'Berlino' the MASCOT for the IAAF's 12th World Track & Field Championships, a New Hero for Our Times

There comes a time in everyone's life when the need for an heroic figure is of tantamount importance. Someone to look up to. Someone to admire. Someone to inspire and feed the soul. Be it Martin Luther King for his inspired speeches or Churchill's staunch belief in the British people's resistance to the evil of Nazi Germany. From Nelson Mandela's self sacrifice for his people's rights to Lou Garrick's emotional speech in the face of the direst of circumstances. From brave words and actions in time of war and despair, through to sporting and musical innovators, who inspire with their deeds, music or words.

It is August 2009 and a new hero has emerged, one who has inspired me to write in his praise. I speak of none other than 'Berlino' the Mascot for the 12th IAAF Track and Field World Championships. A being who has bought me more joy and tears of laughter in his scant few seconds of screen time than anything I have witnessed in years.

I sit emotionless through a myriad of crappy and not-so-crappy prime-time sit-coms, unmoved by the oh-so-clever writing teams who scribe clever little takes on the human condition. But it is 'Berlino' who has me laughing out loud at his antics.

Is the guy inside the suit an over-active failed athlete with attention-deficit disorder or just a genius of comedy?
It's debatable, but either way he made me laugh like no other this year.

So why is he so funny? Let me count the ways:

1: He's a guy in a cartoonish bear suit, although he looks a bit like a beaver crossed with a huge chipmunk. There's no high-minded spiritually inspired method to his design. It's just a guy in a simple slightly ill-fitting costume...perfect in its simplicity fact.

2. He has a huge head. This is always funny.

3. He has the uncanny ability to be everywhere at once (just like God - Omnipresent!), whether it be moments after a track win or behind the scenes, and he hugs.........everybody!

4. He is a master of physical comedy. Whether its being hauled around upside down by 'Robert Harting' hometown hero for winning the Discus, or posing in mock imitation of Usain Bolt's outstretched Bolt salute, even amusing Mr. Bolt to the point that a mock race between the two was enacted post-race - a race that Mr. Berlino actually won.

Somebody give this guy a medal!

5. He's actually pretty fast for a guy in a bear suit, who can't see where the hell he's going.

Funniest moments of the year:

Racing down the home strait during the final of the Men's 10,000 Metre's, Giving a piggy back to 'Melanie Walker' the jubilant winner of the Women's 400 Meter hurdles 'Berlino' races off down the track, only to smash into some left over track and field equipment. Both Berlino and Athlete come a cropper. But the funniest moment came in a less obvious setting. 'Bernard Legat', Bronze Medalist in the 1500 Meters was bloodied after his rough race and following with what one would imagine was IAAF protocol, promptly loaded into a wheelchair and taken to an on-site Dr. to see him right for the 5,000 Meters he will later race in.

Who do we see as the bloodied Legat is wheeled around beneath the stadium but our favorite 'Berlino', who stops mid-stride to allow the injured 'wheelchairee' to pass with a cordial wave of his fluffy hand.

Why is this funny? I don't know - it just is!

However, tears of laughter would follow as having espied the ever-present camera's 'Berlino' conjures up some miraculous hand-gestures, which can be interpreted as 'Oh no, look what happened to me', before his fluffy departure. Not so funny on paper but hilarious visual comedy.

So I salute 'Berlino' - now who said the German's don't have a sense of humor!