Most Interesting Clubs We Wish We Could Join
At Member Jungle, we love clubs of every kind. So we have compiled a list of our favourite clubs that we wish we could be a part of, but for unfortunate reasons (usually our inability to time travel), we can’t join.
So until our tech team stops being stubborn and invents time travel, here are our favourite clubs we wish we could join.
The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain
Reason We Can’t Join: Lack of time machine
In the late 1970s, Stephen Pile created the “Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain” to celebrate human inadequacy. He then wrote a book called “The Book of Heroic Failures” as an official handbook for the club.
Unfortunately, the book became a best-seller, which led to Pile being kicked out of the club he founded because he was too successful. The club received 20,000 applications within a few months due to the book’s popularity, and they disbanded as a result. Pile reflected, “the club disbanded on the grounds that it was now a roaring success. Even as failures, we failed.” (Pile, 1989)
The Lying Club
Reason We Can’t Join: It probably never existed
According to a 1709 book by Ned Ward called The Secret History of Clubs, a man named Sir Harry Blunt founded the Lying Club in 1669.
The club started in response to the increasingly over-the-top and fictitious accounts of hunting trips told by travellers. Eventually, it became an official club that “judged the largeness of a man’s genius by the mightiness of his lies”. They were said to spread outlandish tales throughout the town.
However, there is no real evidence that this club ever existed. So, rather fittingly, the Lying Club may itself be a lie.
The Ichthyophagous Club
Reason We Can’t Join: Lack of time machine
The Ichthyophagous Club, besides having an incredibly catchy name, was a 19th-century American club dedicated to eating as many weird sea creatures as possible.
They held annual dinners where they tried to eat as many odd and interesting sea creatures as possible. They are credited with popularising a lot of seafood in modern American cuisine, including skate and squid.
They also found that starfish bisque and manatee fillets were quite lovely, though those never caught on for some reason. Not everything they tried was good, however. Apparently, dolphin steak and periwinkles Bourguignon were both quite bad.
Below are the menu and promotional poster for their 1884 dinner.
For the record, the supreme shark was voted the best dish of the night.
The Procrastinator’s Club of America
Reason We Can’t Join: We definitely will; we just haven’t got around to it yet
The Procrastinator’s Club of America was founded in 1956 by Les Wass, who eventually got around to registering it in 1966. Les Waas has been the club president since 1956, despite having died in 2011, as they haven’t got around to organising a new election yet.
In 1966, they organised a protest against the War of 1812, and during the United States Bicentennial celebration, they threatened to protest the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The company that made the Liberty Bell. They planned on making signs with messages such as “We got a lemon” and “What about the warranty?” It is unclear if they ever got around to actually holding the protest.
It is possible to join the club, though most people who send in applications get a lifetime ban, as “a real procrastinator would never actually get around to joining,”
The 300 Club
Reason We Can’t Join: It turns out that none of us are Antarctic scientists.
The 300 Club is a club for mainly Antarctic scientists who have endured a 300-degree Fahrenheit (148 Celsius) temperature difference in only a few minutes.
They achieve this by waiting for a day when the temperature is -100 F (-73 C). They then spend ten minutes in a sauna heated to 200 F (93 C). They then exit the sauna and walk around the ceremonial South Pole wearing only their boots. They have to walk fast enough to not get frostbite but not so fast that they breathe too much and freeze their lungs. They then get dressed and get back into the sauna and have drinks.
After all this, you get to wear a special 300 club patch. I’d get bored, too, if I only had penguins and glaciologists for company.
The Glutton Club
Reason We Can’t Join: Lack of time machine (Still)
Founded at Cambridge University in the 1800s, the Glutton Club was a dining club for students dedicated to eating “birds and beasts, which were before unknown to the human palate.”
Unfortunately, an “indescribably” bad brown owl put most of the members off the idea for good. Not all the members were put off however. One member, Charles Darwin, went on to eat quite a few unusual animals during his time on the Beagle. According to Darwin, Puma is “remarkably like veal in taste,”.
The Eight-Thousander Club
Reason We Can’t Join: I’m tired just thinking about it
The Eight-Thousander Club is an unofficial club that is composed solely of the people who have climbed all 14 of the mountains that stand at over 8,000 metres high.
Nepalese British mountaineer Nirmal Purja currently holds the record for the fastest ascent of all 14 mountains in just six months and six days. Beating the previous record holder by over seven years. Seriously, look up Nirmal Purja; the man’s CV is the stuff of legends.
The Jurrasic Park Motor Pool
Reason We Can’t Join: Honestly, we haven't heard of it before now. I think we will have someone join up before too long now.
The Jurrasic Park Motor Pool is the first active club on this list that accepts normal memberships. It is a club for owners and enthusiasts of Jurrasic Park-style cars. The club assists its members in customising their cars to look just like those used in the Jurrasic Park films and manages bookings for people who want a Jurrasic Park car at their events. Jump on their socials and have a look through all the awesome cars that are part of this club.
Australia