Ninja Warrior TV Show - Promises Constant Surprises

1. Ninja Warrior TV Show

2. Ninja Warrior TV Show - Promises Constant Surprises • Perhaps the greatest surprise is not the extraordinary capacity of the human body to master a seemingly impossible obstacle course, but rather the belief held by the producers that the label “ninja” is the best term to describe the competitors. • Contestants compete to finish a series of increasingly difficult physical tasks such as swinging across pools on suspended tyres or scaling the formidable Warped Wall.

3. It is a test of grip strength and balance, not Japanese spy craft • The ancient ninja was a covert operative who specialized in sabotage and assassination. • He was a creature of the shadows and disguise, not a flood-lit arena of oversized playground equipment. • Anonymous, he never bothered to develop signature dance moves.

4. The ancient ninja was a covert operative who specialized in sabotage and assassination. He was a creature of the shadows and disguise, not a flood-lit arena of oversized playground equipment. Muffled, he moved in silence. Anonymous, he never bothered to develop signature dance moves. • It is hard to imagine a figure further removed from the ninja than the social media hit of this year’s series, Jacob Woodhouse, a contract administrator and model wearing nothing but solid-gold underwear.

5. The only competitor in this series who seems to have taken the “art of the ninja” seriously was an extremely earnest young man, Gabriel Iftene, who practised at home alone in the dark with a mask and flaming swords and declared that he “resonates strongly with the way of the ninja and samurai”. He fell at the first hurdle. • Originally produced in Japan under the title Sasuke, after the name of a popular warrior folk hero, the sports entertainment show was rebranded for its Ninja Warrior TV show.

6. In promoting the figure of the ninja to sell this series, the show continued a long-standing US practice of borrowing the warrior traditions of other cultures as a way of embellishing sporting activities. • For example, in the , sporting teams have frequently borrowed names and symbols from Native American culture. It is a move that has become increasingly contentious as many Indigenous activist groups regard the practice as demeaning and trivialising of their customs and beliefs.

7. So far, their complaints have achieved little success. While the Atlanta Braves baseball team did retire their mascots “Chief Noc-A-Homa” and “Princess Win-A-Lotta”, their continued use of the “tomahawk chop” to celebrate victory has infuriated many. The Washington Redskins have so far resisted all attempts to change their name. • Here the Roman practice of executing criminals and prisoners of war in theatrical fights to the death was repackaged as a competition in which spandex-clad bodybuilders attempted to knock contestants off greased slopes with padded sticks. It was silliness that Australia took terribly seriously. Overnight the “gladiators” became household names.