The One True Josh Has Been Crowned

What happens when there are a lot of people who share the same name? Well, in the age of the internet, apparently you gather all those people together and battle it out to declare the one true bearer of that name. On Saturday, what started as an internet joke turned into a very real event in which a bunch of people all named Josh gathered together in Lincoln, Nebraska to battle out for the right to be the one true Josh.

If you have no idea what this is about, here's some context. Last year, a man named Josh Swain made a Facebook group chat of everyone on Facebook who shared his name and challenged them to fight for the right to keep it. It started as a joke, but when Swain shared it on his Twitter account, it took off and today, a year later, the official Josh Swain Battle took place in Lincoln.

"My name is Josh Swain (actually) Verification. Almost one year ago, under a spell of pandemic boredom, I made a group chat of all the people on Facebook that I could find with the same first and last name as mine and challenged them to fight for the right to keep this common name. This was a complete joke, and I have posted jokes to my Twitter before, but when I posted the screenshots to my Twitter here, the internet ran with it and ran with enough endurance for you all to remember a YEAR later," a post in Reddit's r/joshswainbattle reads. "That doesn't happen very often, so I'm afraid I have to oblige the internet and trek all the way across the contiguous United States to defend my name."

And Swain wasn't the only Josh to show up. Many Joshes -- not just Josh Swains, the event had already expanded to all people named Josh -- showed up for an epic pool noodle battle. And, ultimately, it was the little guy who won. Five-year-old "Little Josh" was crowned the One True Josh.

While the event started out as a joke, it ended up doing some real good as well. A fundraiser set up to jokingly pay for the legal fees for all the Joshes, not the One True Josh to change their names is actually a benefit for The Children's Hospital and Medical Center.

Congratulations to the One True Josh, Little Josh.