Odd questions for Brits (Others can weigh in, too)

[apple_pathways]

So, I'm writing a fic, and I need to know:

There's a game we play in the US called chicken fight. (According to that Wikipedia article, it is also called Cherry Drop, Shoulder Wars, or Darling Pickie.) It's played at the beach or in a pool. It consists of two teams of two people each: one team member sits on the shoulders of the other team member, and tries to knock their opponent off the shoulders of their teammate.

It's generally played with a girl on the shoulders and a guy down below, and often signals the beginning of Sexy Pooltime Shenanigans. (Or at least that's how it's been used in my experience. I've also played with all girls, but that also tends to lead to shenanigans.)

Here's a video, if you still don't know what I'm on about:
(WARNING: Video is accompanied by Obnoxious Adolescent Commentary!)

So the question: do you have this in the UK? (Or anywhere else?) What is it called? (Oh, and before you accuse me of being lazy: I plan on doing a Google search and trolling through the usual American-to-Britspeak blogs when I get back from work, but it's a bit obscure, and I thought maybe someone could help me out in the meantime!)

Americans: what are your experiences of the game? What do you call it?

Comments

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that games like this crop up in British pools, but I can't think of a name for it so whatever it is evidently isn't part of the cultural consciousness... I think possibly because Pooltime Fun isn't necessarily something Brits associate with summer, at least not in this country!

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

This is what I feared! Aw well--thanks for weighing in. :) (Glad I asked before I just went and put in the story anyway!)

[ladybracknell.livejournal.com]

Never heard of it, I'm afraid - although that may be because not many people here have pools and 'sexy pool times' and 'municipal facility' don't really go hand-in-hand....

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

You know what: I don't know many people with pools, either! Everytime I can remember playing it was in a public pool. :P (I don't know if this is just fueling the "Americans are shameless and vulgar" stereotype...) As teenagers, we tended not to let the presence of families and whatnot get in the way of our shameless poolside flirting. And when I got older (college age) I had a lot of friends who lived in apartment complexes off campus. We would hop the fence to the apartment pool at night.

Hmm, gonna have to do some more research about the British Summer Experience when I get home!

[ladybracknell.livejournal.com]

This is going to play right into the sterotype of us Brits as uptight and repressed and all very proper, but here we have anti-flirting rules in pools and anti-gymnastics rules. This poster was in every pool I ever swam in:



I feel I've missed out, lol.

[planejane.livejournal.com]

I remember that poster!!!

[katyscarlett76.livejournal.com]

lol I was gonna mention that poster!

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Ha! I love that poster! Very informative. We have similar posters up at every public pool in the US, minus the bit about 'petting'--probably not because we welcome that sort of thing in public pools, but because we're so sexually repressed we'd be embarrassed to put it on a poster!

However, most smaller pools would be without a lifeguard, and there would be no one to enforce the rules against gymnastics and whatnot. Hence the fact that we played anyways. :P

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Also, I am still laughing at the idea of anti-flirting laws... :P

[ravelled-ribbon.livejournal.com]

Actually they're anti making out laws. It just looks like flirting on the poster because we are too repressed to even show kissing.

[bwblack.livejournal.com]

What I like most about this is the names of things. Bombing we call Cannon Balling. Ducking= we (although in this case we might just be my family) call dunking. And acrobatics and gymnastics are called that here but would probably fall under general rough housing in the pool sign.

[jobey-in-error.livejournal.com]

I don't have any data to offer you apart from a) being aware of it, and b) never having known it to be called anything.

But I can't resist commenting that from now on I will ALWAYS call it "the Beginning of Sexy Pooltime Shenanigans."

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

It has a name, it does! I don't know why so many people were unaware of it. :P

I will ALWAYS call it "the Beginning of Sexy Pooltime Shenanigans."

Not as catchy as "Darling Pickie" (who the hell calls it that?), but certainly more descriptive. :D

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

I've generally seen it played as a macho fighting contest, in all gender combinations though it's very rare to have a girl carrying a guy (mostly because they tend to be bigger than her). Note that my main circle is homeschooled, who tend to be conservative, which is probably why I've never seen it lead to sexy shenanigans. (Woe is me.)

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can definitely see it as a macho fighting contest--I can remember quite a few games turning just a bit too serious when the more competitive folks got involved.

You've got a lot of catching up to do in the way of sexy pool shenanigans, but I dare say it's not too late! Best to start practicing now. ;)

[katyscarlett76.livejournal.com]

Echoing my fellow Brits in saying I've never heard of it. As ladybracknell mentioned we had (or have, haven't been to a local pool in ages) rules against that kind of stuff in our pools, that poster was in every pool I ever swam in too. People might get up to similiar type stuff on holiday (those late teens/early twenties go to Spain with your mates and get pissed type holidays)but it'd be more just general mucking about, wouldn't be organised or have a name or anything.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

No, we totally have rules against it as well! There's always a poster telling you not to run, or dive, or make a general nuisance of yourself. But most smaller pools are without official supervision, so kids will do whatever they can get away with. (No bombing? Geez...why don't they just write 'no fun'! :P)

As it turns out, a lot of my fellow Americans didn't know it had a name, either! I love discussing these sorts of topics, as they always turn out to be really region-specific.

