115: Meerkat
| Meerkat |
 Title text: Gorilla, yes. Adorable golden retriever, yes. But it says nothing about meerkats. |
Explanation
The situation is a reference to the animal athlete loophole trope, where an animal joins a failing sports team and saves the day. The other team (i.e. the bad guys) does not like it, but since there is not a specific rule against it, it has to be allowed.
In this particular situation, Randall uses both an animal (Meerkat) and sport (rugby) that haven't been used in an animal sports movie before.
The title text mentions an "adorable golden retriever", a direct reference to the most famous animal athlete film Air Bud.
This concept was revisited in 1552: Rulebook.
Transcript
- [A Meerkat wearing a helmet and 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.
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"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)
