Was wondering if anyone watched the opening shows of Knights of Mayhem on NatGeo last night, and if so, what your thoughts were. For anyone who didn’t see the show, it’s basically about full contact, non-scripted jousting using heavy plate and real wooden lances (blunt tipped of course). In a nut shell (and I’m using the word ‘nut’ here to convey a myriad of meanings), the folks on this show want to make full contact jousting into a real sport and attract both a wider audience and more competitors (I’m unsure if they want it to be exclusively American or if they are trying to make this a world wide sport…some references seem to indicate that this stuff is already happening in Europe, as they mentioned several deaths that occurred in, for instance, England/UK). I think they are going for a similar audience as the full contact mixed fighter crowd, though this is a hell of a lot more dangerous and I imagine that the number of serious injuries and deaths from such a ‘sport’ would be unacceptably high (not to mention that getting insurance for events would be a stone cold bitch, at least I would think so).
Sound like a cool idea, but joustingis kinda rough on the horses, isn’t it? I’d think they’d run afoul of modern sensibilities about how much harm we’re willing to see done to animals in the name of human entertainment the first time a horse got skewered by a badly aimed lance.
Well, they were some really big horses, but yeah…I expect that some animal rights activists would be fairly unhappy at just the normal wear and tear (after all, it’s got to hurt a bit when the 350+ pounds on your back is hit by the kinds of forces we are talking about here. Not to mention the splinters from the lances shattering). I don’t think there is a lot of chance for the horse to be skewered by a badly aimed lance, but they could certainly be hurt badly by the knight falling off badly or by splinters and such.
Naw, it’s not a threadshit. I don’t think this is really a Jackass type show, and it is interesting, though the main guy is kind of a testosterone driven asshole with some serious alpha personality issues. He’s also a bit delusional if he thinks there is going to be any traction for getting something like this into the mainstream. Frankly, I’m a bit shocked that it’s even allowed at all, considering the potential for death or serious injury. We are talking about horses that weigh 2000+ pounds added to guys that probably average well over 250+ pounds and wearing over 130+ pounds of armor charging at each other and focusing all of that energy down the length of a hard wood shaft. It’s got to be the equivalent of a head on car crash at 10-20 miles per hour. Then you have the splintering lances and of course the whole getting hurtled off the back of a horse wearing 130+ pounds of heavy armor and to the ground aspect. :eek:
We watched it (my wife and I both used to work at a ren faire, and we were very interested in the subject), but we turned it off after a half-hour. The main guy (and his former mentor, who was on this episode, at least) were simply insufferable. At the point where, after arguing with each other, they decided to joust one another while unarmored, we’d had enough.
There was another guy in the troupe (the smaller guy) who seemed like a more sympathetic individual…until he started talking about how many concussions he’s gotten while doing this, at which point we decided his brains were scrambled.
BTW, there’s plenty of jousting which goes on today at renaissance faires (not to mention Medieval Times), but all of that is essentially “stage combat”, in which the goal is to put on a good show, but keep everyone (knights and horses) from getting seriously hurt. These guys, OTOH, are trying to establish jousting as a modern spectator sport, which means “full contact” and the definite potential for injury.
That was a pretty interesting article…thanks for posting it! It’s telling, especially the part where European jousters refuse to come to the US to participate in these full contact matches because, well, it’s fucking crazy to be doing full contact jousting in this day and age.
Interesting. The Dallas-area Renaissance Festival used to have a jousting crew that held a real, prize-money competition over Memorial Day weekend. They would always use shields the first day, then shoulder plates only the second, and then shoulder plates with raised strips to better catch the lance on the third.
I worked with someone who had been a jouster with them at one point, she mentioned that she stopped jousting because it was a little tough on the insurance premiums.
I think they had some sort of organizational issues for a couple years, and one year it didn’t get held at all, then the Dallas faire had a theatrical company the next year. But I’ve seen them since running it in Nashville, so I guess they’re still going.
a joust shouldn’t hurt a horse any more than in a rodeo. just make sure there is sufficient and standard protection for both horse and rider. one doesn’t have to make tempered plate armor. i reckon kevlar and carbon/glass composites would work better.
And I think the thing between the main guy and the Black Knight is pretty much staged. I think there just trying to put on a good show. Like in Pawn Stars, Chumlee isn;t as stupid as he plays. Just trying to make good TV.
I saw it and hated it. I wanted to like it, and actually hoped it would be, at the very least, laughable, but the people are really nasty and have no real reason to be. I didn’t get a staged vibe from it, just amped up individuals who would never get along in any way.
As for the actual jousting I found it to be interesting, but the competitive gaps are too huge. The rookies can’t land a hit. The other guys are lined up and I don’t see it changing. The main guy is the best, the black knight is 2nd the small guy is 3rd and the guy from Michigan(?) is worst.
Admittedly that’s after 2 episodes but it didn’t really look that close. So I’ll watch once more to see if the plot changes but I’ll be pretty quick to abandon it.