Karaoke Contests are a plague.
Let me explain. The kind of Karaoke I enjoy isn’t judgemental. Everyone who wants one gets their turn, anyone can get together to do a number, even spontaneously. Everyone gets applause, no matter how much they suck. People do “suicides” and “screw your buddy”s. It’s awesome.
Competitive karaoke is to that kind of karaoke what competitive eating is to a lunch date. It requires that someone ranks the singers in order of how well they performed, which means solo performances, picked songs, and someone comparing you to everyone else. It can be pretty intimidating, and it’s not nearly as fun. Since the judgement is entirely subjective, and being good isn’t really the point of karaoke anyway, I’ve always felt that they were a singularly stupid excersise.
And we had one tonight. It wasn’t as bad as it sometimes is. Everyone got to take turns, even if they weren’t competing, whereas in some of these things I’ve been to, non-competitors were more-or-less politely shooed away or just unceremoniously cut out of the rotation. I guess these things attract attention too, so there was a big (unfortunately noisy) crowd, and a reasonably short rotation. I got in:
Which, you know, five songs in a three-hour show doesn’t suck. Especially when the hostess is a half-hour late. Again. Apparently, I didn’t get into the semi-finals. I don’t give a crap. The crowd loved me and I had fun.
And that’s the damn point.