'This Is What We Trained For': Worm-Charming Championship Proves Every Bit as Strange as It Sounds

The Tennessee Worm Tuggers were the ultimate victors in a titanic battle for the 2024 edition of the Falmouth Worm Charming Championships on May 19.

A crowd of thousands flocked to Falmouth, a town in Cornwall, England, to attend the 4th-annual event, in which competitors have 30 minutes to charm as many worms out of the ground as possible in their 10-foot-by-10-foot plot.

The aforementioned Tennessee Worm Tuggers managed to charm a record-breaking 32 worms out of the ground, using bluegrass music to captivate the invertebrates.

Among the other contenders was an 11-year-old who goes by the title of Max Survival, who can be seen in this footage trying his best to beguile worms using tree branches, at one point saying, “This is what we trained for.”

Sharing the footage to Facebook, he wrote that while he didn’t do very well, “it was a fun and bizarre experience.”

Additional footage included here shows the varied approaches of a number of fellow competitors, as well as the much-coveted trophy for the winners. Credit: @maxsurvival151 via Storyful

Video transcript

W. No, it's so hot.

Go on and start.

Charming.

Charming.

Yep.

Bye.

And Oh, that.

Why?

Ok, come on.

Yeah, You got going to the be done.