Archery Humour defined

The bow didn't pass the 3m line so may be shot again.

It often feels that archery humour can be a bit enigmatic, obscure, even potentially gatekept. Where the newbie archer can feel that they are missing much of the archery experience. This is especially acute when veteran archers are all wetting themselves for some reason invisible to the casual observer. The truth is, archery humour is pretty simple to break down because while archery is an extremely complicated past-time when you listen to archery gnu's, the people doing it aren't that complicated. They take amusement from the simplest things to alleviate the boredom of standing around waiting for all the things archers have to wait around for! Lets look at five vague categories that cause archers to get their smirk on...

Physical Humour: The simplest humour in archery, one everyone can enjoy when it occurs. This is mostly slapstick where an archer didn't secure their sight/stabilizers properly and they fall off while shooting. They forget to belt up their quiver properly so it falls down round their ankles as they walk to the line. Or the always entertaining .. archer forgets to put on their sling and proceeds to throw their bow down range. Priceless! There is also the never ending amusement you get from an archer getting regularly stuck on the clicker. Many hours of fun pointing, mocking, making up club proverbs like "A watched John never shoots".
Not high brow comedy but then again, most archers probably like The Three Stooges.

In his defense, his trousers did stay up.

Banter: Banter is the easiest archery humour to get involved with. Mock other bow styles .. other clubs .. compounds and compounders .. your fellow archers .. and instantly you are fitting right in. Its said archery is 25% physical and 75% mental. In reality its 10% physical, 40% mental, 5% innumeracy and 50% banter. Clubs will have their own specific bugbears that they like to openly denigrate. At GA, you will hear a great deal of vitriol aimed at Hoyt although, to be honest, all of this is generated by one archer working overtime! And compounds .. did we mention mocking compounds? The GA's guide to banter can be found here.

Archery Philosophy: While archery can be a significant cause of Tourette's Syndrome, it also can be a great inspiration to deep thinkers. Turkish Playwright, Novelist & Thinker Mehmet Murat ildan once said “An arrow is never afraid of shooting from the bow; but it is afraid of not reaching the target!” Never a truer word said .. archers feel the same even when they have a metal detector to hand. Many other deep yet amusing archery quotes can be found on our archers philosophising page.

Weird: This can simply be the result of many in-jokes or references to comedic remarks/moments from previous practice sessions. Here you just need to attend sessions regularly and you'll pick up many of the strange in-jokes or why occasional moo-ing or baa-ing noises can happen when certain archers are shooting. Why one archer might be nicknamed "The lurker in the woods", why another allegedly isn't allowed into Korea or why yet a third is banned by his wife from wine and late night archery shopping. For a really skewed view of the world of archery, you probably want to take a look at some of the material, including a whole slightly dodgy badge system, created by our editor.

Dry humour: When archers express how they feel in a simple, unemotional way it can convey a level of nuance the words shouldn't be able to deliver.  A good example of this happened recently. We'll set the scene then give you the dialogue...

Big Fat Cheating Ali's

There are two archers shooting. Archer J is shooting the last arrow of a rather shaky six arrow end. Archer G is drinking his caf having not shot an arrow yet. As the last arrow hits the target, Archer G picks up his bow and steps onto the line...

Archer J: You going to shoot? Could you not have shot your arrows while I was shooting?
Archer G: I'll only shoot one arrow.
Archer J: I bet it goes in the middle. (somewhat bitterly)
Archer G: .. TWANG .. THUD. (see pic right)
Archer J: ......................... I hate you.

.. and instantly you can feel the complex relationship between these two archers.
Such moments rival any pivotal scripted scene in romcom, buddy movie or melodrama coming out of Hollywood. And thinking theatrically, Shakespeare should have had two comedic archers in Hamlet, rather than two gravediggers! Archery humour, drier than the driest martini.

So, just a little fun in this article and hopefully something to make you smile when you are deep into a round, judges aren't giving you blatantly obvious line-cutters and your target partners are all so very serious about their craft!