The first annual Redneck Olympics, which took place in Hebron, Maine earlier this month, featured events such as wife-carrying, bobbing for pig’s feet, lawn mower races, mud pit belly flops and toilet-seat horseshoes.

It also posed a threat to the real Olympics, apparently, because lawyers for the US Olympic Committee have contacted Redneck Olympic organizer Harold Brooks and told him to cease and desist using the word “Olympic” to describe his event.

The USOC actually does have the legal right to make this demand– in 1978, Congress passed a law giving the USOC exclusive rights to the word Olympic and all of its derivations.

“We have no interest in being the big bad guy that comes in and ruins everyone’s fun, [but] it’s important for us to protect this intellectual property,” Mark Jones, a spokesman for the US Olympic Committee, said.

For his part, Brooks says he’s going to display a little bit of redneck stubbornness and ignore the demand.

In the past, the USOC has used the threat of a lawsuit to force what was previously known as the Gay Olympics, and a band formerly called “The Olympic Hopefuls,” to change their names.

 

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