There are plenty of crazy sports out there these days. It just seems to be getting weirder and weirder. Once you think you’ve seen the weirdest sport imaginable, you’ll tune into a sports station one day and see something that takes the cake (probably a cake-eating contest). While not so long ago it seemed strange to watch billiards on television, the extent things have led to in today’s world makes hitting a few spheres around with pool cues look pretty conservative. Why have things come to this? What is it about the style in which we live that makes us think such crazy sports would be interesting?

One such sport that actually has its own program is that of hot-dog eating. This is absolutely true. The show consists of one man (or girl) standing at a podium with a plate filled with hot-dogs, and trying to eat as many as he can until the time ends. There’s a crowd shouting the competitor on, and commentators talking about strategies used by the “sportsmen” to achieve their desired goal without throwing up. Half of the contest tends to land with the viewer, who’ll probably also be battling a case of sickness after watching this show for too long.

Another sport that has gained an ever-increasing amount of popularity is that of poker. While there’s no doubt that it’s more interesting to watch and requires more skill and mental prowess than hot-dog consuming, it’s still strange to watch an hour-long program purely based on people playing cards. In years to come, will we be watching the solitaire Olympics? How will we know who’s winning?

These new sports are funny to view, but they’re also a bit disconcerting to see. In ancient times, sport was often something that was actually a life and death situation for those playing, and the reason sport was created by the elites of a nation was to keep people looking away from the problems of their nation, such as the corruption of their government. Have sports truly gotten any better since that time? Okay, so nobody’s being killed, but people are seriously damaging their health if they’re able to eat as much as fifteen hotdogs within the space of a couple of minutes. And mixed-martial arts boxing hasn’t even been talked about.

It may be possible that just like the ancient Romans, governments of today like their citizens to take a keen interest in sports at the cost of taking an interest in the method in which their country is run. Certainly this is the fact in Brazil, where massive levels of poor people and corruption are rife throughout the political system. The response by those at the top isn’t to fix these problems, but to focus money and attention on getting the football team to the World Cup every four years.

Perhaps it’s worth it if we took a step back and looked at the way we treat sport in this society. While a little distraction can be a good thing, there’s no use gaining an interest in a sport that’s ridiculous, or to lose attention from our lives and start to think sport is the most vital thing of all.