If you’re good at a seemingly useless talent, I’m sure your mom told you to stop doing it and learn how to do something useful. Unfortunately for your mom, there are a ton of competitions for seemingly useless talents. There is also big prize money involved in being the best at those useless talents. So they’re not so useless now, eh, mom?
1. Baby Crawling
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This is a baby crawling race. They happen all across the world, but the largest one happens in China.
2. Cheese Rolling
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This competition involves rolling a 9 pound wheel of cheese down Cooper’s Hill in England. Competitors chase the cheese down the hill. The first person down the hill takes the cheese.
3. Nailympia
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The Olympics of fingernails occurs every year, and has occurred for 10 years now. There are normal categories and ridiculous ones, like the fantasy category.
4. Tree Climbing
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In Indonesia, they grease trees in order for teams of contestants try to climb to the top, where prizes are located.
5. Toe Wrestling
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This competition began in a local English pub. It is now a national competition.
6. Baby Crying
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This is a 400+ year old contest held in Japan, where sumo wrestlers try to make babies cry by making faces at them. It is said to bring good health to the babies.
7. Ostrich Racing
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These races are popular in Africa and some parts of the U.S. It is similar to horse racing, except ostrich jockeys routinely fall off their steeds due to their unpredictability.
8. Shovel Racing
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Shovel racing started as a way for ski lift operators to get down a mountain. It can be done on regular or modified shovels, and reach speeds of 60 mph. It was in the first X Games, but was removed due to safety concerns. It was too extreme for the EXTREME games.
9. Lawnmower Racing
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This racing competition became popular in the U.S., parts of England, and Australia.
10. Cell Phone Throwing
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These competitions are held in numerous locations, with the world championships held in Finland. Many events are sponsored by recycling companies, and competitors throw old phones in hopes of winning a new one.
11. Air Guitar
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This seems pretty self-explanatory. While there are many iterations of this competition, the biggest and first championship appeared in Finland in 1996, and continues annually.
12. Roach Racing
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Australia is home to the Roach Racing competition. Contestants bring roaches to the event and release them in the center of a tarp. The first roach to reach the edge wins.
13. Wife Carrying
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These championships are held all over the globe. Husbands carry their wives through obstacle courses, hoping to cross the finish line first. The world championships occur in Finland every year.
14. Worm Charming
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Worm charmers get a small plot of land and try to get the most amount of worms out of the soil in an allotted time period. The record is held by a 10-year-old girl who charmed 567 worms out of the ground.
15. Beard And Mustache Championships
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Taking place all over the U.S. and Europe, this competition has many categories and competitors. It took place since 1990 and is growing after being featured in the documentary, Mansome, along with appearances in a few other mainstream media outlets.
16. Rock-Paper-Scissors
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This is another competition held in many countries. The most popular one even has a Bud Light sponsorship.
17. Bed Racing
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There are bed races all over the world, and they require at least one member of the team to ride on the bed. Many bed races are held to raise money for charity.
18. Bee Wearing
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This Chinese contest is beyond bizarre. The winner is decided by the most weight of bees. The Guinness World Record holder wore around 87 pounds, which was around 350,000 bees.
19. Cherry Pit Spitting
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Michigan is home to the longest running cherry pit spitting competition, at 41 years. The record distance is over 93 feet.
20. Gurning Championship
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This yearly English competition involves competitors making the ugliest face they can. I’m not sure I’d want to win this competition.
21. Black Pudding Throwing Championship
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Another English Competition, this one involves competitors throwing black pudding wrapped in women’s tights at Yorkshire puddings on a 20 foot platform.
22. Air Sex
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If air guitar isn’t wild enough for you, go compete in the Air Sex World Championships. Since 2009, there was a nationwide tour across the U.S., where regional winners are crowned. The winners go on to compete in a final tournament to crown the ultimate victor.
See! All that time I’ve been air guitaring, air sexing, and bee wearing will finally pay off. Now I just have to enter the competitions…
