Hundreds show up in Nebraska for fight over name Josh

Authored by apnews.com and submitted by Honorguard44

Hundreds show up in Nebraska for fight over name Josh

Joshs gathered to battle it out to find out who is the rightful owner of the name Josh via a pool noodle battle royale in an open green space in Air Park on Saturday, April 24, 2021, in Lincoln, Neb. What started as a mid-pandemic joke took on life Saturday, as a mixed bag of individuals sharing only their name came to battle it out. The winner was to be declared the rightful owner of the name. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A fight over the name of Josh drew a crowd from around the country to a Nebraska park Saturday for a heated pool-noodle brawl.

It all started a year ago when pandemic boredom set in and Josh Swain, a 22-year-old college student from Tucson, Arizona, messaged others who shared his name on social media and challenged them to a duel.

Hundreds showed up at Air Park in Lincoln — a location chosen at random — to participate in the silliness.

The festivities started with a “grueling and righteous battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors” between the Josh Swain from Arizona and another Josh Swain from Omaha. KLKN-TV reports that the Arizona student won that competition, allowing him to claim the title of the true Josh Swain.

The pool-noodle competition that followed was open to anyone with the first name of Josh. The victor of that competition was a 5-year-old , who was coronated with a Burger King crown.

Swain, the organizer, said he is a little surprised about how the whole thing blew up: “I did not expect people to be as adamant about this as they are right now.”

gmunoz14 on April 25th, 2021 at 02:34 UTC »

“The festivities started with a “grueling and righteous battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors” between the Josh Swain from Arizona and another Josh Swain from Omaha. KLKN-TV reports that the Arizona student won that competition, allowing him to claim the title of the true Josh Swain.”

That’s fucking hilarious

seroma32 on April 25th, 2021 at 02:09 UTC »

Shame AP also left out the part that they raised over $8700 in the name of "Legal Fees for Josh Swain to Change His Name" that they actually donated to a children's hospital iirc and donated a bunch of nonperishable food to the food ban there

Edit: was gonna change ban to bank like it should be, but its too funny in hindsight

ok_okay_I_get_that on April 24th, 2021 at 23:04 UTC »

Of all the apnews push notifications I get about doom this one would have been nice to see up there