Inside the Competition Where Smokers Try to Generate the Longest Ash Possible

Getting throat cancer in style!

There used to be a trick that lawyers would use to distract juries away from the opposing counsel’s argument. The trick would go like this: They’d unroll a paper clip, stick it in a cigar, then begin to smoke, causing the cigar’s ash to stay in place rather than falling to the ground. This would, in turn, cause jurors to wonder what the hell was going on with the lawyer’s cigar, rather than pay attention to the substance of the argument being made.

Let’s hope that no one was trying the same trick at this Chinese ash competition. The game is simple: smoke a cigar, then don’t let a single bit of ash fall off. The winner is the person who has the longest ash by the end.

Hey, there are worse ways to spend your Saturday.