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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2557 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 9, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Breakdancing (or "breaking" as they call it) is new to the Olympics this year. The Australian contestant is Rachell Gunn, AKA Raygun, a communications professor who specializes in "the cultural politics of breaking". Lets see how she does.

How the hell did this happen?

Japan winning a gold medal in breakdancing is somehow more hilarious than breakdancing in olympics.

For clarification:

  • Canada won the men's competition.
  • Japan won the women's competition.

What's so hilarious about that? The English invented football and there's like a dozen countries better than them at it. Why should African Americans be the best breakdancers?

A Japanese guy went to a stone skipping competition in the UK and won. Japanese people are really good at anything fun and quirky (quirky in a good way). They've got moxie!

There's also Kobiyashi, the competitive eater. It wasn't just natural talent and determination, he studied competitive eating and found out that he could eat more hot dog buns if they were dipped in water.

And in the 1920 Olympics (or some year, I forget) Japan won a bunch of swimming medals because they built a glass-bottomed pool and set up film cameras along the sides to analyze different swimming techniques. And they apparently made some discoveries which were adopted by everyone four years later.

Etcetera etcetera. I'm surprised you're surprised!

Kobiyashi is the Royce Gracie of hot dog eating.

Although he was later be eclipsed by greater champions, he totally revolutionized the sport. And for that reason, IMO, he is the GOAT.

In 2000, the record was 25 hot dogs. In 2001, Kobiyashi ate 50.

His reward for revolutionizing the sport was inadequate. He should get a two cent royalty every time someone dips a hot dog bun in water.

Edit: Have you seen this?

https://youtube.com/results?search_query=jake+and+amir+kobiyashi

Didn't they change the breaststroke rules because the Japanese found out a more efficient way to do it that wasn't spectator-friendly? Or was that something my swim coach made up/I made up my swim coach making up?

That's basically why the butterfly stroke exists. A handful of swimmers (none Japanese, as far as I can recall) in the 1930s independently figured out the dolphin kick as an improvement to the breaststroke, then someone combined it with the above-water recovery. This all technically fit within the official definitions of a breaststroke at the time and completely broke the meta of the sport. Within a couple years, the classic breastroke was completely obsolete and officials had to make butterfly its own separate event in order to save it.

Oh right, that was it! In '04 Kosuke Kitajima started adding butterfly kicks back into the breaststroke pull out, causing some controversy and rule changes.

I suppose this is as good a place to ask as any: Why do non-freestyle swimming races exist (also, race-walking)?

Is there a reason why people would want to use a slower swimming style in everyday life, or what?

Is there a reason why people would want to use a slower swimming style in everyday life, or what?

I prefer backstroke because I tend to panic when my nose goes underwater.

(As an aside, while I can swim the Australian crawl - which is the actual name of the stroke universally used in freestyle swimming competitions - I can't swim breaststroke with the frog-kick; the last time I tried, one of my knees popped out of joint and I had to be rescued.)

Is there a reason why people would want to use a slower swimming style in everyday life, or what?

The classic breast and side strokes are slow but efficient so you do see them used a fair bit in combined events like triathalons and by channel swimmers and the like. Butterfly and freestyle are faster but also have significant downsides when used outside a pool or closed course

It's mostly just the force of inertia now. There is literally no natural context in which one would choose to use the butterfly stroke as a means of locomotion. Breastroke, backstroke, and (the no longer used in competition) sidestroke actually have purposes though.

Breaststroke has the advantage of keeping your head mostly out of the water so you can be aware of your surroundings (especially important in open-water swimming). You also don't don't need goggles and aren't getting water in your ears.

Sidestroke is very slow, but very efficient for long-distance swimming. You're only actively working one side of your body at a time, so you can switch off and keep going for significantly longer than you would otherwise. It's probably a good idea for everyone to know the sidestroke because it can mean the difference between life and death if you ever find yourself stranded far from shore for any reason.

Backstroke allows you to swim backwards. Which I admit isn't super important. But I find that the ability to quickly change directions and move about freely while swimming makes me feel good and in control while in the water.

Butterfly exists because it's way faster than breaststroke, and originally technically fit within the rules for breastroke in competitions. It exists to exploit an olympic loophole from 80 years ago and serves no other purpose.

Good writeup. How do you learn new swimming techniques? I basically only know how to do a breaststroke while keeping my head above water the whole time, and doggy paddle.

Thanks. I learned while on the swim team in high school. I imagine most pools (and especially gyms with pools) offer adult swim lessons that can help you develop proper technique. If not, your local gym should be able to put you in touch with a personal trainer with swimming experience who can work with you.

My suspicion is that this was a literal troll. Supposedly a lot of people in the breakdancing community (and general dancing community) were unhappy about its inclusion in the olympics as they feel it goes against the counter culture roots of the performance and because it's more of an artistic endeavor than an athletic one.

I watched her performance live and it seemed like she did have technical skills but preferred to use a more artistic interpretive dance style. Her outfit was also a vibe in a way that she had to know about.

Could have been a protest.

This looked like Special Olympics.

I took a little look at this earlier:

Also here is a list of her academic output, as a PhD in breakdancing

Note that the finals (can't link to videos because the Olympics' insane copyright regime is working) with the better competitors were actually pretty good, I enjoyed watching them on a partly unironic level and the competition was quite good and compelling, and I look forward to watching the men's event tomorrow.

Reminds me of the "Art's not a competition" bit at the beginning of this

Hollywood Handbook:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=5WUEeKqUW6k

Gunn, R. & Marie, L., Jun 2023, In: Global Hip Hop Studies. 4, 1, p. 39-56 18 p.

We need a complete shutdown of academia until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

The Australian breaking scene and the Olympic Games: the possibilities and politics of sportification (Rachel Gunn 2023). Possible that her performance (and attire?) was some kind of protest. Shitpost dancing, if you will.

Meanwhile, This guy has become literally the greatest individual Olympian of all time.

This is Michael Jordan shooting Hitler in the face while the Wall falls levels of unreal.

But, yes.....Raygun.

Dude is just bigger than everyone.

he did not compete at all between his previous march to gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and this one.

"He has been here for many years, so it is very important to conserve his body," his coach Raul Trujillo told The Guardian.

The redditors were right to fear overtraining.

Not like he's going to meaningfully change his technique much at that age, especially when maximumweight Greco Roman isn't exactly the most sophisticated sport in the world (As somebody of similar size who does wrestle/grapple).

That clip got copyright struck, it seems.

Let me guess, it was really bad?

Very hard to find proper clips that aren't just thumbnail bait but this one is still up https://v.redd.it/hjcwvjomoqhd1

Thanks, I appreciate you finding that for me.

I just saw a snippet of this on reddit. It's unbelievable that there wasn't anyone in Australia better. Though one of the reddit comments makes a good point that most people who are good wouldn't pass the Olympics drug test.

EDIT: here's a news story with more context and videos (though all of the videos are also on twitter they're not down right now)

Australians are so fucking cringe man. For people with such a funny accent they are remarkably humorless.

Sending a joke athlete to a joke sport is pretty funny.

And not seeing the joke is particularly humorless.

This comic never ceases to be relevant.

That links to a post with a very unfunny photo, and a deleted comment.

Why does this happen every time someone posts an old.reddit link?

Anyway it was meant to bring you to this image: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/738/025/db0.jpg

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