Why do people cheer at sports on TV?

Post Reply New Topic

I never understood it. Why do people cheer at the games on TV? The players can't even hear them scream so why yell at the TV?

It's beyond me.

My hypothesis is it that it acts as an extreme method of expressing joy & approval as well as a sign of unity with fellow viewers. A social thing really, seems a bit ott to me though.

i totally lack the sports gene, so i can't answer directly to the issue of those weird sports lovers yelling at their tv sets. but i myself DO yell at the tv over other things, like seeing stupid pols or evil t-baggers say evil things, at which i reply loudly with things not fit to print here. i have also been known to yell at the tv when "jeopardy" is on ["sports" of the mind, i guess it is], when a contestant gives a totally infantile answer to a "gimme" question, especially if that particular person was a favorite of mine [don't ask me to explain THAT] that i was rooting-for to win- i will shout "NOOOOOOOO!! !!" with the same emotional fervor as if i saw a tree fall on my car or something like that.
i would say the ordinary tv sports fans are vicariously participating in their favorite sports team's travails and are so invested in it that they forget temporarily that they are on the other side of the glass, as it were, and are really among a virtual bunch of other cheering folk. just my 2-cents' worth.

I've never understood it. I don't cheer, when I listen to YouTube. Why do they cheer, when they're watching sports?

To some degree, they want to feel like they are involved. Another aspect is that they feel strongly about how things turn out. It's like trolling.

I don't like watching sports neither on TV nor live. Have no idea what is so interesting about it but I understand many people like sport. They might not understand things I like

Last edited by Agnieszka on 24 Mar 2010, 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wrong place then I asked this. Maybe I should ask this at another forum that is filled with none aspies. I guess no NTs here will answer this since lot of us here are aspies or self diagnosed or have similar conditions.

Maybe for the same reason people yell at the screen when they play video games.

But they are cheering at the person playing the games and they cheer for what they did in the game. Big difference.

If Darwin was right (which we know he was) this is just a primal urge, that of course came from the apes, to randomly scream at anything that moves!

I also sometimes yell at the television, or otherwise just spout out commentary; if you think about it, I think lots of people do this. I think people just feel a need to be involved with what's happening on television.

I dunno, but I do it anyways.

I've often wondered about this. Also, I've noticed that when people are cheering at a ball game, either on TV or in real life, they sound angry. That's what bugs me the most.

Like, if they want Team X to do well, and one of the players is about to catch the ball or whatever, they don't just shout, "Yay! You can do it! Well done!!" in a pleasant, happy way. They shout in a way that makes it sound like they will be very angry if the person doesn't catch the ball or run fast enough. If I were on a sports team, I wouldn't want people shouting at me like that. If I know I need to do my best to run fast or catch the ball, I'll do my best without people screaming at me.

As far as shouting at the TV screen, though, that's just weird. Then again, IMHO, watching sports on TV (or real life, for that matter) is weird whether you shout or not. That's just my opinion, though. I was invited to a professional baseball game once, and it was just hours of guys standing around on the field scratching their butts, and spectators littering their fried chicken wrappers all over the place. Not my idea of fun.

I chat to my tv all the time, and yell if my favourite Top Model has been kicked off or something It's just fun to do, and it feels good to release that I guess

tis in the moment. i sometimes do it when i'm watching the saints or hornets. i do talk to the tv a lot even if it's not sports. my sister calls it my annoying mutterings.

that is one reason i hate watching sports (among others) because of people getting way too involved in the game and yelling.