World Cup 2010: All abuzz about a plastic annoyance named Vuvuzela

Technorati tags: Humor, World Cup 2010, Vuvuzela, Parodies

If there’s one feature that has set the 2010 World Cup tournament apart from its predecessors, it has to be the overwhelming stadium noise, largely due to a colored plastic horn called the Vuvuzela. This, by far, has been the noisiest world cup, bar none.

A single vuvuzela, reportedly, has an average sound pressure of 127 dB. If that doesn’t mean much to you, the sound a lawnmower makes is around 90 dB. This, apparently, makes the vuvuzela even louder than a car horn (which on average produces 100 dB worth of sound).

Now, multiply that by 30,000 – Walski’s guesstimation of the average attendance – and you can very well imagine the magnitude of noise we’re talking about. If you need earplugs for a Formula 1 outing, or a Nine Inch Nails concert, you’ll probably need two for a typical South Africa 2010 World Cup match.

Subsequent World Cup tournaments, after South Africa 2010, will probably feel like they’re being played in libraries. Unless the Brazilians can come up with something louder and more annoying, in time for 2014.

For the home audience, the overwhelming cacophony of vuvuzelas translates to the continuous buzzing not unlike a large swarm of bees. Not exactly damaging to your sense of hearing, but definitely annoying. Especially to this one very prominent home viewer.

But it’s not all bad news – some other netizens have put the annoying vuvuzela to good use, just to prove a point.
(the vuvezala meets Twilight, Middle Earth, and more, in the full post)

Frankly, Walski is quite ambivalent about the Twilight film franchise. He’s actually watched the first two films in the saga – the second one, New Moon, on a flight recently. So, for the sake of completeness, he’ll most likely watch Eclipse as well, though that said, Walski won’t really go too far out of his way, nor is he like waiting with bated breath for its release on June 30th. He’s a sucker for any film that features vampires. Bonus, if there are werewolves thrown in.

And because he’s not read the Stephanie Meyer book series (nor does he have any pressing desire to), who knows – there may even be zombies in the upcoming films, which would make them just perfect. Better still, if there are vuvuzelas involved.

But back to the tapered piece of annoying plastic that has so succinctly characterized the 2010 World Cup – what if the vuvuzela had existed during the other world cup that South Africa has hosted – the 1995 Rugby World Cup? It would have surely changed the atmosphere in the stadium. And undoubtedly, this film would’ve been different, too.

You have to love these viral parodies. But there is one vuvuzela movie parody that Walski’s saved for last. One parody to rule them all…

As a bonus, The Fellowship of the Vuvuzela comes with a music video – Taking the Hobbits to Isengard.

Walski has an idea of using the annoying vuvuzela in a parody of his own. He’s not sure if anyone else has thought about it, but he reckons that the thought may have crossed the minds of some people.

He’ll keep mum about this idea – for now. Suffice it to say that if it does come to fruition, you folks will be the first to know…