Cheerleading
Posted by supercynic on March 30, 2008
I have moved. Please come to the new location at The Daily Wit.
Where did cheerleading come from? My daughters love a certain DVD for kids that teaches them how to be cheerleaders. While watching it for the 7th time this weekend, it hit me that cheerleading is, I think, a relatively new phenomenon. I’ve not done any research (Google) on this topic, but I think I’m right. I mentioned to my wife that I think cheerleading didn’t develop until modern times because in the days of Old English and Middle English, the words “spirit” and “hear it” – As in “Got spirit? Let’s hear it.” – didn’t rhyme.
Further, the monetary system of the Early and Middle Ages didn’t allow for such classics as “Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar….” Centuries ago, people used money that was called such things as “groats” and “farthings.” Besides the obvious fact that you can’t rhyme with such ugly words as those, such words just aren’t spirited enough to get the feudal lords fired up. You couldn’t even get a peep out of the normally raucous student section of squires with words like that.
My wife opined that there simply weren’t any sports back in the old days. I begged to differ. (Two things I usually do with my wife – begging and differing, usually differing followed by begging.) There were sports back in days of yore. There were (1) jousting tournaments, known by the poor people of the day as Dumbass Rich Pricks Charging at Each Other With Sticks, (2) bow and arrow contests (the modern equivalent being the NRA-sponsored gun-shooting contests); actually, there are still archery tournaments, though not many teeth show up for them and (3) the old Roman favorite from the Coliseum called The Tiger vs. The Christian. By the way, I can’t imagine this one lasting too long. “Release the tiger.” Claw. Maul. Dead Christian. Tigers 458 Christians 0. You can’t even get to your seat with a sporting event that quick. 
I would have thought that at some point the Roman emperors would have allowed the Christians to fight something they might possibly be able to win against, e.g., a small wild dog or maybe a duck.
But I digress. If anyone knows why we developed the need for people to start shouting rhymes at us while we watch other people compete, let me know.
sofia said
i don`t know really, but i suspect that it was recent. i believe that they come from the gymnasts – or how it’s called, t don`t speak english -, i mean, from the olympic gym. they do similar things and they train as one.