You just need to be prepared: it will leave you emotionally drained like a wrung-out dish-rag afterwards…
****
My God! That movie left me crying and shaking. I saw it years ago, when it first came out, and I can still remember the horror, the empty, hollow horror, of it.
Edward Woodward was perfection itself.
49. ObiterDicta - July 5th, 2008 at 11:28 am
In the video for the sauna one, at about 4:10 the person being interviewed claims that Finland is “not so good” in ice hockey. I quite strongly disagree! (and I’m not a Finn). Finland has produced some amazing hockey players, and Finnish hockey players are often held up to be a perfect blend of North American and European style of play. Finland is a terrific hockey nation, it is no coincidence that it was a finalist at both the 2004 World Cup and the 2006 Olympic Tournament!
50. Clantargh - July 5th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Fun list, looking forward to a sequel to this one
51. miralea - July 5th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I think they have a pig squealing contest in my home town. Awesome list, though it seems like there are lots of crazy championships out there.
52. kea718 - July 5th, 2008 at 11:58 am
so….what exactly is a gumboot?? and why am I the first person to ask that??
53. Nelia - July 5th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Very funny list. Though the sauna one seems a bit dangerous? I love a good sauna, but over exposure can sure cause a person to get heat stroke or something?
I love extreme ironing, hilarious. I would really like to see that cheese race from England if there is a sequel to this list. It is sort of awful and hilarious at the same time. People who run it seem to have little regard for their lives
54. goof_ball - July 5th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
those. are. CRAZY!
55. Taranis - July 5th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
The beard contest is amazing. On the last day of school in Chemistry my friends and I were looking at pictures from the offical website, it’s so bazaar what some of those dudes do. The dude who does the windmill, (in the video here he did the London Bridge) is awesome. And I need to get the gumboot song on my ipod. haha. Awesome list.
56. CK2005 - July 5th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
4 feet of blood sausage in 5 minutes? I think I’m going to puke…
57. Butterfish - July 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
No gurning?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DVDND_WIqJs
58. Shawn - July 5th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Chess Boxing World Championship 2008 in Berlin.
The basic idea in chessboxing is to combine the #1 thinking sport and the #1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors – both mentally and physically.
-Excerpt taken from the site below
www.wcbo.org
59. Cedestra - July 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I liked the wife-carrying contest the best. Why is it North American if it’s in Finland? Win her weight in beer- looks dangerous but fun. Best part is, at the end they all Finish! Get it? Finland, Finish…nevermind.
Okay, I need more people to help with the site’s birthday present. Please contact nerikasne@hotmail.com for more details.
60. jfrater - July 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Wow - people are quiet on this one!
61. jfrater - July 5th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
kea718: it is what the English call wellingtons - boots made of rubber.
62. Spanner in the works - July 5th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
61,
And invented by and named for the great Arthur Wellsley, Duke of Wellington and victor at Waterloo (battle, not station), of course. As also your Wellington, N.Z. (I checked to make sure.)
A list of the most famous things bearing their inventors’ names? Wellingtons, Hoovers, Sandwiches, Peach Melbas, Tornedos Rossini, Eccles cakes, by Eccles of The Goons (just kidding, that last. Ancient Brits like Prince Charles and me will get it.)
63. segue - July 5th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
****
#61. jfrater - July 5th, 2008
kea718: it is what the English call wellingtons - boots made of rubber.
****
I have always called them wellies. I didn’t know they were called gum boots!
64. jfrater - July 5th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Spanner in the works: indeed! You all do your homework I see
Oh - and your list of things named after the inventor is not quite right - Dame Nellie Melba didn’t invent peach melba 
segue: I think gumboot is an Aussie/Kiwi thing only - I am not aware of any English or Americans that know the term.
65. Spanner in the works - July 5th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Jfr.
Got you. Perhaps I should have put “bearing famous people’s names”. Life being the bitch it is, probably the Earl of Sandwich’s butler actually invented the two lumps of bread ‘n’ butter with the tasty bit in the middle.
We’ve always called ‘em wellies. But gumboots is perfectly familiar to me from my English yoof. I don’t know whether the two names were/are interchangeable, a matter of preference, regional, or something to do with U (posh) and non-U (dirt-common) useage, as like napkin and serviette.
66. segue - July 5th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
****
64. jfrater -
segue: I think gumboot is an Aussie/Kiwi thing only
****
Jamie, my Mum was an Aussie, and I lived there as a child. I never heard her call them anything, nor do I believe she ever owned a pair, but my Nana, and my Uncles certainly had them…I can picture them wearing them…so perhaps I recall “wellies” from that childhood memory.
Spanner. The U and non-U reference produced quite a laugh from me. Mum was always putting “on”, even though I had a fairly complete knowledge of her background, Da a diamond miner in Broken Hill, one of her brothers worked for an off-track bookie as a mental calculator, another as a postman, another off the dole as a drunkard, she thought she could fool me into thinking she was soooo very upper crust. It was sad.
