A rabid sports fan is one that boos a TV set.

Jimmy Cannon’s quip satirizes the intensity of modern spectatorship. To “boo a TV set” is to direct real emotion and hostility at an inanimate object—an image that captures how fandom can become performative, irrational, and detached from any practical effect on the game itself. The line also hints at the mid‑20th‑century shift of sports from stadium to living room: even when physically removed from the crowd and players, the fan recreates the rituals of attendance (cheering, jeering) at home. Cannon’s humor critiques not love of sport per se, but the loss of proportion when entertainment becomes identity and anger seeks any available target.