Booyakasha

September 3, 2006 12:33 PM

What do you call this type of snap?

In fourth grade (early '90s) it was all the rage to make this motion - a snap where you hit your index finger against your connected middle finger and thumb. Supposedly it was to mimic the action of packing a tin of chew. Also, Ali G does it when he says "respec".

posted by mammary16 to society & culture (10 comments total)

Maybe I'm missing something, but is there another way to snap?
posted by acoutu at 1:14 PM on September 3, 2006

I know what you mean, mammary16. You try and slam your 1st (I always do it w/ my 4th) finger against your middle/thumb to make the snapping noise, by flicking your wrist. I think we always called it "packing", which of course we weren't really doing.
posted by jdl at 1:19 PM on September 3, 2006

I remember it, too, but I don't recall that it ever had a name.
posted by davidmsc at 1:27 PM on September 3, 2006

I'm pretty sure that is just how you pack a can of dip. Google doesn't seem to be pulling up a title for it.
posted by aburd at 1:33 PM on September 3, 2006

Piggyback query: likewise the name, if there is one, for whacking the top of a beer can with the side of one's thumb (as if to reduce potential sprayage).
posted by cortex at 1:48 PM on September 3, 2006

We used to whack each other with the Limpy (tm). To do this, you make an "OK" sign with one hand, actually holding index and middle finger with the same thumb. The wrist is then flicked back and forth with the ring and pinky fingers flapping back and forth loosely. When your ring finger is nice and loose, whip out with your arm starting at the elbow towards your target and snap your wrist back slightly, bullwhip style, just short of the target. Leaves a nasty welt.
posted by gilgul at 2:03 PM on September 3, 2006

I do know what you're talking about, definitely a 90's thing... I can do it well with both hands. Freaks the wife out.

A friend could do songs with that technique using both hands. We did have friends that dipped and I did try it on a can of skoal. Exactly the same motion.

jdl's suggestion of "packing" works for me.
posted by empyrean at 5:34 PM on September 3, 2006

Maybe I'm missing something, but is there another way to snap?

The usual way (as far as I know) is to connect middle finger and thumb, then push down the middle finger so it hits that podgy bit of your hand below the thumb. (I thought Americans called this 'popping' their fingers, rather than snapping?)

The Ali G-type one doesn't actually involve hitting 'your index finger against your connected middle finger and thumb', all the fingers are loose, the sound is made by the side of your thumb hitting the side of middle finger, or the one next to it, or both.

Re: 'packing a tin of chew', 'pack a can of dip' - what on earth does this mean? Sounds like a euphemism for something deeply disturbing!
posted by jack_mo at 6:52 AM on September 4, 2006

I think the first poster got confused (as I did, I thought it was a description of the standard way to snap) and I didn't quite understand the question to be any different from the standard way until jdl modified it.
posted by vanoakenfold at 9:15 AM on September 4, 2006

jack_mo: chew==dip==chewing tobacco
posted by owhydididoit at 10:12 AM on September 4, 2006