- I just started watching this sport, and that wasn't a good slap.
- Repeated subconcussive blows ruin your brain.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- (FBE) So today, we're gonna show you a real sport
that people attend and watch that some may consider
to be a little dumb. - Football!
No, I'm playing. I'm playing! I'm playing! (laughs)
- There's so much stupid [bleep] in this world,
I don't even know at this point. I'm so ready to see
the most outlandish thing.
- "Meanwhile, in Russia, the male slapping championships
took place. Took home 30,000"-- oh my god!
- Oh! The slapping thing! This is terrifying.
Not my wheelhouse at all. - Yo, this has been a thing,
by the way. This is not new.
Damn. He got knocked the f-- he's still playing?!
- They're slapping each other. It's a game.
It's like that game Slaps where you hold hands
and you slap each other's back of the hand.
- I don't like this.
- Ohhh! Boy knocked him out with a slap!
- You're right. This is dumb. (laughs)
- There seems to be a lot of screaming, but I don't see
what the sport is.
- (announcer speaking in Russian)
- How do you train for that? Boxing, you learn how to dodge
as well as punch. How do I train my face
for the impact of someone else's slap?
- I wanna fight professionally. My team has professional fighters,
and we-- I don't think any of us would do this ever, ever.
I think once you know what the symptoms can be--
and I've had headaches, where you can't sleep,
'cause you sparred too hard that day. You wouldn't wanna do this.
This is not smart.
- Ohhhh!
- OHHH! You're not good, bro! You're out! You're out!
Who's letting this go!?
- I like how he makes sure the snapback's still on.
You know, priorities.
- His face is red. Oh!
- The one with the hat is better, I think. (chuckles)
- That wasn't a good slap. I mean, I just started
watching this sport, and that wasn't a good slap.
- How do you determine the winner?
- The judge is like, "You good?" And the guy's like, "Yeah.
Yeah, I promise I'm good." (chuckles)
- OH! Knocked the hat right off your-- let's go!
- Who wins?
- How did he win?!
- Does he get a gold cup? Does he get a check for $10,000? What?
- Look at all those people there to watch it.
- Look at how many [bleep] people are watching them!
Is this at a mall or something? - That's a big guy.
Oh my gosh. - What happened to their shirts?
Where'd their shirts go?
- I feel bad for this guy, this guy on the right.
- This is so bad. I can't think of how bad this is for you.
Repeated subconcussive blows ruin your brain.
- (amused) I don't understand the scoring system.
- (claps) That boy's gonna be undefeated forever.
He is like a stone. - Slapstick comedy.
It's used to make you laugh. And so, watching them
slap each other is funny. It just makes the whole thing
seem so silly even though it's serious.
- I'm watching people slap each other, but not in a conventional way,
but in a professional manner. I'm just very intrigued
and a little confused.
- (announcer) All right, folks. Here we go. Shake hands.
- Oh, we're in the States now. Oh, boy.
This is like the underground wrestling.
- No first. No fist.
- (announcer) Don't look away. Don't look away.
Ooh! - I think he used a fist.
- Oh! Imagine not even getting one slap in.
- Wow. These guys are serious. - That didn't look like a slap.
That look like he punched him right in the face.
- Stay down. Sta-- I feel you, bro!
I feel you. - (crowd cheering)
- These people are going nuts.
- That's crazy. I can't see any intrinsic benefits to participation.
- When you do a combat sport, one of the worst things you see
is someone take a shot when they get knocked out
and then hit again. The fact that they'd be
standing in front of each other and going one for one, tit for tat,
like... (sighs) That's-- oh, man. I can't watch that kind of stuff.
- Okay, Captain America. - Oh. (chuckles)
Yeah, I bet that hurts.
- Foul. Slap in the eye. There are rules.
- He's like, "Yeah, that one kind of got me."
- Yeah, he's reacting the right way.
- I feel like if I were playing this...
(chuckles) I couldn't help myself but to flinch.
- Oh! No, man. - Me and my friends used to do this
in high school. We just didn't have an arena
of 40,000 people watching us.
- The guy's like, "I-- Oh, why did I sign up for this?"
- Ooh. I bet you their slaps hurt.
Whoa! I felt that one! - See, I--
he slapped the sweat off him!
- Maybe this is indoor sports. It's so cold a lot.
How much can you do outdoors? So, they have to come up
with something indoors to do.
- It's constant. It's repeated blows,
'cause they're not getting KOed, but they're concussed,
way concussed right now. - Okay, we got a winner.
♪ (upbeat music) ♪
Aw, hug it out, boys.
- It's friendly matches. - Whoa! His face looks horrendous.
Oh my god. - Oh my goodness!
Did you see his neck and his face? The Russians are wilin'.
- It's interesting that it exists, and I'm very, very intrigued.
I wanna learn more. But I'm also kind of like,
"Really? Why is this a thing?" - This sport is just another excuse
to take out violence on another person,
which obviously, is very enjoyable to a large number of people.
