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Lehtikuva / Reuters
Theun "Tremelo Theun" de Jong of Netherlands performs during the 2012 Air Guitar World Championshps in Oulu August 24, 2012.
OULU, Finland -- American Justin Howard, alias Nordic Thunder, was crowned world champion air guitar player late on Friday in the northern Finnish city of Oulu, narrowly ahead of his compatriot Matt Burns, or Airistotle.
Howard, looking like a Viking warrior in his leather tunic, gave an energetic performance that including sliding across the stage bare legged, and won the title with a score of 34.6 points, just ahead of Burns who got 34.4 points.
Martti Kainulainen / AFP - Getty Images
Matt "Airistotle" Burns of USA gives a performance that won him second place.
"I feel amazing, I feel loved, I feel like crying and laughing and hugging," said Howard after winning both the title and the prize of a handmade electric guitar.
Howard was U.S. champion air guitarist last year, and took silver in the 2011 world championship.
The air guitar world championships have been played in Oulu since 1996.
Lehtikuva / Reuters
And the winner is ... Justin Howard, alias Nordic Thunder.
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Leave a Comment:
Just wondering, can any of these ppl play guitar, I mean, a real guitar?
U-S-A!
U-S-A!
U-S-A!
hehe...
AB+AB+:
The answer is no...because they are idiots.
Would it have been a copyright violation to mention what song(s) were used during the competition?
*sigh*...Google is your friend...
I hope the winner and runners-up got enough prize money to move out of their parents' homes.
Life is much too short to spend any time on something like this. Instead of spending time practicing this, read a book, catch a fish, kiss a real girl or even paint your mom's house.
I have a question I'd love to have answered. Why?
nope rich, they get paid in "air" dollars..........................:)
Pathetic, no-talent, losers need to learn to play a real guitar!
LOL, Nordic Thunder looks like a Neanderthal. And he represents the USA?
I thought Neanderthals died out long ago?
I bet they get a lot of air sex.
I disagree with you RC. Life is too short so act a fool and enjoy it. So what some idiots had some harmless fun. Who cares. It looks hilarious.
Sharktopussie,
The Neanderthals never really went away. Evolutionarily speaking:
After a long period of quiescence, they morphed into a new subspecies called "The Moral Majority", and went around TELLING everyone that they represented the USA. Evolution being what it is, that group reformed some years later and now calls itself the Tea Party (after mistakenly being classified as "Neocons" for a while by some so-called experts). Like cockroaches and sharks (no offense) little about their basic structure and function has changed over the years...a genetic conservatism, if you will.
@ richardharrow
Maybe you're right, it's just that I've spent my whole life trying to not look like a fool. Not always being sucessful. To each his own.
RC - are you having more fun than these guys?
If not, maybe you're the one doing it wrong. Just saying. They look to be enjoying life.
A better title would be "World Championship of a Bunch of Idiots"
You beat me to the punch, but I was going to post more simply: "What idiocy".
Gimme a break - better than a silly "Beauty Contest."
Will any of these guys be released from the asylum soon?
Not without their MEDS and air guitars.
A group of us in Louisville, Ky was attending a Air Guitar contest hosted by a local bar called Armondos. My friend enter the contest and won that night. It had 2 or 3 nights of competitions and at the end of the contest my friend won playing Highway to Hell. Bob Segar gave him a Les Paul AutoGraphed Rainbow @ the Summer Jam in Louisville, Ky. Pretty Cool, back in the late 70's or maybe 1980 can't remember for sure.
Congratulations! You are now the world's greatest ROCK MIME!!
***your mom must be so proud***
Lighten up people, with all the bad news we read about nowadays this is a good story. Weird, but hey, good for them.
Agreed.
And now a round of air-applause...
No, that picture of Nordic Thunder is clearly BAD NEWS!
Great point Horizon
Wow, I'm surprised the uptight posters above me took the time to comment. They all must have needed to feel superior to someone this morning.
