Today’s Washington Post story about people who are intensely into D.C.’s competitive karaoke league is a conundrum. On one hand, people take their joy where they can in this world, and it’s best to leave them alone. But on the other hand:

“This is what happens when you have young, single people with Type A personalities,’’ said Mary Alice Farina, 31, who competes with the team “Naughty by Nurture.” “So we compete. It’s not really about the winning; it’s about having fun. But the competition is the fun.”

Karaoke’s not about competition; it’s about pitchers of beer and sad songs killing the mood. Dreams of reaching sectionals aside, though, Mary Alice’s team are the arch-rivals of the article’s protagonist, Clinton Canady IV.

His team, “The More We Drink, the Better You Sound,” kept losing at casual karaoke competitions until it figured out how to win at any leisure activity: Get really intense about it.

Other teams were stacking the audience with friends at competitions that involved crowd voting, so Canady agitated for impartial judges. Also, ahead of the championship match at Penn Social, his team met up and debated for 45 minutes whether Usher‘s “Yeah” would challenge them enough.

Naturally, it wouldn’t be a story about a new trend without Tommy Wells popping up to praise it:

The next night, more than 300 people crowded into Penn Social to watch the nine teams. D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) greeted the audience and talked about competitive karaoke helping craft the District’s identity as a world-class city. He was serious.

On second thought, forget the karaoke. They can sing Celine Dion all night long for all I care. The real problem is that they proved Courtland Milloy right.

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