115: Meerkat

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Meerkat
Gorilla, yes. Adorable golden retriever, yes. But it says nothing about meerkats.
Title text: Gorilla, yes. Adorable golden retriever, yes. But it says nothing about meerkats.

Explanation[edit]

The situation is a reference to the animal athlete loophole trope, where an animal joins an underdog [No Pun Intended] sports team and saves the day. The other team, which is previously dominant, and usually has an entitled and/or bullying attitude, does not like it, but since there is not a specific rule against it, it has to be allowed.

Randall's combination of animal (Meerkat) and sport (rugby) is particularly unlikely, since meerkats are relatively small, slight animals, whereas rugby is associated with big powerful players, and has not been used in an animal sports movie before.[citation needed]

The title text implies that, as a result of similar instances of animal recruitment in the past, rule changes have been introduced to specifically exclude those animals from taking part, which may be why this team has had to work its way down to meerkats. The governing bodies could probably have avoided this by simply excluding non-human animals.

Transcript[edit]

[A Meerkat wearing a scrum cap and blue jersey, and two guys in the background supposedly on a rugby field.]
You have to admit--there's no rule on the books saying a Meerkat can't play rugby.

Trivia[edit]

A golden retriever is at the centre of the basketball film Air Bud.

In the film Mr. Go, a gorilla becomes a star of the Korean Baseball League.

This concept was revisited in 1552: Rulebook.


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Discussion

"Quuuuiiiiet!! ... Theres NOTHing IN the RULEbook that SAYS an ELephant CAN'T. PLAY! Plllay ball!!!" - Umpire regarding Bobo playing baseball, "Gone Batty" (1954) Looney Tunes 152.119.255.250 16:40, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

But - rugby players don't wear helmets! Unlike a certain country's so-called "football" players ;) 108.162.237.130 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It's called a "scrum cap". Not really a helmet but a canvas head covering that protects the ears in a scrum, where some players' heads are locked in under the front row's arms. The Cat Lady (talk) 09:46, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
Some wear protective padding on their heads. Try a google image search for "rugby headgear". —CsBlastoise (talk) 18:38, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

I came to this page not really for the explanation, but in search of an answer to this question: Is there any particular reason why the title-text mentions a gorilla? I was thinking it might be a reference to something, either a story involving a gorilla playing a sport (possibly rugby), or a real-life rule against gorillas playing rugby (crazy, but plausible; there are U.S. state laws that are arguably weirder). —CsBlastoise (talk) 18:50, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

When they're finally writing the entry to cover all animals, will they have enough sense to also prohibit robots and aliens? Or wait, maybe all sapient being should be free to play. But what if they're 600 feet tall and made of neutronium? —Kazvorpal (talk) 16:39, 13 March 2024 (UTC)