Freestyle Championship

This image is ridiculous. You might say it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve seen. That would be hyperbole. I think that this is just the beginning of the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen.

That is the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, a zillion-time gold medalist, demonstrating Michael Phelps: Push the Limit for Kinect. That’s right, a swimming game-on dry land, of course. I don’t want to know what the 200 meter butterfly looks like.

Many times here we go open-ended in concept, with no image. This thing flips the script. I have no idea what you should do with that image, only that you should do something funny. Pour a beverage, put on some music, take a Phelpsian bong hit, whatever feeds your inspiration, and then work your magic.

Source Image: Michael Phelps looking like a jackass.

You know the rules: The 20 best will get rounded up and published at the end of next Saturday. Meantime, I and the rest of the starred commentariat will approve and promote as many as we can so folks can see them and pass judgment.

This is your no-frills step-by-step procedure to participation in the Kotaku ‘Shop Contest.

1. Create your ‘Shop.

2. Upload it to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. It’s stupid simple. No account is necessary.

3. This is very important: You must use the URL of the image itself. In imgur, this is the second URL it gives you after you upload the image. It’s under “Direct Link (email & IM)”

4. At the beginning of the comments roll, click “Start a New Thread”

5. To the right of your name, select “Image.”

6. Paste the imgur URL in the image URL field. It’s the field that says “Image URL.”

7. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but you can hit submit and your

8. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. It will not upload to comments if it is over that size.

‘Shop entry will be uploaded to the comments.

As an added inducement, I want to let you know I do star commenters who send in worthy/funny submissions – whether or not they’re chosen for the final 20. This may not happen immediately. I usually start rounding up a gallery by the middle of the week. This is my subjective call, but I do want to recognize as many contributors as possible, and show gratitude for making this such a popular feature on weekends.

Now, Gentlemen, start your ‘shopping!