What in the hell is going on with the youth these days? You may have heard about the incident that occured over Memorial Day weekend, when a homemade bomb, made out of fireworks explosives, a plastic bottle and electrical tape, exploded in a Starbucks on New York's Upper East Side. What appeared to be an act of stateside terrorism, similar to three other explosions that went down during different times of the same day, left NYC authorities completely puzzled. That is, until they got word of a Chelsea teenager named Kyle Shaw, who was bragging about the attack to the members of his "fight club."
Yup, you guessed it. This kid was tryna get his Tyler Durden on by putting his own version of Project Mayhem into action. As crazy as that sounds, it's not the first time some overly obsessive, completely 730 Chuck Palahniuk fans have sought to recreate the mayhem from his Fight Club novel that was later made into a movie by David Fincher. Check out these real-life fight club attempts....
GENTLEMEN'S FIGHT CLUB
YEAR: 2006
CRIME: Brawling
• Would you punch a guy with glasses? If he swings a pillowcase full of soap at you, you damn well better. That's how the members of the Gentlemen's Fight Club get down when they meet every two weeks. Made up of Silicon Valley software engineers, this club of restless eggheads made it onto "The Big Story with John Gibson" after a video of one of their bouts made it to the 'Net. According to their founder Gints Klimanis, most all of them have a background in martial arts so they know what their doing. All we know is they better keep that shit in the Valley.
EL8
YEAR: 2002
CRIME: Cyber Hacking
• After launching their own "Project Mayhem" in order to "cause worldwide physical destruction to the security industry infrastructure," this online hacker group began terrorizing "white hats"—coders that expose security weaknesses in commercial software. After attacking some high profile security experts like Ryan Russell of SecurityFocus.com, hackers around the 'Net began distancing themselves from the group, although careful not to anger them enough to turn their cross-hairs their way.
AUSTRALIAN FIGHT CLUB
YEAR: 2009
CRIME: Murder
• Looking to emulate the "don't talk about fight club" code from the movie, a group of teenage school kids from down under converged in a park after school to take part in their own fight club. After wrapping their t-shirts around their hands, two kids including the vitcim, Stephen Luu, began boxing. After being beat to the ground, Luu began complaining of dizziness and headaches before being brought to a hospital where he passed away from a brain hemorrhage three days later.
JAILHOUSE FIGHT CLUB
YEAR: 2005
CRIME: Gambling
• Across the pond in the UK, prisoners put a twist on the traditional "fight club" model by organizing a system in which inmates attempted to settle debts by betting on fist-fights. This trend was seen in over eight top security jails in not only England, but in Wales as well. We're guessing a work release program with the UFC won't be happening anytime soon.
INTERNET FIGHT CLUB
YEAR: 2006
CRIME: Idiocy
• Looking to gain some internet buzz, four teenagers from New Jersey put together some online videos of them punching each other while a group of students cheered 'em on. Cops believed the videos to be two things: 1. clearly inspired by the film and 2. an obvious ploy to get their 15 minutes of fame. We got four words for them: World Star Hip Hop.
*BONUS*
SCHOLASTIC CAGE FIGHTS
YEAR: 2003
CRIME: None, just awesome.
• In a Dallas high school, the faculty, presumably fed up with the constant fighting and bickering between students, made the pupils nut up and squash the beefs. In a cage fight. Yes, you heard correct. If two students began beefing, they were given gloves and masks and told to fight it out until either one of them got knocked out or they forgot what it was they were arguing about in the first place. I don't know about y'all, but that sounds awesome to us.
