photo credit: Adam Welch
What once were just words on paper, popular pop culture genres like Harry Potter and Star Wars’ fan bases have evolved their on-screen interests into reality. The most popular of the fictional sports is Quidditch from the Harry Potter series. What started at Middlebury College in 2005 has now evolved to many across America.
Although flying is not possible for muggleborn players (a person who lacks any sort of magical ability and was not born in a magical family), the rules go as follows:
- Muggle is an intergender played game, with the fictional elements still involved.
- A volleyball acts as the Quaffle, Bludgers are dodgeballs and the coveted snitch, which must be caught to end the game, is a tennis ball.
- As far as players, the positions are labeled the same as they are in Rowling’s books, according to chicagotribune.com.
While not real (sadly), other fictional sports have been greatly inspired by real-life events, such as Podracing from Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace. Podracing was displayed by Anakin Skywalker on the planet Tatooine, which like the name suggests, is galactic modified pods used to race.
Podracing shares very similar features to a NASCAR circuit. Like a NASCAR track which is out on a circular lap format, Mos Espa circuit from The Phantom Menace also has a circular layout.
And while at first the sight of college kids attempting to play Quidditch might seem strange to the normal eye, one of the world’s oldest sports has even been completely dramatized and faked out.
Wrestling, which dates back around 15,000 years, has seen its sport completely revamped with the likes of WWE and AEW wrestling. Both of which are competitions where the fighters aren´t actually hurting each other.
In fact, most of the time these fighters don´t even perform real wrestling moves. Instead, one of the main appeals is the fighter’s “character” and microphone skills. Throughout the history of the WWF, now WWE, audiences have mainly been drawn and captivated by the “diva” fighters who make their presence known the most whether it be through their wardrobe attire like Ric Flair or how well they can smack talk like Dwayne ¨The Rock¨ Johnson and CM Punk.
People simply love “fake sports”. It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple club event with a dozen people on a college lawn, or World Wrestling Entertainment with its massive TV deals and millions of viewers. Whether it’s on paper or screen people, are fascinated by the idea of new forms of activity and people will always be willing to try them.
