April 23rd, 2008
#492 - Battledore
We got to play badminton in gym class in high school. We didn’t really play it properly though. It was more of just a half hour of trying to nail each other in the head with a 90 mile an hour birdie. It was always very satisfying to be able to swing the racket as hard as I could and have the birdie lightly float across the court to the other player. It was a good release of pent up energy
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:24 am
I have to say, while it was loading, i thought it was a fly swatter
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:47 am
You could do some serious fly swatting with that racket.
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:14 am
Aww, how i wish i could do that XD
I like badminton, but i don’t have time anymore DX
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:29 am
Badminton is a great sport. I acutally play competitively and im pretty good. I went from massachusetts to california last weekend and got 2nd in teh country! go biff! ultimate badminton NINJA!
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 am
Is anyone else seeing some grid illusions while looking at Biff’s racket? I’m getting trippy just by staring at it for a few seconds.
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:48 am
That’s probably because Biff has the most ominous, intimidating badminton racket ever created.
@Wiser Guy: Yes, yes I am.
@Chris: I agree! It’s a very good way to get some energy out without possibly hurting anyone. Or can you… hmm… my new goal in life is to somehow sustain severe injuries during a routine badminton match. That’ll be a story for the grandkids someday
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:47 am
@matt: its quite simple really, keep swinging the racket around and you’ll deveop tendonitis in no time >.<
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:21 am
It was very satisfying, until the poor kid that no one talks to got hit clean in the nose by a rouge racket.
At least school use to interesting now its all study.
Oh and I am getting the awesome blurry eye thing from the racket.
Love the comic, keep up the great work.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:27 am
Now THAT* is a proper flyswatter!
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:37 am
Not unless Biff is hunting those dreaded 4inch long Australian “Birdie” flies. I tell you, those things can take a hit, sometimes you could hit them back and forth between two fly hunters for hours before they went splat. Had to make sure they didn’t hit the ground though, since they burrow faster than a mole after being beat in the head a few hundred times.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:45 am
You only had half an hour of gym in high school? I’m from Sweden and the equivalent of high school here is called the Gymnasium (funny enough) and we had an hour and twenty minutes twice a week.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 am
We always glued a screw nut to the birdie, so it would fly faster and harder. too bad the rackets didn’t last too long with this kind of ammution *g*
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:45 am
It’s called a shuttlecock in England. I may be immature, but i laugh every time someone asks me to pass them one.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:53 am
Yup, I’ve got the grid illusion as well.
Ths just caused me acute ebarassment in the school IT rooms, it was completely quiet until I laughed.
We played badminton too, but we just spent the whole time seeing who could get the most shuttles in the ceiling. That and see who can nail the gardenias when we played at home.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:06 am
@Those darn kids:
What is up with all this racket in here!!!!
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:13 am
Something tells me that wouldn’t actually help in a game, unless he stood at the net and held it up like a barrier.
I’m just picturing Biff trying to swing underhand, and the racket exploding on contact with the ground… either that, or making ground-fries.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 am
@Eleanor - Awesome.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:21 am
badmitten is a family sport with my relatives, plenty of fun in the summer. beaming people in the head wasn’t all that amusing but getting the birdie stuck in the racket after attempting to power shot was quite laugh worthy.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:36 am
Most rackets are made from metal, right? If so, then imagine how heavy that thing must be.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
Lol badminton
I’ve only ever played badminton once or twice, and I only remember how fun it was.
@APic
Boy, Biff must have an arm, then. Look at how he lifts that massive racket effortlessly with one hand!
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
We’re doing badmitton in gym right now…It was really difficult to get used to at first, because I kept wanting to hit it really hard, like tennis, but when you do that, you end up missing the birdie. It’s really annoying. Also, my partner actually plays tennis, so she keeps trying to hit overhand.
We lose most of our games, but it’s fun!
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
no, badminton rackets are graphite. and they are much much lighter than tennis rackets
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Now, just imagine this one to the left of yesterdays
Biff vs. Biff in a new sport!
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:09 am
Oh, awesome! The look on Biff’s face cracks me up. That’s totally a “bring it!” look. PRICELESS!
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 am
@brickface….me too!!!
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
They are called shuttlecocks in America too. The problem is that the word is slightly innappropriate and so the word birdie is substituted.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Are there other english speaking countries that shuttlecock doesn’t have an inappropriate meaning?
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
@dunc
me too. except we slang it down to call t a cock. that way we get more laughs since every is shouting, “careful of the cock” and “heads up, theres a cock coming your way”
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Dangerous sport week?
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Nah, it’s just a trick with perspectives…. the racket is much closer than Biff!
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
@Will
that net would definatly make ground fries
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Reminds me of one of my friends. We were in P.E. and he got hit in the eye with a birdie playing badminton. He had internal bleeding in his eye and had to miss school for a week. No joke it was hilarious.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
More like…SUPERbad minton
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
@Brokenbridge: Yes, internal bleeding is always hilarious.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Srry but it was just the fact that a little badminton birdie could do that.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
im sure the racket only ways about 25 pounds.
I could play badminton with it if it did.
i mean its hollow with plastic strings.
be a little slow on the return though
@ brokenbridge
did he end up with one of those “bloody glare” type of eyes for a bit?
the kind with a ring(or splotch) of blood on the one side?
April 25th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
@Colin
No he was perfectly fine looking after that week.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Biff’s just asking for a 3-foot shuttlecock heading his way.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:22 am
That’s exactly why I love badminton so much - hitting the birdy really hard at someone’s face is really satisfying. Incidentally, it’s also why I suck at it. Turns out the way to win is to aim /away/ from your opponent.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
We played this absolutely retarded badminton-like game in junior high called pickleball. Whoever came up with this game should be drug out and shot.
You have a badminton net, and the rules were the same BUT instead of a racket, you had something that looked like a cross between a ping-pong paddle and a butcher’s chopping board, all wood, no rubber like a ping pong paddle and, instead of a birdie, you hit a WHIFFLEBALL back and forth over the net. Birdies and raquetballs and tennis balls all bounce and sail really well. Whiffleballs do not, because all those little holes take all the force away from your swings, especially when your paddle is a heavy wooden thing.
We didn’t have to worry so much about trying to nail it over the net, as most of the time, we couldn’t even get it over the net, let alone get enough force behind it to try and hit someone in the face with it.
June 22nd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I still find it hilarious that Americans call it a birdie, while in Britain we call it a shuttlecock. I told my American friend this and she promptly shouted “A shuttleWHAT?!” and told her sisters. They all found it pretty funny.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:13 am
Let me guess… Sport week?