Josh fight

The '''Josh fight''' was a viral [[Internet meme]], [[mock fight]], and [[charity fundraiser]] at Air Park in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], on April 24, 2021, with a second edition of the event occurring at Bowling Lake Park in Lincoln on May 21, 2022, which is now labeled "Legendary Josh Battleground".

The '''Josh fight''' was a viral [[Internet meme]], [[mock fight]], and [[charity fundraiser]] at Air Park in [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], on April 24, 2021, with a second edition of the event occurring at Bowling Lake Park in Lincoln on May 21, 2022, which is now labeled "Legendary Josh Battleground".

The event was originally conceived by a civil engineering student named Josh Swain from [[Tucson, Arizona]], on April 24, 2020, due to boredom during [[COVID-19 lockdowns]]. It gained popularity after a screenshot of a [[Facebook Messenger]] group chat involving several users named Josh Swain [[List of Internet phenomena|spread widely on the Internet]].

The event was originally conceived by a civil engineering student named Joshua (Josh) Swain (Josh S.) from [[Tucson, Arizona]], on April 24, 2020, due to boredom during [[COVID-19 lockdowns]]. It gained popularity after a screenshot of a [[Facebook Messenger]] group chat involving several users named Josh Swain [[List of Internet phenomena|spread widely on the Internet]].

Swain encouraged participants of the chat to meet at a set of coordinates one year hence and fight for the right to use the name "[[Josh]]". The event, though initially intended as a joke, drew a crowd of nearly a thousand on the day of the event. The gathering was lighthearted and there was no actual violence involved. ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' wrote that the event became a "global news phenomenon,"<ref name="Gay-2021">{{Cite news|last=Gay|first=Jason|date=April 26, 2021|title=The Day People Named Josh Fought in Nebraska|language=en-US|work=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/josh-battle-fight-josh-swain-joshfight-nebraska-little-josh-11619437432|url-status=live|access-date=April 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427125525/https://www.wsj.com/articles/josh-battle-fight-josh-swain-joshfight-nebraska-little-josh-11619437432|archive-date=April 27, 2021|issn=0099-9660}}</ref> while a technology writer for ''The Guardian'' called it "perhaps the ultimate response to an online [[doppelgänger]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hepworth |first=Shelley |date=February 25, 2022 |title=My inbox is piling up with spam again and my email doppelgänger is to blame |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/26/my-inbox-is-piling-up-with-spam-again-and-my-email-doppelganger-is-to-blame |access-date=March 3, 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

Swain encouraged participants of the chat to meet at a set of coordinates one year hence and fight for the right to use the name "[[Josh]]". The event, though initially intended as a joke, drew a crowd of nearly a thousand on the day of the event. The gathering was lighthearted and there was no actual violence involved. ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' wrote that the event became a "global news phenomenon,"<ref name="Gay-2021">{{Cite news|last=Gay|first=Jason|date=April 26, 2021|title=The Day People Named Josh Fought in Nebraska|language=en-US|work=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/josh-battle-fight-josh-swain-joshfight-nebraska-little-josh-11619437432|url-status=live|access-date=April 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427125525/https://www.wsj.com/articles/josh-battle-fight-josh-swain-joshfight-nebraska-little-josh-11619437432|archive-date=April 27, 2021|issn=0099-9660}}</ref> while a technology writer for ''The Guardian'' called it "perhaps the ultimate response to an online [[doppelgänger]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hepworth |first=Shelley |date=February 25, 2022 |title=My inbox is piling up with spam again and my email doppelgänger is to blame |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/26/my-inbox-is-piling-up-with-spam-again-and-my-email-doppelganger-is-to-blame |access-date=March 3, 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref>