Fun:Balls

“”If the balls were ever removed, Baghdad would be in great danger.

—Matthew Brodrick, the crappy Miramax version of The Thief and the Cobbler

Balls are spherical solids. They may come in a variety of sizes, textures and materials, and are used for a wide array of purposes. Balls are also important for cultural purposes around the world.

The best known use of balls is in the field of sports, where they are a feature of the great majority of games, save for wrestling and badminton. The latter uses a shuttlecock (or "birdie") instead, where the former has no connection to balls at all. However, these are exceptions rather than the rule.

American football, it should be noted, involves an object referred to as a ball, but it does not share the important characteristic of balls, namely that it is not spherical. Thus, to name the game football is rather a misnomer. By contrast, basketball truly is a ball sport, and fans of the game, predominantly male, admire an individual who displays excellent ball handling.

However, balls are not limited to sport. Ball bearings are vital to industry, spheres of various sorts are used to denote royalty in many cultures, and of course the Earth itself, as seen from space, resembles an enormous ball.

So prevalent are balls in modern culture, that one who is perceived to be without them is often advised to "grow a pair," likely referring to the ball-like shape of many fruits, such as oranges or plums (but not pears). This would be insufficient, however, to go into business as a pawnbroker as they must traditionally display three balls. Such entrepreneurial individuals are, by definition, referred to as "ballsy."

Oh, also, "balls" can be slang for a part of the male genitalia known as the "testicles."

See also

• Fun:Asshole
• Brass balls
• Blue balls
• Real balls