Football Thread No. 9

I understand that it is just a joke, but like, it's a really naive, reductionist, Western-centric joke... It just demonstrates how ignorant this American is of the world outside... He doesn't even seem aware that there is an entire continent where football isn't even very popular, let alone the most popular / widely discussed sport. He's ignored the two most populous countries in the world, and at least half the world's population. He's basically said, "Asians aren't worth my attention". And I'm pretty sure it's pure luck rather than design that the Northern half of Africa fits his dichotomy.
 
OK now I need to make a map of "most popular sport" around the world.
 
In Poland speedway is almost as popular as football, and some would even argue that it is more popular. The Polish speedway league was the top speedway league in the world as recently as 5 years ago, so it still probably is.. but I'm not 100% sure about that.

Average attendance is higher for speedway races than football matches and they even have their own fan sections with TIFO, ultras, flares, singing, chants, etc.
Link to video.

When I first found out about speedway in Poland it kinda blew my mind.. I had no idea that football supporter type culture existed for other sports.

Sports like handball, ski jump, volleyball, etc. are also fairly popular. So yeah.. It's easy to generalize but each country has its own set of sports that people follow. and oftentimes you won't know what's popular unless you actually do some research.

Football *is* the most popular sport in the world, but it's not like there isn't variety out there..
 
NAWZEZ! :mad:
 
I understand that it is just a joke, but like, it's a really naive, reductionist, Western-centric joke... It just demonstrates how ignorant this American is of the world outside... He doesn't even seem aware that there is an entire continent where football isn't even very popular, let alone the most popular / widely discussed sport. He's ignored the two most populous countries in the world, and at least half the world's population. He's basically said, "Asians aren't worth my attention". And I'm pretty sure it's pure luck rather than design that the Northern half of Africa fits his dichotomy.

Bleh.

It's maybe not a good joke, but describing Monroe as "ignorant of the world outside" is just as naive. You know this guy? Really? C'mon, Mise, so he's American - there's still no need to be quite so blindly dismissive. All I can guess is that you don't like xkcd, which is ok, but I'm staggered you can get so categorical about his failings so quickly. I guess I forgot, this is the internetz after all.

And I love the attempt to denigrate an effort at humour as "reductionist". Let me know when you find the plethora of jokes out there which aren't reductionist, eh?
 
Bleh.

It's maybe not a good joke, but describing Monroe as "ignorant of the world outside" is just as naive. You know this guy? Really? C'mon, Mise, so he's American - there's still no need to be quite so blindly dismissive. All I can guess is that you don't like xkcd, which is ok, but I'm staggered you can get so categorical about his failings so quickly. I guess I forgot, this is the internetz after all.

And I love the attempt to denigrate an effort at humour as "reductionist". Let me know when you find the plethora of jokes out there which aren't reductionist, eh?
I rather like XKCD, actually, and Randall is surely better than this claptrap himself. Given that he typically goes out of his way to make his humour intelligent, deep, and, you know, factual, it surprises me that he chooses to create a dichotomy btwn US and non-US over sport, and then reduce all non-US sport to "football". This is a man who creates wall poster-sized timelines of Star Wars movies, surely he could have taken the time to at least do it by continent... I can therefore only assume that his shallow attempt at humour is because he is simply naive and ignorant, rather than because he lacks the intelligence or will to do things that require a little bit more effort and thought. Completely ignoring half the world's population is quite unforgivable, even if it's only a joke like on Top Gear.
 
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