# Request to all international soccer fans: STOP THAT FUCKING BUZZING! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 12, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942 "2010-06-12T18:49:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/1 "2010-06-12T18:49:35Z")
Seriously. What the fuck? How do those kazoo things enhance the game at all? It sounds like there’s a swarm of bees on the field. It’s not even like people just blow them when there’s a goal or a good play or something. It’s constant from start to finish. It’s like watching a game while getting your teeth drilled. What is the point? Are there people who enjoy that? Do you know that millions of Americans are probably smacking the shit out of their TV’s right now trying to figure out what the fuck is wrong with their audio? Someone please make it stop. It’s like simulated tinnitus. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/2 "2010-06-12T19:02:36Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Someone please make it stop. It’s like simulated tinnitus. Absolutely fucking right. What happened to bands playing and people chanting and shit? Annoying in its own right, but at least it sounded human. I’m noticing it less in this game than in the Argentina-Nigeria game earlier; maybe my brain is starting to screen it out. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/3 "2010-06-12T19:17:18Z")
It is pretty annoying. Is this something new? I haven’t really watched any world cup action since we hosted it back in '94. I got to see 2 of the games up at Stanford Stadium. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/4 "2010-06-12T19:23:00Z")
It’s an African thang. FIFA considered banning them for the World Cup, but the South Africans made the case that it was an indispensable part of their football culture. See [here](http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/tinyikosammaluleke/2010/06/12/an-ode-to-the-vuvuzela-on-occasion-of-fifa-world-cup-2010-in-south-africa/) for a wax lyrical on the subject. > [@Tinyiko Sam Maluleke](#): > > The vuvuzela has been called the twelfth player — the juju, the mojo and the voodoo. To be fair to the “other side” one local newspaper man who dislikes the vuvuzela recently likened its sound to the sound of “a goat in distress”. But I love our goats! Sure; its sound is probably intolerable to the uninitiated. But that is our point exactly! > > Here is what it is — our beloved vuvuzela. It is an instrument of assertion. With it we demand to be heard, to be seen and to be felt. The vuvuzela howl is the desperate cry of a continent long rendered inaudible and invisible. The vuvuzela sound is the cry of a people dying to be seen and heard. It is a plea to be heard differently and seen differently — to be heard and seen in positive light. This is most important to a continent and a people who, again and again, have been mis-seen, mis-heard and mis-spoken. The vuvuzela personifies the cry of Africa today. It is not merely or only an outward cry — for Africa is not entirely without blame for its own misery. So the vuvuzela calls for action. When we blow it, we are summoning Bafana into action. As we bathe the crowds in its unruly sounds, we will be calling on Africa to stand up and be counted. We blow it for an end to the marginalisation of Africa and we blow it for an end to war and corruption in Africa itself. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/5 "2010-06-12T19:25:45Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > It’s an African thang. FIFA considered banning them for the World Cup, but the South Africans made the case that it was an indispensable part of their football culture. > > See [here](http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/tinyikosammaluleke/2010/06/12/an-ode-to-the-vuvuzela-on-occasion-of-fifa-world-cup-2010-in-south-africa/) for a wax lyrical on the subject. So this guy thinks that annoying everyone else in the whole world is a valid way to advertise the common plight of all Africans? How old is this guy? Eight? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/6 "2010-06-12T19:28:29Z")
The quoted part of that article makes it sound like some long-standing tradition, but per [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuvuzela), it only became popular in the 1990s. But at my alma mater, we used to hand out a souvenir at a particular hockey game each year (RPI, Big Red Freakout) and it used to be a noisemaker. In a 1987 game against Brown University, it was a horn very similar to that, and it created such a noise that the NCAA passed a rule against noisemakers in the stands. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/7 "2010-06-12T19:36:49Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Do you know that millions of Americans are probably smacking the shit out of their TV’s right now trying to figure out what the fuck is wrong with their audio? What are you doing watching soccer in the first place? I am sure that it is annoying but I would never know. There are probably exactly 28 old ladies in the U.S. who dropped the remote and are now looking in closets trying to locate the sound. Somehow, I don’t see this as a major point of conversation within the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/8 "2010-06-12T19:38:55Z")
> [@](#): > > It is a plea to be heard differently and seen differently — to be heard and seen in positive light. How’s that positive light thing working out, I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/9 "2010-06-12T19:41:33Z")
I agree with the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/10 "2010-06-12T19:50:49Z")
First it was Mississippi State and the cowbells. Now this shit. I hate soccer anyway, but if they’re trying to convert my type to at least tolerating the game for the sake of national pride and all that, they’re going about it all wrong. The announcers are also dull and boring. Add that to an hour’s worth of running around with little or no scoring and these fucking horns or whatever, and it’s worse than The View. Give me waterboarding any day! ---
**Author:** ![akennett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/11 "2010-06-12T19:55:10Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Someone please make it stop. But if they stop, then how the fuck are they going to stay awake while watching this boring-ass child’s game? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/12 "2010-06-12T20:01:57Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > First it was Mississippi State and the cowbells. Now this shit. I hate soccer anyway, but if they’re trying to convert my type to at least tolerating the game for the sake of national pride and all that, they’re going about it all wrong. > > The announcers are also dull and boring. Add that to an hour’s worth of running around with little or no scoring and these fucking horns or whatever, and it’s worse than The View. > > Give me waterboarding any day! Emphasis added. Watch it on _Telemundo_. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/13 "2010-06-12T20:22:17Z")
A flamboyant boss once gave me a great piece of advice: “Let the primitives indulge in their silly little rituals. It keeps them occupied so that we can control them.” Maybe that crazy nancy man was onto something. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/14 "2010-06-12T20:26:12Z")
> [@akennett](#): > > But if they stop, then how the fuck are they going to stay awake while watching this boring-ass child’s game? What, they have those noisemakers for baseball too? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/15 "2010-06-12T20:36:42Z")
I saw a web page somewhere that showed how to adjust a particular model TV set to eliminate the frequency the sound is on. If you’re lucky, maybe you can find it with Google and it’ll turn out to be your TV set. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/16 "2010-06-12T20:37:44Z")
It’s only boring if you don’t know what’s going on. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/17 "2010-06-12T20:41:14Z")
> [@](#): > > We blow it for an end to the marginalisation of Africa and we blow it for an end to war and corruption in Africa itself. Actually, the more you blow it the more marginalized you get. Do you really think that FIFA, after they get all the complaints about the endlessly annoying droning that cause people to tune out, will ever let the World Cup return to South Africa again? Talk about getting it about as wrong as wrong can be. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/18 "2010-06-12T20:43:24Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > What, they have those noisemakers for baseball too? Maybe they should try them for golf… ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/19 "2010-06-12T20:54:25Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > It’s only boring if you don’t know what’s going on. That is what they have said..for the last 40 years. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. ---
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942/20 "2010-06-12T20:58:43Z")
VUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVUVU!! Typed with my ears still ringing from being deafend by vuvuzelas while inside a pub when South Africa scored their goal against Mexico. While I understand that the sound may be annoying if you are not used to it, it will quickly fade into the background after watching a couple of games. Hell I even saw some old school racist types who don’t watch local soccer and hate the vuvuzela as a black thing, blowing for all they were worth and having a hell of a party during the opening game. And watching the match on local TV I don’t really have a problem because they just reduce the level of the stadium noise and increase that of the commentator. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/request-to-all-international-soccer-fans-stop-that-fucking-buzzing/542942.md?page=2)