"Afghan Aviation Sumo-Wrestling / Afghanistan AircraftWrestling" is a meme born out of 2ch in 2002. On February 14, 2002, Abdul Rahman, the Aviation and Tourism Minister of Afghanistan, while visiting the Kabul International Airport to take a flight to Delhi, India, was surrounded and beaten to death by rioting pilgrims who were angry that their flight to Saudi Arabia had been cancelled.
On the 2ch's News Bulletins Board, a thread on this topic was created and titled "Afghan Aviation Minister beaten to death." However, as the post of Aviation (and Tourism) Minister does not exist in the Japanese government, and when read together the Japanese characters for the abbreviation of minister (相) and beat(en) (撲) are the same as sumo (相撲), causing many to interpret the title as "aviation sumo wrestler beaten to death," the thread mutated into a place to discuss this fictional martial art.
This joke is comparatively well known among 2ch memes, being presented in several Japanese internet slang websites and books. Additionally, articles have been created on not only the Japanese language version of Uncyclopedia, but also Wikipedia as well.
Below is a post from the time.
Afghan Aircraft Wrestling During the Ghurid Dynasty of the 11th century, by order of the king, a Royal Guard was recruited, focusing on those who had gathered from all over Afghanistan that possessed military or martial arts training. This martial art is said to have originated from the tests of strength between these men. Though they competed only on solid ground at first, over time from attacks from high places to bouts while leaping in midair, the techniques advanced as time passed and the modern form of Afghan Aviation Sumo was perfected. Later, during the invasion by the Yuan Dynasty, it is passed down that the Afghan aviation sumo wrestlers easily crushed the assault by the Yuan army's overwhelming numbers with their special "aviation techniques". Following this, the Yuan researched aviation sumo, and developed Mongolian wrestling to oppose the Afghans, but it is not well known that it was not used in real battles because of the inability to engage in mid-air combat.
(Quoted from the Minmei Shobo published "Kublai: the Wrath of Mongolian Wrestling".)
rayjayjay said: That's... pretty horrible, making a joke out of someones death like that just because of a typo.
What's wrong with it? It's just a silly joke, it isn't even offensive or something. It was born out of miscommunication, not prejudice. I'd be happy if a joke like that was created upon my death. Take life less seriously.
