during friday's football game we also saw cheerleaders! i had never seen them in reality, but so often on tv. it still is funny to see how everything you see in the movies is just real and normal here, while we (or me?) think its made up for the movie, and very funny (perhaps that explains why we have to laugh more often in the cinema than the real americans?). i was surprised to see that some were not superpretty! (i also learned from the movies that only the most pretty and popular girls can become cheerleader, so perhaps that is one of the few things thats only true in the movies). here they were holding one girl up in the air, i think there were 4 or 5 like these, and then they would let themselves fall down, all at the same time. they were also twirling their pom-pons around, but to me it all looked pretty useless and actually was diverting my attention from the game....
i did have to look up the word pom-pons, and ofcourse discovered a wealth of information about cheerleaders! how interesting... for instance, cheerleading originated (ofcourse) in the usa, but intially was an all-male activity! johnny campbell (he sure does look cheerful!) in 1898 was the first to "cheerlead" (i made that word up). only in 1923 women began to join, and with currently 97% being female, dominate the sport (there is so much more to read here).
but.... ever since the big bang theory, i cannot think of cheerleading without thinking about the conversation penny and sheldon have when penny is trying to make him feel better. she tells him not only he has lost his opportunity to greatness, but also she, when she was not chosen as the head cheerleader. it makes sheldon only more sad, as you certainly cannot compare missing out on the nobel prize with cheerleading. and more importantly, he absolutely does not see how she can be a cheer leader, not being able to cheer him up at all!! (i searched on youtube but cannot find a fragment of this.. buuuhhhhh)
