Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez is good at a lot of things. Chicharito can score with his feet, his head and, most impressively, his face for both club (West Ham) and country (Mexico). Hammers teammate Pablo Zabaleta is also a pretty good football player, having played right back for Manchester City and the Argentine national team for many years. But neither are very good at the game they played Friday: a Don’t-Laugh Challenge.
Chicharito and Zapaleta faced off in a Christmas-themed Don’t-Laugh Challenge with jokes from Christmas crackers, which for those reading in the U.S. are little tubes pulled apart by two people that pop when opened, leaving one with a small toy or joke of some kind. At least, that’s what Wikipedia says, honestly I have no idea because as an American it's my right to not care about other cultures. But at least it's a better Christmas tradition than Zwarte Piet.
The result was two players who could not stop themselves from laughing at all, a complete failure of the game’s intentions.
The aim of the game was not to laugh... we're not sure @CH14_ & @pablo_zabaleta understood the rules... pic.twitter.com/xe82kX5hG3
— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) December 15, 2017
Clearly these two either didn’t understand the rules or are just really bad at the game. Some of the jokes weren’t half bad in that Dad Joke way, but some were cringeworthy and still drew laughter from both Hammers, even if they didn't seem to know what they were laughing at half the time.
West Ham visits Stoke on Saturday in a big match with both clubs within four points of the bottom spot, including the Hammers in 19th place with the Premier League's worst goal differential (-18). Hopefully Chicharito and Zabaleta perform better than they did Friday.