Dwarf-tossing

Dwarf-tossing, or midget-tossing, is a pub/bar attraction in which dwarfism-affected persons wearing special padded clothing or Velcro costumes are thrown onto mattresses or at Velcro-coated walls.[1] Participants compete to throw the dwarf the farthest. A related formerly practiced activity was dwarf-bowling, in which a person with dwarfism was placed on a skateboard and used as a bowling ball.[2]

Legality

Canada

In Ontario, Canada, the Dwarf Tossing Ban Act, 2003 was introduced by Windsor West MPP Sandra Pupatello.[3] This private member's public bill did not proceed beyond its introduction to second or third readings, nor did it receive royal assent, and therefore died at the close of the 37th Legislature.[3] The bill proposed a fine of not more than $5,000, imprisonment of not more than six months, or both. The bill was hastily advanced in response to a dwarf-tossing contest[4] that was held at Leopard's Lounge in Windsor, Ontario with a dwarf nicknamed "Tripod".[5]

France

The mayor of the small French town of Morsang-sur-Orge prohibited dwarf-tossing. The case went through the appeal chain of administrative courts to the Conseil d'État, which found that an administrative authority could legally prohibit dwarf-tossing on grounds that the activity did not respect human dignity and was thus contrary to public order.[6] The question raised legal questions as to what was admissible as a motive for an administrative authority to ban an activity for motives of public order, especially as the conseil did not want to include "public morality" in public order. The ruling was taken by the full assembly and not a smaller panel—proof of the difficulty of the question.[7] The conseil ruled similarly in another case between an entertainment company and the city of Aix-en-Provence.[8]

The United Nations Human Rights Committee decided on July 26, 2002, that the ban was not discriminatory with respect to dwarfs. It ruled that the ban could be considered as "necessary to protect public order, which brings into play considerations of human dignity".[9]

Nevertheless, dwarf-tossing is not prohibited outright in France. The Conseil d'État decided that a public authority could use gross infringement on human dignity as a motive of public order to cancel a spectacle, and that dwarf-tossing constituted such a gross infringement. However, it is up to individual authorities to make specific decisions regarding prohibition.

United States

Robert and Angela Van Etten, Florida members of the Little People of America, convinced the state's legislators in 1989 that dwarf-tossing be made illegal. A measure banning dwarf-tossing was passed with a wide margin.[10] New York later followed suit.[11][12]

A lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court by Dave Flood, who appears on the MJ Morning Show as "Dave the Dwarf," names Governor Jeb Bush and the head of the state agency that enforces the 1989 law allowing the state to fine or revoke the liquor license of a bar that allows dwarf-tossing. The sport was popular in some Florida bars in the late 1980s.[13]

In October 2011, Ritch Workman introduced legislation that would overturn the ban on dwarf-tossing, claiming such a ban to be an "unnecessary burden on the freedom and liberties of people" and "an example of Big Brother government". Although not a personal advocate of the activity, Workman stated "if a little person wants to make a fool out of themselves for money, they should have the same right to do so as any average sized person".[14]

Popular culture references to dwarf-tossing

In The Lord of the Rings, at the broken bridge in the Mines of Moria, Aragorn tosses his hobbit companions across a large gap before the pillar they are on collapses. Gimli tells Aragorn, "Nobody tosses a dwarf!" before jumping over himself. Later, at the Battle of Helm's Deep, Gimli allows Aragorn to throw him over a narrow defile to battle Saruman's armies, after making Aragorn promise to never mention the act to Legolas. The director's commentary in the special extended DVD edition of The Fellowship of the Ring debates whether the sport originated in the United Kingdom or Australia. The director's commentary goes on to say that the writing team did not realize that dwarf-tossing is not as common in the United States and other regions as it is in New Zealand, and thus did not anticipate that many fans ultimately did not know what the joke was referring to. Neither incident, nor anything like it, appears in the actual book of Lord of the Rings.

Dwarf-tossing is featured in the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.

Author Hugh Cook includes a dwarf-tossing scene in his 1992 fantasy novel The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster.

In the 2004 comedic film Dodgeball, a magazine titled Obscure Sports Quarterly features midget tossing.

American legal drama "L.A. Law" featured a legal dispute revolving around dwarf-tossing in an episode aired on 11/23/1989.[15]

In the Steve Jackson Games card game Munchkin, there is a card called "Dwarf Tossing".

Dwarf-tossing is briefly mentioned by Ronfar in the Working Designs localization of Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete.