On the plus side, it gives me plenty of material for stories.
67. Spanner in the works - July 5th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Jamie and segue,
(A quick break watching ‘Mujeres Infieles’ on the box during the commercials .)
I fear my COD (Concse Oxford Dictionary) edition is pretty ancient (1956), but it gives me:
Wellingtons: Boots coming up, or nearly up to the knees.
and
gum (inter alia): (pl.) rubber boots. That would be ‘gums’, but I must admit the only things I ever knew kiddie-wise as gums were those transulcent coloured sweets called wine gums. The boots definitely got called gum boots.
As a botanist I’m also thoroughly ashamed that I forgot another commemorative of the Iron Dook, Wellingtonia, the giant sequoia.
Never thought before either that England can lay claim to an Iron Duke and an Iron Lady. The Old Empire’s gorn rusty, dontcha know.
Do they need wellies in Oz, it never rains that much there does it? (On my bookshelf, ‘After the Greening: The Browning of Australia’). Just kidding. Tasmania and the North, plus La Niña years.
68. Spanner in the works - July 5th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Concse by name concise by nature.
69. MPW - July 5th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I like this list, very interesting competitions. I would try the pillow fighting and wife carrying contests but I don’t have a wife.
70. Vera Lynn - July 5th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
MPW Glad you wouldn’t do the moustache one. Kind of icky.
71. MPW - July 5th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
yeah, I would never do that or the pig squealing contest, too weird
72. ChaoticPython - July 5th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I had actually heard of the wife-carrying and extreme facial hair ones, but the pillow-fighting one sounds way cooler. That would be fun!
73. Vera Lynn - July 5th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
The pig squealing one reminds me of “Deliverance” I wouldn’t do it because of that association.
74. MPW - July 5th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Vera Lynn, I have a tiny little mustache, I wouldn’t stand a chance against those guys
75. Vera Lynn - July 5th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
MPW Good. Read my comment at #32. How are ya tonite?
76. MPW - July 5th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
But you’ll kiss me right?
77. Tomo - July 5th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Hey J, in the intro you say six championships but you actually list eight. Might wanna correct the intro para.
78. jhm - July 5th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
3 of theese are in finland…
79. Vera Lynn - July 6th, 2008 at 12:35 am
MPW Absolutely. No questions asked. No matter what. Forever.
80. juliane Elliott - July 6th, 2008 at 12:45 am
Wonderful list and a topic that will sure to get your many, many views!
81. whitewolf - July 6th, 2008 at 6:01 am
wow this is a really cool list, I definetly like the extreme ironing and the wife carrying
great list J.
82. CHAN LEE PENG - July 6th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Wow, this is a great piece!
83. segue - July 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am
****
#66. segue -
Jamie, my Mum was an Aussie, and I lived there as a child…my Nana, and my Uncles certainly had them…so perhaps I recall “wellies” from that childhood memory.
**
*They were worn for gardening, as I recall, not just as rain-boots.
**
Spanner. The U and non-U reference produced quite a laugh from me. Mum was always putting “on”, even though I had a fairly complete knowledge of her background, Da a diamond miner in Broken Hill…
**
*He was an Opal miner! How I got diamond out of opal is a mystery.
****
#67. Spanner in the works
****
I fear my COD (Concse Oxford Dictionary) edition is pretty ancient (1956), but it gives me:
**
COD I have always, but always, wanted an OED of *any* edition, concise or not, old or not. It’s just never been within the budget.
Sure, for some years I made good money working in the film industry, but I was the single mother of three, and spending that kind of money on myself would have been sinful…and anyway, I do have enough reference books to open my own “look-it-up” service, so all is not lost.
84. Cyn - July 6th, 2008 at 10:09 am
segue -
cleaned up a bit.
a reason to always reference comments by person not a number. sometimes the system hiccups.
85. segue - July 6th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
****
84. Cyn
a reason to always reference comments by person not a number. sometimes the system hiccups.
****
Which you I usually do… *THANK YOU!* for cleaning-up after me.
I’ve had some odd system hiccups earlier this a.m.
*even though I’m logged in I get all or (weirder) part of the Name, Email header
*parts of posts will be over printed, usually, though not always with the same post, and sometimes in a completely differently font…a very short, square font.
* other things I can’t think of now
86. Spanner in the works - July 6th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
segue,
Excuse me coming the cocky, clever-dick, know-all bastard yet again (doancha just hate ‘em?).
I can’t even claim responsibility, except I was a bit uneasy about Broken Hill and opals.
I did vaguely remember a quoted mining security called Broken Hill pty, though. I looked that up on the net (plus all the rest below) and found that in 2000 it changed name to BHP Ltd. Broken Hill constituted one of the world’s more significant sources of lead, zinc and silver ores. It’s still not exhausted.
