Cow tipping

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cow tipping is a pastime allegedly common in rural areas, in which participants sneak up on an upright sleeping cow and then push it over for amusement. Some variants of this urban legend state that the cow is then unable to get up.

Contents 1 Fact or urban legend? 2 Cow tipping in popular culture 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Fact or urban legend?

One popular variant relies on a supposition that cows lean into a steady wind while asleep in order to keep balance. Based on this, the cow tipper lightly pushes against one side of the cow's torso, and gradually increases the force of push. The cow, while asleep, leans into the push and remains upright. Then when the cow tipper has all of their body weight on the cow, they jump to the side. The cow, still leaning into the ‘wind’, tips over in that direction. ^{[citation needed]}

There is no evidence, aside from mostly unreliable eyewitness reports, that any cows have ever been tipped in the purported manner. In particular, there is no publically available video or other reliable photographic evidence showing that it has been done. It should also be noted that cows sleep laying down.

Based on the cow's weight and body structure, and the potential force that could be exerted make the tipping by pushing physically impossible for a single person.^[1] However it could potentially be done by two people. ^[2] The amount of force and feasibility of tipping would also be highly dependent upon the stance of cow at the moment,^[3] which might contribute to the difficulty in replicating the task.

Notice however, that an attempt to tip a cow may be done in other ways, different from simple, "brute force", pushing.

Some claim the act of tipping the cow is likely to kill it [1].

[edit] Cow tipping in popular culture

References to cow tipping have appeared in many humorous media, such as the comic strip Garfield. Many video games have included humorous references, such as Barnyard for GBA, The Bard's Tale, The Sims 2, Crash Tag Team Racing, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty[2], Destroy All Humans, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and Day of the Tentacle. Television shows that reference it include Drawn Together, That '70s Show, and Beavis and Butt-Head. The films mentioning it include Barnyard: The Original Party Animals, Larva, Heathers, Sweet Home Alabama, Tommy Boy, and Cars (in which the cows are replaced by tractors). The radio show Foxy and Tom often discusses cow tipping.

• In 1991, NPR broadcast a half-hour radio play called "Cow Tipping," a comedy about five hapless college-aged cow tippers in Illinois. The play was produced by the Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop.
• In the song "Lou Reed" by The Little Willies, the lyrics include: "And we don't mean to sound like we're trippin/But we swear to God/We saw Lou Reed cow tippin."
• In the blink-182 song, "Degenerate," one of the verses begins with "Went to a farm to tip some cows/Forgot that I left my pants down".
• In the Carrie Underwood song "I Ain't In Checotah Anymore," Underwood says she would rather be "tipping cows" than living in New York City.
• The internet forum Gaia Online had a 2006 Halloween event which allowed users in human form to tip over an NPC Cow to receive a Cowbell.

[edit] See also

• Steer wrestling in which a running steer is "tipped".
• Geier Hitch, whereby a running bull is "steered"
• Toilet tipping

[edit] References

1. ^ UNL College of Engineering and Mechanics. The Statics of Cow Tipping. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.
2. ^ Malvern, Jack. Cow-tipping myth hasn't got a leg to stand on. Times Online. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.
3. ^ The Mechanics of Cow Tipping (PDF). University of British Columbia (2003-04-09). Archived from the original on 2005-03-20.

[edit] External links

Articles arguing that cow tipping is an urban legend

• The Most Urban of All Urban Legends
• Adventures in cow tipping - Fiction!
• The Times article on Cow Tipping by Jack Malvern
• The Register article debunking the myth of cow tipping while drunk by Lester Haines

Additional links about cow tipping

• Straight Dope article - Discusses whether it is possible.
• Humorous article about Cow Tipping - ubersite.com
• Cow-tipping computer game One picture shows the player character using martial arts in a stance to focus his chi as the means to push over a three thousand pound cow.