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All summer, the internet has loved throwing its new favorite insult, “LARPer,” into comment sections: someone trying on an identity they supposedly hadn’t earned.
If you posted a tribute to Dolly Parton, mourned Oliver Tree, claimed you love MJ, or tuned into football this summer and hadn’t been publicly loud about it before... well, holy LARP. The whole trend runs on the weird idea that you have to prove you belong before you’re allowed to participate.
And the World Cup became the biggest LARP of the summer.
Bostonians joined Scottish fans in taking over Fenway chanting “No Scotland, No Party.” Mexican and South Korean fans traded drinking traditions and Gangnam Style dance-offs. Lawrence, Kansas adopted Algeria as its honorary team.
But, IRL, nobody was checking IDs .
Norway’s Viking Row became one of the tournament’s biggest rituals, with the original video pulling nearly 38 million views and nearly 3 million likes. Mexican fans joined in during Norway vs. England. After winning the final, Spanish fans celebrated by doing it themselves.
Both the internet and the World Cup push us to pick sides. But outside the stadium, those lines kept blurring.
Everyone was trying on something that wasn’t technically theirs, and nobody was saying, “You don’t belong.” They were saying, “Join in.”
Maybe LARPing is just how you start caring.
Maybe you only watched because your country was playing. Maybe you learned the chant yesterday. So what? You join in, you start to care, and eventually, it becomes yours too.
As a strategist, I’m paying more attention to the LARPers.
The World Cup reminded me to look beyond what something is supposed to be about and pay attention to what people are actually doing. Sometimes the most interesting behavior happens when people wander into something that wasn’t originally theirs.
Anyway, I’m the world’s biggest MJ, Oliver Tree, Jude Bellingham, Dolly Parton and World Cup fan. I would know.
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