- (FBE) So, the first video we showed you recently went viral
on Twitter. In it, the men are
participating in the male slapping championships...
- Oh, so that's like the big leagues. That's when you've worked up
the slap gauntlets, you've done a couple underground clubs,
you got a name for yourself,
and now you're out to take on the slap king.
- (FBE) ...that took place at a Russian power expo
that was reportedly looking to promote patriotism
and the strongest men in that country. - Ah-ha. Okay.
Patriotism and strongest men. Got it. That's what I would've thought
watching the video. (chuckles) - This is the lowest life form
on planet Earth. If you wanna see who the strongest person is,
there's actual hand-to-hand combat sports.
- (FBE) Is this a sport that people in your generation would be
interested in watching? - I don't think so.
We have enough sports in this country.
- I don't think so. I don't get the sport. I'm sorry.
I just don't get it. There's nothing to it.
- They'll watch anything, okay? (laughs) Honestly, I think
whether you're watching it for shock value, like,
"I can't believe this is happening," or you're watching it
for entertainment, you're still watching it nonetheless.
- To make the claim that, "No, this is so dumb.
No one's gonna watch it"... No. People watch mukbangs, okay?
(laughs) People watch everything.
- I know that me and my friends personally,
we would watch that all night. - My generation is very
easily influencable. There's literally a job called influencer,
where you influence. So, they'll do whatever the [bleep]
they see on the internet.
- (FBE) So, here are some of the rules that we found from our research.
The event is an elimination-style competition,
where two men face off against each other.
Both men use their palms to slap each other three times.
The first one to fall loses. - Oka-- first one to fall?
Out of three slaps?
So, you try to knock another man down with three slaps.
- (FBE) To avoid causing serious injury,
opponents are only allowed to use their fingers
and their upper part of the palm... - Oh. I can't use this?
- (FBE) ...and are banned from targeting their temples,
ears, and eyes. If both men are still standing
after the three slaps, a judge will then decide a winner
based on strength and technique.
- (laughs) The slap technique. Okay.
- (FBE) And now that you've heard the rules,
is this something you would want to participate in?
- No. God no. Oh my god, no. What? No. Of course not.
I don't have anything to prove.
- Maybe if I was three or four years old.
But not nowadays, no.
- Any sport where one of the rules is if you're not conscious,
then you're no longer winning, it's not a game I wanna play.
- I really value my brain. I really value the way it functions,
my thought processes, and everything.
There's no way I would participate in this sport. No way.
- (FBE) We have to ask. Have you ever been slapped before
in any setting? - I don't think so.
I really don't think I've been slapped before.
- I don't think so. I've been stage slapped.
- I have gotten in a fight once. It was self-defense.
I didn't start the fight. But I definitely have slapped someone
and have been slapped. - I have, because I know
what it feels like. So, somebody slapped me
once upon a time. (chuckles)
Can't remember who did it, but it stung.
- (FBE) So, there have been several countries with odd sports
like this. In the UK, there's a world toe wrestling championship.
- (laughs) What?
- (FBE) In Finland, they have a wife carrying competition.
And in South Australia, they hold a tuna tossing tournament.
- Tossing tuna? That's a great headline.
- (FBE) Why do you think people are attracted to creating
these type of odd competitions? - I think they're getting bored
with modern games the way they are. You get to college, and then you get
to a professional football game... it gets oversaturated.
- We just like to be stronger than each other.
I-- that's the only-- that the only possible reason
I can think of. - Competition is just bred in us
as human beings. You know, it's like the survival of the fittest.
- There's a subsect of people in middle school that were strong
or fast or good at something, but they weren't necessarily good
at the traditional sports of basketball, football, whatever.
So, they were like, "I'm gonna take my skillset,
and I'm gonna go make my own sport that exclusively I'm good at."
- It kind of gives normal people things to excel at, right?
So, maybe a fisherman never thought he would be anything special,
but he just won a tuna tossing competition.
And that's exciting to him.
- (FBE) So finally, can you tell those people who are continuing
to participate in this sport why it might be a bad idea?
- You're gonna get your eardrums popped, dude.
This is bad. Just retire while you're on top.
- Maybe in the long-term, it isn't the right career option,
and you should not quit your day job.
- We can find more productive things to do instead of fight each other
for entertainment. - If you wanna fight,
there's other sports out there. Definitely take care of your brain.
You only get one. 'Cause right now,
it's not a big deal, but taking these big shots
to the brain at this point can really be bad in the future.
- Don't mess up your brain, you know. Or don't-- your ear's gonna get hit.
You're gonna lose hearing. You could go blind.
There's serious risks here. So, please consult your doctor
before participating in the slapping championship.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Generations React.
Shoutout to Joseph Parker and Erick Martinez.
- Slap that notification bell, so you don't miss an episode.
- What crazy sport have you participated in?
Let us know in the comments. - JC here, producer at FBE.
Get to know reactors, staff, and discover more about
your favorite people here at FBE by subscribing to youtube.com/fbe2.
Thanks for your support. Bye, guys.