Staring contest
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A staring contest (or blinking contest) is a game in which two people stare into each other's eyes and attempt to maintain eye contact for a longer period of time than their opponent. The game ends when one participant intentionally or unintentionally looks away. A popular variation of the game exists in which the participants not only attempt to maintain eye contact, but also must resist the urge to blink; creating a physical challenge as well as a psychological one. Most other variations revolve chiefly around either of these two core objectives, with some prohibiting virtually any action but staring (laughing, making a face, winking, nodding, talking, touching, bobbing, etc) and others allowing the aggressive use of these same actions to force an opponent into defeat.
Staring contests in popular culture
A semi-regular sketch on Late Night with Conan O’Brien featured Conan having a staring contest with his sidekick, Andy Richter. The contests would start normally, but then absurd scenes would take place in Andy’s line of sight just over Conan’s shoulder. (For example, a woman with deflatable breasts or Hitler planting a flag on the moon.) The scenes would get increasingly bizarre until Andy either laughed out loud or flinched in horror, breaking eye-contact and losing the contest. During his final show before he moved on to pursue other projects, Andy finally won a contest after people playing Conan’s parents and grandparents appeared in Conan’s line of sight, stripped naked and started making out.
A popular sketch on Saturday Night Live features Will Ferrell as a parody of Robert Goulet, having a staring contest with an artificial ram.
The 1993 comic strip Return of the Taxidermist in Judge Dredd Megazine includes stare-outs as one of several unlikely Olympic sports, others including taxidermy and sex.
In one Garfield strip we see Garfield staring at a goldfish in a bowl intently, until Jon tells Garfield that 'fish don't have eyelids'. In another Garfield comic strip Jon and Garfield have a staring contest in which Garfield wins.
A Toy Story Treat featured Sheriff Woody challenging Lenny (a pair of toy binoculars with eyes but no eyelids) to a staring contest. After great effort, Woody loses and comments ""Oh, you're good!"
In a Muppet Sports segment on The Muppet Show, Klaus Mueller is shown at the end of an 87 hour staring contest against a tree. The tree loses.
A recurring sketch in the first series of comedy show Big Train featured a hand-drawn stare-out competition (the "world stare-out championships") accompanied by commentary (voiced by a professional BBC sports commentator, Barry Davies), based on a comic book by Paul Hatcher and animated by Chris Shepherd.
See also
