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Unless you’re striving to become one of the big guys yourself, you may not have much connection to the world of professional sumo. As an ancient sport with plenty of ritual elements, the wrestlers, known as rikishi in Japanese, have a highly regimented training lifestyle. With all those rules, it’s certainly easy to overlook the comedic side of sumo.

Wait, there’s a comedic side to sumo?

We covered shokkiri (初っ切り, a comic sumo performance) on our site just a year ago, so be sure to read up on it if you’re missing the basics. Essentially, shokkiri is like a fun, anything-goes style bout in which the wrestlers perform typically forbidden moves, much to the audience’s delight.

Make that to the audience’s AND the internet’s delight. Japanese website CuRAZY recently posted some humorous–and dare we say, adorable–GIFs of sumo rikishi enjoying a friendly match of shokkiri. The clips were compiled from a video that a spectator filmed at the 37th Grand Sumo Tournament held on February 10, 2013, and their playful contents have positively charmed the internet.

Never thought it would be possible to see a sumo wrestler curtsying daintily or playing a game of leapfrog? We’ve got clips of both, along with even more: 

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Use these GIFs wisely, folks–you never know when they could come in handy.

Here’s the full-length, 14-minute video for those of you who are curious:

On a final note, here are a few more videos of shokkiri to brighten your day. Enjoy!

Source: CuRAZY
GIFs: YouTube/MyJetSetLife