July 13, 2010

Is Jousting the Next Extreme Sport?
posted by homunculus 14 years ago
  • Jousting was an extreme sport 600 years ago. Just shows how far backward some people want to go. What's next, throwing people to the lions? (I know it'd be a hit in Cleveland if it includes LeBron)
  • Why don't they just do Extreme Hitting Over The Head With Sledgehammers and leave the horses out of it? “I want to see another guy get paralyzed,” a boy in front of me squealed, waving a toy sword. Brilliant parenting, I'm sure.
  • Little boys were obviously squealing things like that the first time Jousting was popular. Which is one reason I think DEVO is absolutely right about its Devolution thing. Human progress has gone into reverse in my lifetime, and it's the saddest thing I have to deal with every day. The Middle Ages or Founding Fathers Times are absolutely NOT worth "returning to", but if civilization peaked sometime in the 1960s, we are indeed doomed.
  • You're mistaking technical achievement for human progress. Trouble now is, we're so technically interconnected and reliant, we're one computer virus/hack away from complete meltdown.
  • I had heard that they used draft horses for this because armor is so heavy. But is that what we see here?
  • The original tournament horse was about the size and weight of today's average horse. The knights were shorter and weighed less (poorer diet, more exercise) and the armor wasn't as fancy. Tournaments were pageantry as well as tests of skill. As usual in the horse world, everything moves from utilitarian to affectation. Pretty soon you have the knightly equivalent to the drugstore cowboy. He's lookin' good, but don't depend on him in a fight. The more flags you have, the shinier the armor, the bigger the horse, the better the display. Pageantry takes precedence over skill. Most of today's jousting is WWW on horseback. There's super information here.