You know how I usually try to fight the urge to write about fandom
as if it is some kind of mystical experience… well GISHWHES can only really be
described in this way, so yay. To write it by any other means would be a disservice.
Therefore I cannot guarantee that you will come out of this article with any
answers – but you might have a weird desire to dance the cueca with a judge
wearing a Justin Beiber t-shirt while eating kale.
Enter at your own risk.
GISHWHES comes from the mind of our overlord – Misha Collins for
those that have no yet accepted his rule – and a Miss Jean Louis (ruling status
is as yet unknown). Together they decided to show the world just how much
better life is when a little bit of randomness comes your way.
Misha rose to power after his alter ego Castiel was featured on that
documentary about two underwear models that are always hallucinating about ghosts.
Then when Misha joined twitter he found himself with a million people willing
to do everything and anything he asked. At first he used his power for good,
creating an awesome charity called Random Acts, which you are all going to go
donate to right now. But then he figured what’s the point in having all this
power if you’re not making people do embarrassing things. Thus GISHWHES was
born.
GISHWHES (pronounced gishwhes) may or may not stand for Greatest
Internet Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Scene. And last year over 6000
people may or may not have signed up to participate in this alleged scavenger
hunt without knowing exactly what they were in for. These so-called people were
put in to teams of 10 and given a list of over 200 items to complete over 10
days. For each completed item teams were awarded a certain number of points and
at the end the team with the highest score (and a couple of lucky extras) were
treated to pasta dinner with the overlord himself… in Italy.
Team 83 took the top honour last year, with some truly amazing
submissions, but the real winner was everyone because Gishwhes actually is the
Greatest Internet Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Scene, it has a Guinness
World record to prove it. But that’s not important because us Gishwhesians
don’t do it for the recognition, we do it because if we won’t then who will?
Seriously though, last year I almost killed myself with fumes while
sautéing a travel guide and I took a last minute road trip to Canberra. I
taught myself how to make a balloon animal (much to the amusement of the man at
the Party Shop), found a local cinema willing to do pretty much anything I asked
them, realised that meatballs go really well with mint ice cream and discovered that a dress made out of bacon feels just as gross as you might
think.
Right now I’m sure your chastising yourself for not having joined in
the fun, which is far enough because you missed out on some goooood times, if
you know what I mean. But don’t worry because the overlord has seen fit to give
you another chance, yup Gishwhes is back for another year. That’s right this
October the world will be taken over by the craziest most awesome group of people
you wish you were lucky enough to have meet.
Honestly, it sounds really silly but, from someone who drank the
kool-aid willingly, Gishwhes was actually really fun. It brought together a
bunch of people who would never have interacted other wise and it’s a hot bed
for creativity, so if you’re an artist looking for inspiration then this is the
place to be. Even if you don’t consider yourself artistic, and you just want to
try something new, Gishwhes is the thing for you.
If none of that made any sense here’s the lowdown:
- · GISHWHES is the brain child of Misha Collins (check out his Twitter here)
- · Also Miss Jean Louis (Twitter and Tumblr)
- · It’s an online Scavenger hunt (kind of)
- · To join in you -
- · Register!
- You have to pay to sign up – but it’s not much and it’s worth it
- · You’re put into teams (15 members this year)
- · Given a list of CRAZY items (either photos, videos or websites)
- · You submit as many items as you can within the time period
- · At the end of the time period the scores are tallied and…
- · You win (or you don’t)
- · For more information: GISHWHESFAQ
Registration opens soon so I suggest you start preparing, I’m
training hard – as you can see from this montage.
You can also see that I no longer have any dignity, which may also
be a side effect of entering Gishwhes… but really who needs dignity anyway.
Also – why not check out the Unofficial Gishwhes Facebook to meet
some fellow Gishwhesians and check out more videos here.
Well that’s another fangirl lesson down – do you feel educated or
are you now just absolutely sure that I’m crazy? If you participated in
GISHWHES last year maybe you could comment so that people know I’m not the only
loon around.
