The Bad & the Ugly

It wasn't just TK who prodded me this week (see below). My old buddy "Dez" also sent along a link that he knew would get me going: a list from Fox Sports of the 14 "dumbest mascots." There are four Olympic mascots on the list, because those things tend to be demented, purposeless creations with names like "Wenlock and Mandeville" that were designed in the visual equivalent of Esperanto and would send any sane person screaming.

I think they're a little hard on Otto the Orange (at left) from Syracuse, writing: "It doesn't get much dumber than a giant orange ball. And to think, Syracuse was also considering a wolf and a lion as its mascot when it picked Otto in 1995." First of all, they are the "Syracuse Orange," and as vague as that is, an orange something would seem to fit the bill. Also, Wikipedia calls Otto a gender-neutral "anthropomorphic orange, wearing a large blue hat and blue pants." And I ask, what is wrong with that?

The site is not too hard, however, on Hip Hop, the Philadelphia 76ers' mascot ("It's a rapping bunny. 'Nuff said.") or on "Q," the truly terrifying mascot of soccer's San Jose Earthquakes: