Bowling sport
Turkey bowling
is a
sport
which is based on ordinary
bowling
. A
frozen
turkey
serves as the
bowling ball
and 10 liquid-filled plastic beverage bottles are used for
bowling pins
. The turkey is bowled down a smooth surface such as ice or a soap-covered sheet of painters plastic.
[1]
The sport is commonly associated with
Thanksgiving
.
[2]
Turkey bowling is popular in
minor league
ice hockey
in the
United States
and
Canada
.
[1]
The original variant involves turkey bowling in an aisle of a
grocery store
. A Derrick Johnson claims to have invented turkey bowling in 1988 when he worked as a grocery clerk at a
Newport Beach
Lucky's
branch while observing a manager slide a frozen turkey across the floor and accidentally topple a soda bottle.
[3]
Derrick became a self-appointed
commissioner
of the "
Poultry
Bowlers Association" and codified the rules and terminology, such as "the
fowl
line" (cf. "
foul line
"), "the
gobbler
" (three strikes in a row; cf.
turkey (bowling)
), "the
Butterball
" (a gutterball) and "the
wishbone
" (a
7-10 split
).
[3]
Notable occurrences
[
edit
]
Turkey bowling was featured in the 1995 novel
Bloodsucking Fiends
: A Love Story
by
Christopher Moore
, where it was the favorite sport of "The Animals", a wild group of night grocery stockers (continued in the sequels
You Suck
: A Love Story
[4]
and
Bite Me
).
Episode 14
of
10 Items or Less
TV series was "Turkey Bowling".
[5]
This idea for this episode was given to John Lehr by David Howell, an aspiring comedy writer.
The
Guy's Grocery Games
episode "Frozen Food Fight" featured a round where two contestants bowled a frozen turkey at nine soda bottles; the combined number knocked down was the number of non-frozen items each was allowed to use in their next dish.
Every
Thanksgiving
morning,
Cleveland, Ohio
Fox affiliate
WJW-TV
does its annual Turkey Bowl. The WJW version of turkey bowling uses 15 cans of
canned
cranberry sauce
,
stacked
in a pyramid shape, and uses a one-bowl-per-round
knockout tournament
format. In the 2010 edition, it was hosted by morning features and man-about-town reporter Kenny Crumpton and morning meteorologist Angelica Campos. In WJW-TV's version, people win prizes anything ranging from Giant Eagle Gift Cards to monetary prizes. The contest is broadcast on WJW live and streamed around the world on WJW's Web site, with the contests taking up the full closing segment (around 7 minutes) of each half-hour of WJW's
morning newscast
. The broadcast began in 1999. From then until 2019, the event was traditionally held at a
Giant Eagle
somewhere in
Cuyahoga County
; the 2021 contest was held in a garage.
Controversy
[
edit
]
Animal rights
proponents, who oppose the use of animals in sports, claim that turkey bowling is disrespectful to animals and sends mixed messages which may encourage violence to animals or people.
[6]
Another objection is perceived disrespect to the central attribute of Thanksgiving.
[6]
In 2003, an upcoming event for the title of
UK
Great Turkey Bowling Champion at
Manchester Evening News Arena
was protested against by animal rights campaigners; as a result, plastic turkeys were used instead of real frozen turkeys.
[1]
In 2007 an animal sanctuary rescued a live turkey, which was in a cage, from a turkey bowling event in New York State.
[7]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Protestors cry foul at turkey bowling"
,
Manchester Evening News
,
3/11/2003
- ^
Genovese, Peter (November 23, 2023).
"Turkey bowling? N.J. bar keeps wacky Thanksgiving tradition alive"
. NJ.com.
- ^
a
b
"Derrick Johnson's Unique Bowling Style Is Pure Poultry in Motion"
,
People Magazine
,
October 01, 1990 Vol. 34 No. 13
- ^
"'You Suck,' 'Fangland' take vampires in new directions"
, a
USA Today
book review
- ^
Turkey bowling
at
IMDb
- ^
a
b
"Group hopes to stuff turkey bowling"
. Cjonline.com. 1998-11-18
. Retrieved
2009-07-27
.
- ^
"Norman the turkey will live past Thanksgiving, rescue group says"
. Dailyfreeman.com. 2007-11-22
. Retrieved
2009-07-27
.
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