Dwarf tossing
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Dwarf tossing is a bar attraction in which dwarfs wearing special padded clothing or Velcro costumes are thrown onto mattresses or at Velcro-coated walls. Participants compete to throw the dwarf the farthest. The term "dwarf throwing" is sometimes used.
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[edit] Challenges to the legality of dwarf tossing
Dwarf tossing is widely considered to be offensive to the dignity of dwarfs, and some legislators have considered bans.[citation needed] Proponents of the sport have criticized such moves, with some arguing bans deny dwarfs a possible source of income.[citation needed]
[edit] United States
Robert and Angela Van Etten, Florida members of the Little People of America, convinced the state's legislators in 1989 that dwarf tossing be made illegal. A measure banning dwarf tossing was passed with a wide margin.[citation needed] New York later followed suit.[citation needed]
A lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court by Dave Flood, who appears on a morning radio talk show as "Dave the Dwarf," names Governor Jeb Bush and the head of the state agency that enforces the 1989 law allowing the state to fine or revoke the liquor license of a bar that allows dwarf tossing.[citation needed] The sport was popular in some Florida bars in the late 1980s.[citation needed]
[edit] France
The mayor of small town (Morsang-sur-Orge), France, has prohibited dwarf tossing. The case went through the appeal chain of administrative courts to the Conseil d'État, which found that an administrative authority could legally prohibit dwarf tossing on grounds that the activity did not respect human dignity and was thus contrary to public order. The question raised legal questions as to what was admissible as a motive for an administrative authority to ban an activity for motives of public order, especially as the conseil did not want to include "public morality" in public order. The ruling was taken by the full assembly and not a smaller panel - proof of the difficulty of the question. The conseil ruled similarly in another case between an entertainment company and the city of Aix-en-Provence.[citation needed]
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights judged on September 27, 2002, that the decision was not discriminatory with respect to dwarfs. It ruled the ban on dwarf tossing was not abusive, but necessary to protect public order, including considerations of human dignity.[citation needed]
Nevertheless, dwarf tossing is not necessarily prohibited outright in France. The Conseil d'État decided that a public authority could use gross infringement on human dignity as a motive of public order to cancel a spectacle, and that dwarf tossing constituted such a gross infringement. However, it is up to individual authorities to make specific decisions regarding prohibition. It remains to be seen whether an administration's refusal could be litigated against if a local administration refuse to take action against dwarf tossing.[citation needed]
[edit] References
[edit] Canada
In Ontario, Canada, the Dwarf Tossing Ban Act, 2003 (Bill 97 2003) tabled by Windsor MPP Sandra Pupatello was carried (passed). With penalties of a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment for a term of not more than six months, or both. This was in response to a dwarf tossing contest that was held at Leopard's Lounge in Windsor Ontario with a dwarf nick-named 'Tripod'.
[edit] Popular culture references to dwarf tossing
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In The Lord of the Rings film trilogy at the broken bridge in the Mines of Moria, Gimli tells Aragorn, "Nobody tosses a dwarf!" before jumping over a large gap himself. Later, at the Battle of Helm's Deep, Gimli allows Aragorn to throw him over a narrow defile to battle Saruman's armies after making Aragorn promise to never mention the act to Legolas. The director's commentary in the special extended DVD edition of The Fellowship of the Ring debates whether the sport originated in the United Kingdom or Australia. The director's commentary goes on to say that the writing team didn't realize that dwarf tossing isn't as common in the United States and other regions as it is in New Zealand, etc., and thus didn't anticipate that many fans ultimately didn't know what the joke was referring to.
Author Hugh Cook includes a dwarf-tossing scene in his 1992 fantasy novel The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster.
In the 2004 comedic film Dodgeball, a magazine titled Obscure Sports Quarterly features midget tossing.
Featured prominently in an episode of The Oblongs.
American legal drama "L.A. Law" featured a legal dispute revolving around dwarf tossing in an episode aired on 11/23/1989 [1]
In the Steve Jackson Games card game Munchkin, there is a card called "Dwarf Tossing".
Hornswoggle (AKA "Little Bastard"), a character on WWE's SmackDown!, is regularly dragged out from under the ring (where he "lives") and is tossed by Finlay into his opponents.
The music album Midget Tossing by Yellowcard.
Wall Street firms (according to a 2005 Wall Street Journal article [2]) furnished private jets and paid female escorts for attendees to a bachelor party for a Fidelity Funds trader Dennis Bruderman who was to marry the daughter of the disgraced Tyco International Ltd. boss L. Dennis Kozlowski. The party featured dwarf-tossing. The SEC provided more details of this party in 2008, saying Wall Street firms also paid for Ecstasy, an illegal drug in the United States, which was consumed at the party.
The Oblongs, an animated television show, featured an episode with a run down bar showcasing dwarf tossing.
In episode three of the third season of American Dad, Stan and his new friend Brett Morris are seen to be competing in the fictional "Dwarf Toss '07"
