Quote:
Originally Posted by OhioNative
Dublin is home of the annual "Redneck Games." Do a YouTube search and see what you are in for, namely culture shock!!
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It is a community event poking self-fun begun by a local radio station in 1996 in response to the Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta. It has become a force of its own, with television highlights featured from Germany to Australia and Japan each year. MTV in the U.S. has been especially fond.
Check out pages 20-21 of National Geographic this month (April 2008) for a freeze-frame of the Mud Pit Belly Flop event (a crowd favorite) staged in the red Georgia clay with about a thousand gallons of water added.
OhioNative, you apparently don't live in Ohio any longer, but as a native you should consider some self-deprecating humor yourself. It is a humbling exercise, and a welcome departure from arrogance and self-aggrandizement.
Some suggestions for an Ohio humor festival: the Rust Belt Extravanganza!
It should start with a Queen of the Rust Belt Contest to preside over the festivities of the day. Contestants should be octogenarian Rosie the Riveter look-alikes, with a
minimum entry age of 80 and an emphasis on wrinkled, exposed bicep size. The next event could be Daring Dive into the Burning River Contest, featuring the world-famous flaming river that Ohio is known for and one that you may have swam in. The next contest could be the Toxic Heavy Metal Toss, where mutant Ohio natives attempt to toss their toxic leftovers into the next state, preferably.
The final event of the day, as the sun sets and just before the Burning River is extinguished, should be the Cuyahoga County Crazy Calling Contest, where Ohioans attempt to scream loudest for computers to be crashed and for paper
ballots to be re-instituted.
Now, before you get angry with me, realize that I love Ohio just as I love every state of my beloved country. And I especially love the people therein and the natives thereof. My point is that you can scream "culture shock" and make fun of anyone, anywhere.
BUT it is far more productive and healthy to make fun of primarily yourself.