Colleges, universities, institutions, and professional teams select the most distinctive creatures or figures that exude strength and power in teamwork as their official mascots. A mascot’s role is to energise the audience and wander about campus and fields while participating in entertaining activities. The majority of sporting teams, whether they are from high school or the pros, stay with recognisable mascots like tigers, bulldogs, eagles, etc. However, a few people made the imaginative choice to deviate from the clichéd course.
However, in the process, a suitable or acceptable look was lost. Some mascots have proven to be so repulsive that they are now featured on well-known media channels, where they have earned a great deal of both fame and haters. Here are 10 of the worst mascots in the world, ranging from terrifying to pitiful.
1. Fighting Pickle — School of the Arts, University of North Carolina
The mascot at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a bright green pickle with a blue beret who is masked and has a French appearance. When the student body asked the design team to create a depiction of the university’s Arts courses, he initially came into being. This is the explanation behind the Fighting Pickle’s use of a huge paintbrush, clapper board, and belt/tutu with a piano motif. It is still unclear, though, why they selected a pickle to stand in for their artwork.
The institution claims that Mr. Pickle was designed with a distinctive appearance in mind, but the final product was so bizarre that it won an online poll with 2800 votes and was named the most unusual college mascot. Despite the negative feedback he’s gotten, the university has continued to use him as its mascot.
2. Wichita State University’s WuShock
A vibrant, bright, enormous stalk of wheat from Wichita State University is known as WuShock or Wu for short. Most people find it unusual that a bundle of wheat is dressed in sweatpants and a crewneck, and he frequently reminds people of a furious Donald Trump in terms of facial traits. He calls all of his teammates and fellow students “shockers,” which is also the name of the school’s sports teams. His name includes the word “shock,” which refers to the Kansas habit of frightening wheat harvest workers.
Historically, the majority of pupils have chosen to work in the shocking industry. When not at college, they were rumoured to labour in a nearby wheat field. Since his inception in 1948, Wu has served as the proud mascot of WSU, and following his success, Jimmy Fallon joked about him on an episode of “The Tonight Show.”
3. Scottsdale Community College’s “Artie the Artichoke”
Since 1972, Scottsdale Community College has had an official artichoke as its mascot. It is a vegetable-themed mascot. He is thought to resemble a “kids cartoon” more so than someone who should inspire joy or pride. Students chose Artie in an election as a joke in opposition to the majority of the school’s funding going to athletics rather than academics. The intention of the pupils was to make the school squad look “lame.” But Artie, the cheery veggie, quickly won over people’ hearts and became a beloved figure.
Artie was despised only because of his infantile appearance, which was problematic given that a vegetable has nothing to do with sports. Some claim that he ought to have been more suitable for college students rather than kindergarten birthday celebrations. However, this result of arbitrary teen rebellion had the opportunity to meet Patrick Peterson, a well-known NFL star from the Arizona Cardinals American football club.
4. Dartmouth College’s Keggy the Keg
Keggy, a beer keg as the name indicates, was astonishingly approved as the mascot of a college as esteemed as Dartmouth. Most institutions would take any steps to stop holding such events or keg parties to allay parent worries, but Dartmouth says it supports such behaviour. All of the pupils adored Keggy, a big silver keg with a happy face, when he was first presented. He was shortly, however, prohibited from attending home games due to improper behaviour that his parents or listing schools did not appreciate.
Five years later, he emerged from the ashes once more, and today he serves as an unofficial mascot who makes appearances at activities when neither parents nor outsiders are present. In addition to being mentioned on ESPN and called “some silly beer thing” in Playboy Magazine, Keggy was well-known throughout the media.
5. Delta State University’s The Fighting Okra
The official Statesmen mascot of Delta State University was temporarily suspended following a violent incident. The Fighting Okra was chosen by students to serve as the college’s unofficial mascot as a substitute. He has a glum expression and is sporting some worn-out boxing gloves. The students and team members think the Fighting Okra is scarier and more ferocious than their Statesmen mascot and that the team and cheerleaders provide a better image to other sporting teams. The decision to make their temporary mascot more “mean and green” was originally made by the baseball and basketball players.
