to think that the Haka

[Justforlaughs]

can look either rather scary or really ridiculous depending on the player doing it? Just watching it and laughing at some faces and thinking about hiding behind the sofa from some of the others!

No I don't think you're being po faced...it's just that I don't think the OP is being ignorant either.

Lots of people find the haka both scary and funny...depending on whose face the camera zooms in on I guess.

But whether it's scary or funny or both, it does the trick for the opposite team

I think asking, "AIBU to think the haka looks scary" just sounds ignorant. It's like asking, "AIBU to think that wearing black and crying at a funeral looks sad?".

The first time I taught a Y5 class the Haka they went out at playtime and did it at Y6 before their football game

And of course it also has the convenient advantage of making the opposition stand there in the cold, effectively twiddling their thumbs and having to be polite whilst listening (although I do think the ones where the opposition go and stand right up to them or actively do something instead of just standing there are funny as both teams try to psych each other out) whilst they effectively carry on with their warm up.

When every little smudge of an advantage can count at the top level of sport, doing the haka is definitely an advantage for teams - psychological and physiological...

vivacia OP didn't ask if she was UR to think the haka looks scary. there is a whole second part to her question that you have missed out.

Someone asked if the girls join in. Of course they do and you will probably have seen them many times. The problem is that you've only likely seen the Ka Mate haka performed before a rugby match. And you only get the blokes out there of course.

Haka is kind of like saying dance, or song. It isn't one thing. Women don't do the Ka Mate haka, but their performances are just as amazing.

If you live in London come along to the Ngati Ranana Christmas concert on the 7th of Dcember. Is held in the afternoon in the Salvation Army Hall just off Oxford Circus on Oxford Street. Is just simply the most fun, and a really different way to spend the afternoon.

It really is quite fabulous.

I really didn't mean to offend anyone.
It's disrespectful for anyone not from the South Sea Islands to do the Haka anyway. (According to DH)

Proper protocol is that a Haka is only done by males.

Volestair - in my culture it is considered disrespectful for not standing and accepting the challenge or issuing your own (which is what happens when teams like Samoa play the ABs).

Yes, saying you think it's silly is far better than not educating yourself about the origins of a custom.

But like Nynaeves said, of course girls join in now.

I think the rugby guys who do the Haka are well phoooarrr. Oh yes please!!! Well sexy and manly.

Well when I said join in I didn't mean that they'd launch into a Ka Mate haka. There are plenty of haka composed for women and children too. There's also a misconception that the Haka is being performed as a call to war. There are haka that are a direct challenge but the one performed by the All Blacks was composed by a chief Te Raupraha as a celebration of a ruse used to escape his enemy. So I guess it is about triumph. Not hey we want to kill you :)

I think there's some serious underestimation of close harmony singing and stick waving morris dancing here.

Afetr all, a man would have to be very confident in his own sexuality and power to dance about with bells and hankies surely? I know who I'd think twice about...

I like to watch the haka, I think it looks quite spectacular. But I can never work out if the players are really trying to be intimidating or if they're just play acting out of tradition. I don't think it's scary but I do love to see it. It wouldn't be a kiwi match without the haka!

If Im being absolutely honest I can't watch it because I find it embarrassing but I realise that says more about me than it.

I love it.

Embarrassing in what way? See, if the players really do think it's intimidating, I sort of get your point. Embarrassing isn't quite the word I'd use, but it's along those lines.

Oh I don't know, I do get a bit embarrassed for some of them because they just can't pull off the 'scary' look...they just look funny

Have just watched the repatriation haka. Am blubbing.

I don't really know Tidy I just find it deeply, squirmingly embarrassing and have to 'find something else to look at'. It's quite a strange thing.

I didn't think I'd spend this evening crying at haka videos - the soldiers and the school children all had the same effect. There's something about it being taken so very seriously that is moving.

I don't know why the crowd don't just boo them when they do it, any effect they hope to create would be dashed if they had 70,000+ people booing.