On last night's episode of "How I Met Your Mother", Barney (Doogie Howser's Neil Patrick Harris' character) explained a phenomenon known as the "Cheerleader Effect".  Basically, it's the idea that while things may look hot as a group from a distance away (like a bunch of young cheerleaders), when you look closer at each one individually you realize they aren't as good looking as you expected.  That their perceived group beauty is exceedingly higher than any of their individual looks.

They can't all be hot like this!

We think that NFL cheerleaders would be an exception to this rule...there are very few that aren't smoking hot (see Exhibit A above).  But we did find a bunch of other cases where the "Cheerleader Effect" was in full effect:

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh

They frollick around in the sand wearing hardly any clothes and when you're watching it looks pretty fantastic.  USA bikinis?  Awesome.  Then you get a close-up like this of their faces and it's just OK.  Quite a letdown.

Williams Sisters

Skin tight tennis garb and powerful serves make them look sexy from afar.  And five years ago we couldn't have included them here when they were at the top of their game (both looks and play), but now age has taken its toll a bit or they have taken their hotness for granted, I'm not sure.  But the end result is not that good.

Female MMA'ers

At first glance, you think this should be pretty hot.  Girl Fight!  But then you realize that most really hot girls in MMA are the Ring Girls, not the girls that are battling it out in the ring.  There's a reason they don't mind their face being bloodied...it's not all that great to begin with.

Olympic Swimmers

They look great going through the water in their body fitting spandex.  You except them to rip off their swimcap and shake their long hair out in slow motion.  But look at them in their sweats after a race.  Not bad, just not as good as you were expecting when you saw them doing the backstroke.

Grey's Anatomy

It sounds like a great show.  A bunch of young doctors, surely there are a few good looking ones.  But take away Katherine Heigl, and what do you have left?  Nothing, that's what.  Nothing at all.

Laguna Beach

Another show where you think everyone should be just a bit hotter.  I saw part of a rerun just the other day and was completely, utterly, not impressed by these gals.  They only reason you would be able to stand all their drama and bitching is if they were very easy on the eyes.  Therefore, you all the whining gets old, really quick.  C'mon, there's hotter Cali girls than this, right?  Down year at Laguna High I guess.