To this day there are still plenty of people that don’t know what Quidditch is all about since they either didn’t get into the Harry Potter movies or they just didn’t pay that close attention. Quidditch is kind of like soccer with the physicality of Rugby but also with at least minimal padding, just enough to avoid being seriously beaten by the opposing team but not enough to weigh down the broom each rider uses. What’s really amusing to think about is that J.K. Rowling described the game well enough to get people excited but left a lot of room for imagination when it came to interpreting it in the movie. Hearing that the representation given by the directors was how she envisioned the game is great to hear, but going into how the magic happened behind the scenes is extremely interesting since learning that the actors really had no idea where to look or how to react until they were given their cues makes it easy to think that they were all just along for the ride for the most part. And that ride couldn’t have been easy even with a bike seat on the broom since sitting up there in such a position, even harnessed to the broom, does look as though it would be insanely uncomfortable after a while.
The Quidditch matches were pretty much a solid fixture in the movies up until The Deathly Hallows, when the school was disrupted in a way that made it obvious that things wouldn’t be the same any longer. Plus, there was no official match in The Goblet of Fire since the Tri-Wizards Tournament was being held. Madison Lennon of Screenrant has more to offer on this matter. There was technically a match between the two top-ranked teams, but it was an entirely different level and the audience didn’t get to see anything other than the entrance of both teams. Apart from that, Quidditch was featured from the start as a lively and very addictive game obviously since it’s made its way into pop culture since either by reference or by actual representation as happened in The Internship with Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Paul Rudd’s character even referenced the game in Role Models, though in a manner that was less than complimentary. The point however is that a creation that came from another creation was picked up in a way that has become something both interesting and widespread given that it became a collegiate sport back in the 2000s. That’s right, people actually do play Quidditch despite not being able to fly on the brooms they hold between their legs. Obviously the rules have to be adjusted a bit in order to make it work, but for a while now the sport has actually gained some traction with people and has become a part of pop culture that has helped to shape the world that’s embraced it.
It is worth noting that for boys and girls sitting on the broomstick had to be painful after a while, but it is kind of intriguing to think if there were specialized seats created for young men and women once they progressed to a certain age. There’s nothing lewd about it from a realistic standpoint since it’s a matter of biological fact that men do have a part of their body that might be affected by sitting atop a broomstick for very long. Women would no doubt find it rather uncomfortable as well, which means that the seats did have to adapt and the apparatus that was being used had to adapt as well over the years. Just thinking how painful it could be to sit up there for thirty minutes or so, or even more, makes a person wince since like it or not, that tender point between our legs, for men and women, can only take so much abuse, especially when the broom was bound to rock and shake back and forth. It does make a person wonder if the actors were asked to wear an athletic supporter just to make doubly sure that they weren’t risking a part of their anatomy for the sake of getting the shot. It does stand to reason that those in charge would be taking care of their actors and making sure that every possible precaution was being taken though, so perhaps it wasn’t quite as bad as it would appear.
For being a game that was thought up by an author as a part of a story, a plot device in a way, Quidditch has been widely embraced by those that found it to be a great deal of fun and entirely possible to play without being able to emulate it entirely. To think that it’s a collegiate sport isn’t too hard, but until we’re able to turn on ESPN and watch the Quidditch Cup it’s likely that a lot of folks will continue to enjoy it more in the movies than in real life.
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