Can Someone Explain to Me When Baseball Bloopers are Funny?
- Updated: July 9, 2009
Let me start by saying my mood is poor right now. Late night. Botched dinner. Hungry and cranky. It’s bad without even factoring in this crap. So, if what comes next seems unnecessarily acerbic, such may be the case. So, what’s got me all riled up tonight, you may ask? Baseball bloopers.
Yup. That’s right. The time-honored stadium tradition for gosh-knows-how-many decades thoroughly disgusts me. I’m sick of it, and I need to talk about it. You’re my audience for random-as-hell sports rants, so be a polite receiver and listen.
Here’s my issue. There are tons of options for in-game entertainment. Music videos. Highlight montages. Sausage races. Even the g-dforsaken kiss cam. And yet, there they are time-after-time. At every game, on comes the between-inning two-minute “bloopers reel” showing HILARIOUS things like people dropping pop-ups, running into railings or (LMFAO!) a ball dropping in-between two players. Oh, it’s the kind of laughter that hurts deep down in the belly.
Seriously, I don’t remember bloopers ever soliciting a laugh out of me. Like ever. And this isn’t meant to be some holier-than-thou I’m-too-good-for-good-ole-fashioned-stadium-entertainment posts. I know there are people out there who really do dig the wave. And although I strenously object, there is a part of me that reconcile what goes on in people’s brains that makes such an action seem somewhat approachable.
The soapbox stand on bloopers is is just as much a cry for explanation as a critique. Why are these funny? What’s the humorous aspect? Please, someone tell me? I got to dozens of games each year, and I am consistently baffled to hear middle-aged adults hamming it up in response to bloopers — not to mention it’s typically the same reel that’s been recycled from the mid-90s. Next time, maybe I’ll just ask them. “Sir, what’s so funny exactly?”
Some giggles from the kids? That I get…kind of. But if somebody can break down for me the appeal of baseball bloopers to seemingly more than half of the sports-viewing population, I would be forever indebted. I appreciate your illumination on this issue. Now, if you’ll excuse me there are some clips of an outfielder slipping that I just must catch. Tootles.