When back in the U.K. I once watched a fascinating TV programme on Oz opal miners. They were individual hopefuls from all kinds of backgrounds, like the early gold prospectors. I seem to remember they spent most of their time in underground tunnels, a bit like mole-rats (but pretty, of course). I remembered the name of the small township as Coober Pedy, S. Australia too. What I did not know or realise was that Australia produces 97% of the world’s opals and there is a second major centre called Lightning Ridge in NSW.
I hope that maybe this could help to focus your family background. I know just how difficult it is trying to dig out the past. I became interested too late and have left it far too late to find out as much as I should like. The last aunt on my mother’s side died last month at 86, and the last aunt on my mother’s side is 93, lives in a fantastic care home, but doesn’t know pink elephants from sugar mice.
But maybe there is opal mining at Broken Hill too, on a scale not large enough to feature in reference sources. I wouldn’t dismiss that.
87. Cyn - July 6th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
segue -
i know you do. one of the rare and smart few.
as for anything to do w/ machines, computers, internets or human fingers…
if something can be mangled, go wrong or fail..it will at precisely the worst possible moment. such is life.
88. segue - July 6th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
#86. Spanner in the works
segue,
Excuse me coming the cocky, clever-dick, know-all bastard yet again (doancha just hate ‘em?).
****
You couldn’t if you tried.
Thank you for all of the additional information re: Broken Hill and the mining industry. I still have a tube of opal chips my Grand-Da brought out of the mine in Broken Hill.
Mum was born in 1913 and they moved to Sydney in 1923, so after that, I had no idea what had happened in BH, though I’m fairly certain there was family left behind.
It’s a funny thing, in a bizarre sort of way, but my Mums family, on both sides, were sent to Oz from Ireland by the Brits before it was anything more than a penal colony…so the family background pretty much stops dead at that point.
On my Dads side, the family has been in the U.S. since before the Revolutionary War…at which time the family record ( complete until then), just comes to a total halt.
89. Elsa - July 6th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I beleive the Spivey Corner Hollerin Contest merits this list.
http://www.time.com/time/magaz.....id=googlep
The winner went on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson each year. What a hoot..literally
90. DK - July 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
When I saw the name of the list I immediately thought of the Kenwood Pillow Fights, then thought, no, they are pretty small-time I think. So glad they made it on here! I live about 20 minutes away and have never been! They take place on 4th of July (U.S. Independance Day for any who don’t know), and I usually have other plans.
91. Arisma - July 7th, 2008 at 12:29 am
The craziest championship, to my mind, is the beard and mustache one. The rest are a few moments of embarrassing behavior, that one is a daily look. But then, I’ve never understood the need of some men to maintain such frilly facial pets.
92. sunny beach - July 7th, 2008 at 2:16 am
all those seem entertaining, but “extreme ironing” ?? The funny thing isn’t so much who conceives it but that there is actually a following!
93. Drogo - July 7th, 2008 at 3:46 am
I’m jealous of the beard guys. When I grow a full beard it looks like steel wool is glued to my face, and I can’t do anything with it. It’s curly like my chest hair, but the hair on my head is straight, fine, and light brown.
94. arvaamita - July 7th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I. LOVE. FINLAND.
95. Vera Lynn - July 7th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
#93 Drogo Don’t be. It’s just this side of dirty and icky. In fact, to go out on a limb here, most women think extensive facial hair is not attractive. Not “some facial hair” but “excessive facial hair” There is a difference, before you beat me up.
96. Mama-Kali - July 8th, 2008 at 7:01 am
And then there is (was) Dwarf Tossing, off course
97. cocololo - July 8th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
aw man my husband could have won the wife carrying contest… 6′3″, 280 pounds. and he would get 150 pounds in beer. huzzah!
that’s enough to motivate any man to do quite a slew of activites.
ah, the sauna sit off… i’d think the naked menfolk all about would be enough to make them bail. hmm.
ugh, and all america has is the pillow fighting contest??? how wussy!!! man, we need some better contests!
98. PillowPants - July 13th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
What about the Air Sex Championships, just think air guitar then substitute guitar for sex
99. Denzell - July 25th, 2008 at 5:51 am
What? No farting contests?
100. Nicosia - September 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
My best friend, Michelle, won the title of World Chicken Festival Clucker. It was awesome…
101. srtoothpaste - September 6th, 2008 at 6:57 am
We have complied a list of 141 awesome UK wacky events at www.wackynation.com. we have a guidebook out in October called Wacky Nation which details 50 of the best
102. javabean89 - October 2nd, 2008 at 11:58 am
There is also a wife carrying championship held every year at sugarloaf ski resort in maine. A very funny event i must say. Def want to give it a try
103. M Knight - October 4th, 2008 at 12:20 am
HELP!!!!!!
I am the chairman of our local carnival and was wanting to host the world rubber chicken chucking contest ,is this already done?
104. M Knight - October 4th, 2008 at 12:22 am
How about the world flounder tramping contest held in Palnackie ,Scotland.
105. masahira - October 19th, 2008 at 11:09 am
i agreed with author. thanksqz
106. Sam - October 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Aww, how could the gurning competition not be included?