A question of sport.

[davywavy]

Something which I find irritating - amongst the many, many things I find irritating, like people who stop suddenly in front of me on the pavement, and people who look surprised and start fumbling for their wallet when asked to pay for something when they've just watched the cashier ring up their purchases - is a particular piece of intellectual snobbery which manifests itself as "I am clever, and so I do not like sport", or in its smugger incarnation, "I do not like sport, and so I am clever."

It tends to appear most when there's some sort of large football tournament on. The commentosphere is suddenly crammed with people pointing out how they don't care about this silly game, how the pubs are suddenly crammed with stupid people, and how the telly is going to be crammed to the gills with coverage for the next whole week or so and that's wrong because they personally are not interested*. Well, the telly is going to be crammed with people generally being faster, stronger and higher than me and you for a few weeks and I've seen a certain amount of 'ugh, sports' commentary out there, and, just for the record - not finding all this to your tastes doesn't make you clever. It just makes you someone who doesn't find sport very interesting. Which is fine, but don't pretend it's something that it's not.

Now, I've been guilty in the past of thinking that because something is popular then it can't be any good. I remember when I was but young I avoided watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure for several years because an ex-girlfriend and her friends were big fans of it and so therefore it couldn't be any good. But, y'know, that sort of thinking is quite childish and insular - it means you miss out on stuff, and variety is the spice of life and all that vajazzle.

The London Olympics, bluntly, was a bloody stupid idea - an act of political hubris by a discredited political movement which will only pay for itself through a sheer luck, hard work and Boris if it happens at all. However, I see the Olympics as being like shooting penguins - nobody wants to do it, but if you've got to do it you may as well enjoy it.

I wonder if those medals are made of real gold? That'd get me off the couch and no mistake.

*Because clever people need the television, you see

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

As you'll remember, the only Mayoral candidate (out of about eight) who opposed London's Olympic application back in 2004 was the representative for the BNP.

I'm sure all your commentosphere friends voted for him.

H

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Nah, they were all still suckered by Blair at that point.

[moomin-puffin.livejournal.com]

I love your posts, I love Bill and Ted and we are going to the Olympics, yayyyyy! :)

[vampyrefate.livejournal.com]

The only sport I enjoy is Professional Wrestling, and most people think that it isn't a real sport. But I digress. I think the commentosphere people are kinda like me, we got picked last for everything that involved running, jumping, climbing trees, cos we had no skill for it, thus didn't enjoy it, didn't bother practicing to get better, and thus had no skill for it. We then feel the need to strike back for our schooldays, by leaning over the edge of ivory towers and pouring scorn on the people that picked us last despite not knowing how to do simultaneous equations. A lot of us also regularly comment on, "the state of the country", because it's run by people that have won popularity contests, which is basically being picked first for something.

My objection, so much as I have one, to Olympics, World Cups, Euro Xs etc is that I don't like being told that, "I should enjoy / embrace / worship" said event. I also object to when they impact on my life - such as needing a police escort to go and do the shopping when Wednesday are playing United (see the Mitchell and Web "it's all football" sketch). I don't really have any issues with people wanting to be into sport, or watching it, any more than I do with people that are into astronomy say. It's just that I seem to encounter less evangelism about the night sky. In the case of the Olympics the evangelism seemed to start (seriously) around christmas. Where did all these athletics fans come from?

The Winter Olympics, on the other hand, get no hype at all in the UK, and I really quite enjoy watching them!

The torch passed through the part at the bottom of my road. (like 100 meters from my door). They timed it for 5.30pm, meaning that half the city was trying to park their cars where I live as I was coming home from work. I came home early, Em parked her car so badly that I still had room to park once I was back, and then headed off to look at the flame. I'm glad I saw it, it's historic, chances are I won't see another in my lifetime.

For the next fortnight I'll be mostly doing what I normally do, maybe watching 5 minutes of Olympic "action" if it happens to be on whilst I am channel hopping. Em is looking forward to seeing the sports she enjoys watching anyway, mostly Boxing, Wrestling, Martial Arts and Weight Lifting.

[will-sample.livejournal.com]

Vajazzle is something quite different, and quite spectacular.

As for Gold Medals, IIRC, they're silver with a gold plating. So really, they're 2nd place + finishes.

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Well, it is the finish that matters in many of the events...

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Hrm - when I was at school, one of the PE sessions could be avoided due to timetabling clashes if you were studying a second language. To be /able/ to study a second language, you had to be in the top set for French, for which you were assessed during 1st year (year 11)...

...I wonder if that was particular to my school, or whether 'stuck running round in the rain' == 'wasn't able to describe the weather in foreign lingo' was a common timetabling approach, and leads to the intellectual snobbery in adults?