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THE SPORTSING PLACE — As a non-sportser with more knowledge of sports than a non-sportser usually has, I want to take you on little journey.
I grew up in a house with sports lovers; however, we weren’t so much into the All-American sports of football, baseball and basketball. We watched a lot of golf, tennis, and even a little soccer, and family members played all those sports too.
Indeed, my grandmother won a golf tournament the week of her 80th birthday, and I named my computer game Carmen Sandiego character Fred Couples, a pro golfer that won the Masters Tournament in 1992. My sister hung her mulleted Andre Agassi poster in her room with pride, and I would readily recognize Steffi Graf and Michael Chang (she said, totally dating herself).
Aside from the differences in gameplay, we are all are aware that each sport in existence has its own crowd culture. Golf and tennis are played with a decidedly quiet crowd with polite applause, and soccer is full of “hooligans” who make incredible amounts of noise from second one until the crowd spills out in the streets.
But something I haven’t thought about before is the announcer practices and culture of each sport. And that’s where this featured video comes in.
In the video, random internet citizen and standup comedian John Crist does an announcer swapperoo for golf and soccer. I have to say, upfront it doesn’t seem like swapping the announcer style for these sports would be that funny. But it’s always that sneaky ol’ expectation incongruity that will twist things into funny every time.
I certainly had a sensible chuckle while watching. And I realized that if soccer was announced like golf, I’d probably really enjoy watching it. I hope I’m enjoying that experience in an alternate universe, and I hope you enjoy the video in this universe.
