Entertainment For Lively Minds
What's the point of these "amazing" sports videos?
Fraser and I often amuse ourselves at lunch watching some of the hundreds of would-be "viral" videos featuring famous athletes apparently doing amazing things. But as the feats get more amazing it becomes clearer and clearer that the films, despite their carefully cultivated air of guys just kicking back and enjoying themselves during traning, are fixed.
When I first saw Ronaldinho hit the crossbar several times in succession I might have been inclined to believe that he was actually capable of such skilll but by the time we got to David Beckham lobbing balls into litter bins on Santa Monica beach it was pretty clear that even if he could do it once, the chances of him doing it three times in succession were slim.
So what's the point of sponsors getting famous athletes to do amazing things if they have to fake the amazingness? Have a look at these and see if you think they are really as they seem.
Here's Graeme Swann and Murali trying to remove a 50p from on top of a glass.
Here's Paul McGinlay striking a gong in the middle of a lake
Here's a baseball player doing the apparently impossible.
And some American footballers doing the same.
And if these aren't real, have you ever seen any that were?
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I'd say the first two are perfectly OK.
If they made out they were hitting the gong with each shot or removing the 50p with each delivery, well, fair enough.
The other two are completely cooked, though.
You may be right but answer this.
Is there any chance that you would get two top-class cricketers and a load of top class golfers to give up a day trying a trick shot if there was any possibility that the resulting film would have to be shelved because nobody happened to master the trick?
There's a video somewhere
of David Seaman and Gavin Henson breaking the record for catching a ball from the greatest height.
Clearly very difficult to do and at least it shows their unsuccessful initial attempts.
It's right here
Give me a golf club or a cricket ball and a video camera..
Eventually even I'd have rung the gong or knocked off the 50p. A pro would do either within a shortish time, hence the element of competition. Murali and Swann were trying to show off by turning it a mile, the golfers were trying to show off by doing multiple skips. In the end, a straight ball takes off the 50p and a classic links punch shot with one bounce does the gong.
The US clips are all rubbish. A pro at the top of his game would be trying from here until christendom before any of those stunts came off. The most obvious bit of post-production is the one where the bloke hits the alternate uprights. His third kick is a huge hook which miraculously straightens in mid-air.
The clue is in the audio. A howling goon going "No way, man!" means it's bollocks.
The late, great Davie Cooper
after he left Rangers, (all stand), he played for Motherwell and before a game against Celtic he practises some penalty kicks.
The first one he took hit the crossbar and you can imagine the abuse he got from the Celtic fans behind the goals.
Davie just put the ball back on the spot and repeated it four times with no expression on his face. They gave him a huge ovation, only then did he crack a smile
The point
is that the sponsors want the content to 'go viral', and like you say, that won't happen unless the athletes achieve the feat.
'Going viral' is the holy grail for a lot of marketers (although no-one really knows why) but it rarely happens because they generally make poor content that no-one wants to share.
I think the point of them
is to keep middle-aged men amused at lunchtimes.
PS - It's nearly 3pm...
Real
Quiet day
in the Word office today.
All Blacks
With the World Cup starting in a couple of weeks. this one of the All Blacks training seems appropriate to post...
and the Aussie responses....
Errrrr ....
... it's isn't Paul McGinlay who hits the gong.
I'd always though the NFL ones were actually meant to be tongue in cheek. They are after all advertising a fantasy game - seems apt to have fantasy skills being displayed.
Rémi Gaillard
Someone who isn't a famous sportsman, Montpellier's premier prankster Rémi Gaillard, is the king of this kind of stuff, plus he makes genuinley hilarious videos that will make you gasp for other reasons than his ability to kick a ball into a bin from 200m.
http://www.nimportequi.com/fr/
I must be getting old
because all I see in those videos is a bloke behaving incredibly anti-socially.
I get your drift
Some of them certainly are like that and I think he increasing errs into being a bit of a dickhead but some of the earlier videos he made (which may not be the ones I posted; I was rushing) really made me laugh because of their sheer ridiculousness/gall.