[ladylovelace.livejournal.com]

Just because I feel my patented Southern Hemisphere Experience™ :

We do play this, and I have seen it played by my peers, and additionally, have played this out of the water as well, and, additional to that, have played both an aquatic and non-aquatic version that ran more like a joust with pool noddles.

Never had a name for it, though. It did always strike me as akin to a contest of strength to prove who was the better mate, though. I was usually the one sitting at the side and explaining the psychology of such a display to anyone who'd listen, because I was a boring arsehole as a teenager.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

I love your patented Southern Hemisphere Experience™! That's why I opened the question up to everyone, and not just the Brits.

Now that I'm picturing it, I can imagine the Australians getting really into this sort of game. If this ever turns into a sport with international competition, we Americans are totally getting our asses handed to us by the Aussies! (We didn't have noodles when I was young enough to play! That sounds like a whole new dimension of fun... And that last sentiment makes me sound really old...)

I, too, was rather boring and obnoxious as a teenager, but I was always guilted into playing somehow. I'm really easily manipulated by guilt!

[ladylovelace.livejournal.com]

I realise I accidentally that first sentence :/

Given that we are a nation built chiefly on sport and vitriol, I could see us getting competitive over this sort of thing. I mean, this coming from a person who was brought up laughing at ice hockey as a wimp's sport because of all the padding they put on to play it. We could easily get mean with this.

[ravelled-ribbon.livejournal.com]

The non water version is how one of our chemistry teachers broke her pelvis.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

... ouch :/

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Okay, I didn't even know the American name for it, so I really don't have anything useful to contribute to the discussion... except that Patrick Troughton and Colin Baker have been documented goofing around in a pool doing something similar playing it, so it must exist somewhere in the British lexicon as well:



(About time my collection of entirely random pictures got some use.)

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

AWESOME! I should have known I could count on you to bring the evidence. CHECK AND MATE!

(I do wonder what the hell they were doing, though. 'Cause if you're not gonna chicken fight, there's very little reason to sit on someone shoulders like that...)

[jacknjill270.livejournal.com]

Yeeeesss I loved this game! I spent a ton of time in hotels over the summer when I was a kid and we played this game all the time. Alas we were all young girls so our Shenanigans were not of the Sexy Pooltime sort. I can't remember what we called it though, if we called it anything at all. Apparently I am only adding to the "Americans are shameless and vulgar" stereotype since we hardly played anywhere other than hotel pools, right out in public, lol.

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

...and apparently I am contributing to the "apple_pathways is depraved and vulgar" stereotype, as no one else who's aware of this game has connected it to flirting or sexy shenanigans! :P

I do remember playing in hotel pools, but mostly I remember playing it in campground pools: my family spent a lot of time camping. Sure, there was always a sign that said "no rough-housing", but surely they're not talking about a good clean game of chicken fight! (Why am I the only one who knows it had a name? That's what I find the most weird!)

[starhermione86.livejournal.com]

I knew the name Chicken fight and I played it all the time growing up. There was no sexy shenanigans, however, because I was sitting on the shoulders of my brother and fighting against my cousins. And despite certain stereotypes about the South, we really don't go for that kind of thing. :D Although now I feel the need to go out and find a boyfriend just to experience it in a new adult way.

[starhermione86.livejournal.com]

Although, I did also watch my brother and his girlfriend play this game with their friends. And yes, now that I think about it, there was an excess of groping and sexy shenanigans involved. So my teenage brother played this game in front of his kid sister and sexy shenanigans was involved. My childhood was so *not* sheltered. How's that for depraved and vulgar?

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Confirming both the name and the game's association with Sexy Shenanigans? WIN!

*thumbs up*

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

The Hawaiian take: yeah, I would call this chicken fight. I can definitely see how this would lead to sexy shenanigans, but it my experience it was more of the macho competition as described above. But that's because I mostly only played with my family and/or friends (usually, girl friends) rather than, say, with a bunch of sexy college co-eds. (My brother and I make a badass team, btw.) I have played it in pools, more frequently in the ocean (where the life guard won't yell at you about it), and, once, in my history classroom during recess, where thankfully no one died or was injured. XD;

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

Yes! Score one for someone else who knows the name of this game! (-10 again for me being the only one who remembers it as a prelude to sexy shenanigans...)

[alias-amy.livejournal.com]

If you've never seen Eddie Izzard, he does a hysterical bit about "splashy splashy" sexy times in a pool that I had to go look up when I saw your entry! I don't know how to do the thing where the clip starts at a certain point, but its at the 1:35:40 mark.

 

[apple-pathways.livejournal.com]

OMG, you're right! I totally forgot about that routine: proof positive that they have Sexy Pool Shenanigans in England! (I feel better now. :P)


God, I love Eddie Izzard. I'm gonna have to put him on my iPod and brush up my memorization of every joke he's ever told--then next time, these sorts of things won't slip by me!

[(Anonymous)]

I just can't help thinking of this advert from about ten years ago...



:)

But no, I don't think I've ever seen it "played". I stick to swimming and so do most other people in my experience. Not enough people have pools of their own and doing that in a public pool would certainly get you in trouble.

Stewart