But in doing so, they made their university famous for its bizarre okra mascot and ended up on several lists of the “worst mascots.” However, they were unfazed by the articles and kept sometimes bringing Fighting Okra back onto the field.
6. Stanford University’s
The Stanford University band decided to adopt a tree as their unofficial mascot because of the area’s fame for its stunning redwoods. Since 1975, the Stanford Tree has frequently put on a performance at sporting events involving the band and may be seen as the institute’s insignia. The outfit, which Christine Hutson first debuted, included a tree with enormous eyes and what others have described as red lipstick on his lips.
But because the Stanford Tree’s position is so important, a competition is held each year to discover who can fill his shoes the best. For significant school events, some students even make their own Stanford Tree costumes and wear them around campus. The Tree’s fame was largely fueled by American “worst mascots” lists.
7. University of Arkansas’s Weezy the Boll Weevil
The University of Arkansas’ Weezy is a flower-eating boll weevil bug that is sometimes mistaken for an extraterrestrial. The mascot is a green creature with woolly skin, a jersey, a long, drooping snout, and two long antennae. He frequently appears with his sidekick “Blossom,” a flower that he feeds off of.
As strange as it may sound, a lot of individuals wait for the chance or an opening to be Blossom or Weezy since the chosen student is awarded a sizable scholarship in return. Deseret News recently classified Weezy’s squad, the “Boll Weevils,” as having the funniest team name, and it was placed No. 19 on their list of the worst mascots of 2011.
8. North Carolina Wesleyan College’s Battling Bishop
A bishop wearing a full-length crimson robe with a black belt serves as the mascot for the Battling Bishop athletes from North Carolina Wesleyan College and has done so since 1925. In 2010, Mr. Bishop had a makeover in which his cheerleading grin was swapped out for a furious frown, which most students thought was too serious and harsh for a sports mascot.
The majority of media outlets have also noted that a bishop is an unusual emblem for sports teams, hence Mr. Bishop only appears in disparaging contexts. NCWC, however, won’t alter its mascot since, according to the institution, Mr. Bishop was chosen as a result of significant historical events involving bishops who rode horses.
9. The Evergreen State College’s Speedy the Geoduck
A geoduck, which weighs more than two pounds and is a big, slimy, mud-burrowing mollusc found on the west coast of North America, is offered for consumption uncooked. When Speedy was initially imagined by Evergreen State College, he had the appearance of an extraterrestrial with a horrified expression and was dressed in shorts and a taco shell. Speedy embodied the college’s essence or slogan, which is to be willing to “dig deep for what one wants to achieve,” which was distinct from other conventional and aggressive mascots.
Speedy has had several transformations over the years, from appearing like a “bamboozled pickle taco” to a geoduck that is so realistic it has been called “disgusting,” to the most recent and beloved mascot, which resembles a friendly and accessible turtle. Speedy is regarded as renowned and has been featured in several media outlets, including Time Magazine, Fox Sports, BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, and others.
10. First, the New Orleans Pelicans’ King Cake Baby
Due to its look, which has been described as “horror stuff” on several occasions, this mascot has terrified both children and adults. King Cake Baby is a huge baby wearing a crown, dressed in ill-fitting diapers, and sporting a “I Love Baby Cake” bib around his neck. The traditional king cake is a donut-shaped cake in which the bakers hid a little plastic baby. Whoever found the baby in their slice of cake was thought to enjoy good luck and blessings, and occasionally it was even thought to be a pregnancy prediction.
But how a royal baby cake meets NBA requirements No one has been able to provide an answer to the puzzle of the New Orleans Pelicans squad. Numerous articles have referred to him as the most hideous and unsettling mascot. The official mascot of the New Orleans team is Pierre the Pelican, but when King Cake Baby occasionally makes an appearance close to the Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, his effect unnerves everyone on and off the basketball court.