This looks like it was a blast. Congrats to Nordic Thunder.
Be nice. They're probably practicing for the World Air-Head competition. And from what we see on the Vine most days, competition is stiff.
That said, what better fun than goofy fun? Another round of Air applause, please!
Whiff, whiff, whiff. And a standing whiff, whiff, whiff.
I'm the world's Best Air Golfer!!!!!
I shot a round of 18 air holes and managed to finish my round in 12 strokes. I got a couple of doubles.
This is news?
evidently......and interresting at that, after all you took the time to comment..............:)
Does someone have to die to make your news Troy? The answer is YES. Yes, this is news.
Goodnight Troy.
No its the newest Olympic event
Got my Air Bat going and at the top of my game right now. Going to contact the Yankees and see if I can replace Arod since he swings mostly at air anyway. I could do it for far less then what he is making. The Bronx here I come....
Can you do "Eruption" by Van Halen during air guitar contest? I've done that when I was a senior in high school during talent show contest.
when i was in high school if you were running around "playing" an imaginary guitar you would get an ol fashioned a$$ whoopin..................:)
I want to see the best air symphony orchestra
wow .....an "air groupie" ........................:)
Are Air-Groupies also known as Air-Heads?
I play a mean air-cowbell... I have an air-fever for air-cowbell
Man!...can this world get any stupider? I actual play a REAL guitar that you can see. I wouldn't know how to even start playing air.
Oh C'mon. Everybody listening to Rock has played some kind of air guitar or drum. lighten up
Wow Alan, you sound impressive. At a talent show in grade school, i scratched my nuts while watching it.
could be crabs.... are you sure you was just "scratching"?...................:)
Crab Scratch Fever? Just like a person in a hot dog contest this event needs to be in the right perspective. A silly event with people who want to fool around and have fun. A lot of games are simulations and I'm sure those who participated know that and so do the bitter (with their own lives) critics. DUDE; the guy did get a guitar...! Far Out MAN!
Now give the guy his air award and air money so he can take it to the air bank so he can pay his air bills and buy his air food.
He won a brand new "air Guitar"
I'll fly him home in my air plane.
Geez...the Scandinavians used to be known for their classiness, decorum, fine art, (Ibsen, Grieg, Munch, etc). A polite, well educated group. What happened???...the end of the world as we know it!!
Rich could be right,,,best not take any chances, so all you blond blue eyed hottie"s can come here to seek.......shelter..............:)
Now if they could have hairbrush lipsynching karaoke so we don't have to listen to the terrible karaoke bar singers.
what a waste of air.....................
meanwhile some guy on the side of the road in the heat with a flat could have used all that air these guys were waisting.............:)
They're as good playing air guitar as they are pumping their girlfriends up with air.
The name sounds to me like code for "Neo Nazis"...and sure enough, one song attributed to a group called "Nordic Thunder" includes the deathless line: "Jew or @!$%#, Commie or Queer, I have a bullet for you." Nice group to represent America.
yoo hoo.............. you guys with the white coats..........found one..............:)
Go drink your juice Cassandra, and take your pill. The mans nickname is Nordic Thunder, he has nothing to do with the group Nordic Thunder!!!
Thank you for clearing that up, nb. But I still feel it is no coincidence that he and the Neo-Nazi group chose the same name. I mean, if he just searched for the name on the Internet, he must have found the same thing I did. Of course, he could merely be trying to get attention that way...and as we all see, he succeeded.
still here eh?.......must be a hole in their net.................:)
IA.Scooter: It must have been an air net.
so i assume their "groupies" are blow up as well...............
did anyone notice what the prize was for this contest? A handmade ELECTRIC GUITAR....yeah right, as if any of the contestants could actually play it!
they will probably burn it on stage at their next "concert"................:)
@Sharktopussie what have you done lately besides criticize someone. Have you had a very good look in the mirror recently? You are not very attractive yourself...
hey shes kinda hot.... i would......................:)