In Brett Easton Ellis' Novel American Psycho main character Patrick Bateman watches a TV show called "The Patty Winters Show". One of the episodes is referred to being "about a new sport called Dwarf Tossing".

The eponymous debut album by the hardcore punk band Scrotum Grinder included a song about the sport, featuring a ten-minute harp solo by the group's lead harpist, Carlo Franzoni.

Hornswoggle (AKA "Little Bastard"), a character on WWE's SmackDown!, is regularly dragged out from under the ring (where he "lives") and is tossed by Finlay into his opponents.

The music album Midget Tossing by Yellowcard.

Wall Street firms (according to a 2005 Wall Street Journal article)[16] furnished private jets and paid female escorts for attendees to a bachelor party for a Fidelity Funds trader Dennis Bruderman who was to marry the daughter of the disgraced Tyco International Ltd. boss L. Dennis Kozlowski. The party featured dwarf-tossing.

The group Bouquet of Veal released the song "Dwarf Tossin'" which is available on The Obscurity File and Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes 2.[17]

The Oblongs, an animated television show, featured an episode with a run down bar showcasing dwarf-tossing.

In episode three of the third season of American Dad!, Stan and his new friend Brett Morris are seen to be competing in the fictional "Dwarf Toss '07".

In Matthew Harrison's 1992 feature film Spare Me, the heroes father runs an underground dwarf-bowling operation.

In episode 5 of season 5 of Squidbillies Early Cuyler wears a hat advising "VOTE YES RE-LEGALIZE MIDGET TOSSING".

In Married... with Children Season 6, Episode 16 Rites of Passage, Al takes Bud to a gentleman's club for his 18th birthday, and the sign with the "House Rules" states "NO DWARF TOSSING".

In "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe", the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' twentieth season, Moe removes a banner in his bar advertising dwarf-tossing, to avoid offending a dwarf woman he is dating.

In the TV series Life's Too Short with Warwick Davis at the beginning of episode 3, dwarf-bowling is shown using a greased up little person, a slip-and-slide mat and over sized bowling pins.

As Peter Dinklage accepted his Golden Globe award on January 15, 2012, he ended his acceptance speech saying he was thinking about Martin Henderson and told the audience to Google the name. Henderson, a 37-year-old dwarf and aspiring actor in the UK, was badly injured after being tossed by a drunk man outside a pub in Somerset, England.

See also

References

  1. ↑ International Dwarf Tossing Association
  2. ↑ Dwarf Bowling on Staten Island Lands in Gutter: Gothamist
  3. 1 2 Dwarf Tossing Ban Act, 2003
  4. ↑ Legislative Assembly of Ontario Transcript of Debates for Thursday, June 12, 2003
  5. ↑ Canadian Press (2003-06-12). "Ontario MLA sweats the small stuff". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). ISSN 0319-0714. Retrieved 17 June 2014. The organizer of a dwarf-tossing contest vowed the show would go on Thursday even as an angry Ontario politician made an 11th-hour bid to stop the event.
  6. ↑ Conseil d'État statuant au contentieux, n°136727, lecture du 27 octobre 1995
  7. ↑ Commentary of the ruling on the Conseil d'État's site
  8. ↑ Conseil d'État statuant au contentieux, n°143578, lecture du 27 octobre 1995
  9. ↑ http://juris.ohchr.org/Search/Details/1010
  10. ↑ Florida Ban on Dwarf Tossing Must Be Upheld, Announces LPA, Inc.; Dwarf-Tossing is a Dangerous, Demoralizing Activity That Poses Specific Hazards to Persons with Dwarfism
  11. ↑ Midget Throwing: A Lost Art
  12. ↑ "Cuomo Signs Bill to Ban Dwarf Tossing". Los Angeles Times. July 25, 1990.
  13. ↑ "Florida Radio Personality Files Suit to Allow Return of 'Dwarf Tossing'". Ludington Daily News, December 1, 2001.
  14. ↑ Cerabino, Frank (2011-10-05). "Lawmaker Wants State to Reinstate Dwarf Tossing". The Palm Beach Post.
  15. ↑ L.A. Law: The Mouse That Soared - TV.com
  16. ↑ Craig, Susanne; Hechinger, John (July 18, 2005). "A Wall Street Affair: This Bachelor Party Gets Lots of Attention". The Wall Street Journal.
  17. ↑ The Mad Music Archive

Further reading

External links

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