The Kendama Kid

You can look at most people and determine with a high degree of confidence whether they juggle. Meh’s own videomaster @matthew, for instance, gives off a vibe that strongly suggests his childhood was spent practicing circus feats. Other people you might meet and say, “I bet he can knit” or, “Chances are she bowls.”

What kind of people, then, seem like they know their way around Kendama? Who would you expect, if they saw the classic Japanese bill-in-cup game at a party, would pick it up and immediately do this?

Maybe your child, or a child you know, is destined to be a Kendama Kid. There’s only one way to find out: Put it in their hands and see how they react. Best case, they take to the game’s simple challenge and devote hours, then weeks, then years to becoming Kendama champs.

Worst case, they eventually lose interest but spend time engaged in something other than a screen.

Think your child is too brilliant to be engaged with a simple game like Kendama? Consider the game “Go,” one of the simplest in the world and largely considered the most mentally taxing. Google’s AI recently defeated the top human Go player, marking a milestone in our march towards cybernetic subservience. Indeed, Kendama has been used as a test of robotic agility:

Think your child is too cool for Kendama? Check out this scene from the most recent episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:

A shameless marketing placement from the Kendama fat cats? Or proof that this ancient game couldn’t be hotter among the youths? Just like how the cool kids all juggled when we were young, these days the hippest cats at the junior high “spike it like it’s hot.”

As it turns out, @matthew doesn’t know how to juggle. Surprising, we know. Even alarming. Don’t let your children suffer similar humiliation later in life when their peers learn they don’t know how to handle a Kendama despite every indication otherwise.

Goodbye! Farewell!