Juggler vs. Juggler

I originally intended to use this post to simply show you a clip of a sweet juggling routine by this guy, Chris Bliss, saying that he’d be the villain in the next Batman movie (“The Juggler”). Hilarious, I know. In searching for the HTML code to display the video, however, I was shocked to stumble upon the seedy underbelly of the juggling world; a world of amoral thievery, manipulation and arrogance. There is an apparent war being waged between the World Juggling Federation and “hacks” like this Chris Bliss. Yes, that’s right: juggling controversy.

Let’s begin with the video that started it all, Chris Bliss performing his juggling routine to The Beatles’ “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End.”

Impressive, yes? Not so fast, friend. The World Juggling Federation, outraged by Bliss’ substandard performance, shot back with this video of Jason Garfield:

Chris Bliss, an old and crafty juggling veteran, seemingly upped the ante with his bold interpretation of the Fatboy Slim tune, “That Old Pair of Jeans.”

The WJF’s angry response:

There was much outrage and backlash to the WJF videos amongst the Internet’s juggling-video-watching committee (read: nerds who like juggling), voiced admirably by one Chiok Sing Li:

Strong words, Chiok Sing Li; strong words. The intensity and growing anger amongst the amateur juggling committee grew via the Google video community to the point that Garfield himself had to respond:

Yeah.