[pkulak]

What's the point? I mean, why blow on one of those things all match long? I go to American football games and make a lot of noise, but only when the opposing offense is lined up to try to get them offside. Otherwise the stadium is silent. What is the point of constant noise during the entire game?

[verisimilitude]

Questioning the purpose of things never seems to go well when the topic is sports -- the purpose of the whole thing is fun.

[pkulak]

I guess I just wonder why laying on a one-note horn for 2 hours is fun.

[nollidge]

I don't think anyone does, it's just the additive effect of 30,000 people blowing them at random intervals is a constant buzz (particularly on TV, when there's no direction to the audio).

[jcl]

I expect that this is akin to wondering why anyone would want to go to a concert and lay on their camera's flash for two hours to create that annoying "continuous strobe" effect. :)

[Tichy]

Only one way to find out: try it yourself :-)

[s555]

My theory: World Cup tickets are too expensive for most soccer fans in South Africa, so they are bought by more affluent types, who are not familiar with fan traditions (many don't even know much about soccer), and therefore just blow the vuvuzelas continuously and randomly during the match, because they think that it's the cool thing to do.

[kordless]

Clearly you've never been to a Sooners game at the University of Oklahoma.

[pkulak]

No, but I was at the fourth-loudest game ever recorded:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Ducks_football#Venues_an...

[kordless]

> the team's main rival is the Oregon State Beavers.

Heh.

[prawn]

Atmosphere means different things to different people?

[rlm]

I really can't see how constant bzzzzz is atmosphere.

The atmosphere from the stands (cheering, singing, etc) gets completely drowned. :(

[loewenskind]

If you were actually in the stands it probably wouldn't sound the same since your point of reference would be totally different.

[prawn]

"The atmosphere I like and am used to is drowned out by the atmosphere you like and are used to."

Yes, it's an endless drone on TV and my wife doesn't love it, but it is unique to this World Cup and gives it its own flavour. Come visit me in Summer and our heat is dry and merciless all day. Visit the tropics and the night is filled with cicadas for hours on end. They're things which not everyone will love, but they help define these places.

The vuvuzelas are not forever, but they help define the 2010 WC.

[raeez]

You cannot hear it on TV, but the combination of cheering, taunting and vuvzela's is just magical (from the stands).

[starkfist]

I'm quite pleased to have learned that a simple thing like a bunch of people with oversized kazoos can cause international outrage.