Cow tipping

File:Cow lying on side.jpg

A healthy cow lying on its side is not immobilized; it can rise whenever it chooses.

Cow tipping is the purported activity of sneaking up on any unsuspecting or sleeping upright cow and pushing it over for entertainment. The practice of cow tipping is generally considered an urban legend, and stories of such feats generally viewed as tall tales. Unless injured, cows routinely lie down and can easily regain their footing. The implication that rural citizens seek such entertainment due to lack of other alternatives is viewed as a stereotype.

Scientific study

The urban legend of cow tipping relies upon the presumption that cattle are slow-moving, dim-witted, and weak-legged, thus easily pushed over without much force. Some versions of the legend suggest that because cows sleep standing up, it is possible to approach them and push them over without the animals reacting. However, cows only sleep lightly while standing up, and they are easily awoken from this state. Furthermore, numerous sources have questioned the practice's feasibility, since most cows weigh over half a ton, and easily resist any lesser force.

A 2005 study led by Margo Lillie, a zoologist at the University of British Columbia, concluded that tipping a cow would require an exertion of 2,910 newtons (654.2 lb_f) of force, and is therefore impossible to accomplish by a single person. Her calculations found that it would take at least two people to apply enough force to push over a cow if the cow did not react and reorient its footing. If the cow did react, it would take at least four people to push it over. Lillie noted that cattle are well aware of their surroundings and are very difficult to surprise, due to excellent senses of both smell and hearing, but that according to laws of static physics, "two people might be able to tip a cow" if the cow were "tipped quickly—the cow's centre of mass would have to be pushed over its hoof before the cow could react". The Lillie study has been replicated by other researchers, who confirmed that at least two to four people can, in fact, push over a cow.

Historical origins

The belief that certain animals cannot rise if pushed over has historical antecedents, though cattle have never been so classified. Julius Caesar and Pliny record a belief that European moose had no knee joints and could not get up if they fell over. This belief may relate to the ancient custom of trapping moose in steep-sided pits.

In 1255, Louis IX of France gave an elephant to Henry III of England for his menagerie in the Tower of London. Drawn from life by the historian Matthew Paris for his Chronica Majora, it can be seen in his bestiary at Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with an accompanying text revealing that at the time, Europeans believed that elephants did not have knees and so were unable to get up if they fell over. The bestiary contains a drawing depicting an elephant on its back being dragged along the ground by another elephant, with a caption stating that elephants lacked knees.

The American urban myth of cow tipping is said to have originated in the 1970s.

In popular culture

Assorted individuals have claimed to have performed cow-tipping, often while under the influence of alcohol.

Pranksters have sometimes pushed over artificial cows. Along Chicago's Michigan Avenue in 1999, two "apparently drunk" men felled six fiberglass cows that were part of a Cows on Parade public art exhibit. Four other vandals removed a "Wow cow" sculpture from its lifeguard chair at Oak Street Beach and abandoned it in a pedestrian underpass. A year later, New York City anchored its CowParade art cows, including "A Streetcow Named Desire", to concrete bases "to prevent the udder disrespect of cow-tippers and thieves."

Cow tipping has been featured in films from the 1980s and later, such as Heathers (1988), Tommy Boy (1995), and I Love You Beth Cooper (2009). It was also used in the title of a 1992 documentary film by Randy Redroad, Cow Tipping–The Militant Indian Waiter.

In The Little Willies song "Lou Reed" from their 2006 eponymous debut album, Norah Jones sings about a fictional event where musician Lou Reed tips cows in Texas.

The Big Bang Theory episode 'The Thanksgiving Decoupling' opens with Sheldon and the boys proving to Penny that it is scientifically impossible to tip a cow, despite her claims that she has in her home state of Nebraska.

As a metaphor

The term cow tipping is sometimes used as a figure of speech for pushing over something big. In A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages, author John Weir Close uses the term to describe contemporary mergers and acquisitions. "Tipping sacred cows" has been used as a deliberate mixed metaphor in titles of books on Christian ministry and business management.

An article in USA Today uses the phrase "urban cow tipping" to describe a form of vandalism involving small cars flipped on their sides.

See also

• Outhouse tipping
• Snipe hunting

External links

• Cow Tipping at DMOZ
• Cow tipping James T. Callow Folklore Archive at University of Detroit Mercy
• The Register article debunking the myth of cow tipping while drunk by Lester Haines
• The Straight Dope on Cow Tipping
• The Cow Tipping Myth Debunked by a Veterinarian

• Ian Denomme, "Cow-tipping a mooo-yth?", The Gazette (Western Daily Student Newspaper), November 9, 2005. (retrieved on January 12, 2009)
• Eddie Glenn, "Cow-tipping: Myth or reality?", Tahlequah Daily Press, December 15, 2006. (retrieved on January 12, 2009).
• ("According to these numbers, cow tipping is possible when two people are in on the prank.")
• https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10657/pg10657.txt
• Willene B. Clark, A medieval book of beasts, p.128
• (review of Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping by Brad Powell)