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Reader Poll - Which Costumed Group is More Cringe-Worthy? Furries vs LARPERS
By Great White Snark | November 30, 2007
(If you’re viewing this entry in an e-mail or RSS reader, you’ll have to visit www.greatwhitesnark.com to see the embedded videos, take the survey, and see the latest results. You’ll thank yourself later.)
On a celebrity blog, you might get a survey like, “Who’s the bigger skank-bot? Britney or Paris?” (Clearly, this week, Britney and her poo-stained couches would be the winner. Sorry, Paris. Don’t think we haven’t noticed your efforts.) On a geek culture blog, though, we ask the burning questions like, “Which group of costumed, erm, enthusiasts makes you squirm the most?”
FURRIES
You know them, you lurve them. The folks overly-fascinated with anthropomorphic animal characters, who suffer from gross misrepresentations as sexual deviants in the popular media. (Giggle.)
Long-time readers of Great White Snark know my uneasy fascination with Furries. Like a slack-jawed child with a stick who has found a strange, fuzzy insect curled up under a rock, I like to poke at the Furries to see what kind of entertaining reaction I can elicit. Thankfully, no fur-on-snark violence has come of it. Yet.
Please to be enjoying clips from an upcoming two-years-in-the-making documentary on Furries. Don’t go blaming me when these images stand between you and sleep at 3am tonight.
LARPERS - LIVE ACTION ROLE PLAYERS
Recently another group of eccentric costumed dorks has arrived on my radar: LARPERS, or Live Action Role Players. Perhaps, as I did, you discovered LARPING on this season of Beauty and the Geek. If not, here’s the crusty scoop: You know Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game enjoyed by legions of 25-year-old virgins? LARPING is that… in ‘real’ life. Participants take on the personas of mythical characters, dress in full costume, stage ‘adventures’ in parks and high school parking lots, and have mock battles with padded weapons. There’s hit points, different levels of armor, magic spells… all that role-playing game shit. Except LARPING actually forces these people to leave their parents’ basements.
Listen, who doesn’t enjoy the thought of bashing the hell out of somebody with a padded sword? That’s fine. I mean, it essentially explains the existence of American Gladiators. (Returning to television on NBC in January, don’cha know.)
But the hellish bashing loses its charm when you have to deal with some dude with a Prince Valiant-ish haircut who calls himself Lord Keldar. See what I mean in the following trailer for the LARPING documentary, Darkon.
Don’t be fooled by the trickery of the editing and dramatic music in the trailer. I’ve seen part of Darkon, and most of the fights are quite like a scene from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. A dude gets hit in the leg with a padded sword, so he has to hop around on one leg, pretending that he’s lost the other one. He’s finally ‘dead’ when all of his limbs get severed. Right. ‘Tis but a flesh wound!
SURVEY
So there you have it. Two groups of harmless(?), well-intentioned costumed people with unnerving dorkiness to spare. But only one of them can take home the title today. What say you?
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Topics: Geeks |
November 30th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Did you ever see the CSI Las Vegas when the Furries were having a convention? It was a horrid glimpse into the dark underworld of virgins in animal costumes humping one another in a huge pile. And ‘Sexy Kitty’ who was a huge purple fur cat with (I think) a silver lame bikini on turned out to be a GUY. A balding loser from somewhere or other. I mean, Ewwwww.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:14 am
ahh, google. the ad that this post serves up invites me to “3D Furry Dress Up & Chat”, where i can “Dress up my Avatar as a Furry Chat in 3D w/ other Furries. Free!”.
yet there’s no poll option for these MMORPF’s? hmm.
November 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Of course, I automatically clicked over to the item about Britney and her couches. I swear, if this…this…THING…is pregnant again, I will kill myself, and GWS, you can be mommy to my kid.
OK, now back to your actual post.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I’m fine with Larpers, even though they are hilariously nerdy at least they’re doing something that *might* not make their parents want to kill themselves.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Karen, that CSI was more evil propaganda about Furries from the ill-informed mainstream media. The Furries just don’t deserve that sort of abuse! (Giggle, again.)
Cindi, I shall raise your child to respect everything that is important: hot broads with brains, Star Wars, and a healthy skepticism of authority.
November 30th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Honestly, I don’t think this should be a contest. Unless Larpers practice sexual deviancy, the Furries should win the cringe-poll in a walk. Even if it is just a tiny percentage of them besmirching the otherwise fine “Furry” name.
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:18 am
I thought everyone dressed up in furry costumes and did dirty things. Ok anyway, the Furries showed up on an episode of Tori and Dean Inn Love, (yes I watch the show, shoot me), where they stayed at the Inn for a weekend and were, well odd. Imagine that.
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Tori Spelling + Furries = Chills down my spine.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:45 pm
The headline of the august InTouch magazine says that Spears is PG. Ruined my day. GWS, start stocking up on diaper wipes.
Oh. Your poll. LARPers, I think. With Furries, you can’t see their faces.