- Staring contest
A staring contest is a
game in which two people stare into each other'seyes and attempt to maintaineye contact for a longer period of time than their opponent. The game ends when one participant intentionally or unintentionally looks away and breaks eye contact. A popular variation of the game exists in which the participants not only attempts to maintain eye contact, but also must resist the urge toblink ; creating a physical challenge as well as apsychological 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 orHitler 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 startedmaking out .A popular sketch on
Saturday Night Live featuresWill Farrell as aparody ofRobert Goulet , having a staring contest with an artificial ram.A recurring sketch in the first series of
comedy showBig Train featured a hand-drawn stare-out competition (the "world stare-out championships") accompanied by commentary, based on a comic book byPaul Hatcher and animated byChris Shepherd .Associations and organizations
The National Association of Staredown Professionals (NASP) styles itself as an "official governing body" of organized staredown competitions. Founded by Ernie Armstrong, the NASP published an official rulebook in 1998 to standardize the rules and regulations of staredown competitions.
ee also
*
Group-dynamic game
*The gaze
*Nonverbal communication
*Evil eye
*Eye contact External links
* [http://www.unflinchingtriumph.com/shell.html Unflinching Triumph] - a documentary that follows staredown professional Philip Rockhammer on his way to the 2006 NASP finals
* [http://www.prostaredown.com Official Website of the National Association of Staredown Professionals (NASP)]
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