Tuesday 4 February 2014

Neknomination and a tsunami of hysteria

Look, I'm no spring chicken – far from it.  Any fluff to be found on me springs out only from my ears and nose.

But even I cannot help but have a good laugh at fogey Ireland when it comes to the web. If the reactions of the papers, RTE, Internet sources of less authority than this one, and high court judges are anything to go by, we are facing into an neknomination abyss.


 "Neknomination", if fevered reports are to be believed,  is "an online craze" sweeping the youth of Ireland, including our student future elite. You can tell they are students by the fact that they aren't able to spell "neck".


The Irish Independent describes it thus:

WHAT IS NEKNOMINATION?
Alyson Henry – 03 February 2014

NEKNOMINATION is an online drinking game that has gained momentum in recent weeks in Ireland. The aim of the game is to down a pint of alcohol and then nominate someone else to do the same, giving them a window of 24 hours to do so. Most people who take part make a video of themselves carrying it out, and post it on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.

The concept of the game has been described as: "Neck your drink. Nominate another. Don't break the chain, don't be a d***. The social drinking game for social media! #neknominate. Drink Responsible".

Some try to take Neknomination to extremes, downing disgusting cocktails or aiming to be ever‐more flamboyant or outrageous, sometimes with dangerous results.

The deaths of two young people this weekend have been linked to the game, causing concerns as to the impact the trend is having on young people and drinking habits.


According to latest reports however, it now seems that at least one of the deaths above had nothing to do with "the craze" but that reporting it so was due to the climate of neknomination hysteria

I see another angle here: that bit about "young people" and "drinking habits".  You just know where this is going – the authorities raising alcohol prices on the pretext of acting in the interests of spoiled brats who should know better.  And where do they get the money anyway?  Mummy and daddy, I presume?  So where do they fit in with  all of this?

More incredibly, if that most out-of-touch section of the Irish populace – the judiciary – is to be believed, neknomination will result in a tidal wave of murder and rape too.  See below:


A High Court judge has said if Internet drinking contests continued, they would result in a “tsunami” of homicide and rape prosecutions before his court.

Mr Justice Paul Carney was speaking as he was sentencing a 38-year-old Waterford man who, after drinking six to seven pints of Budweiser, raped an acquaintance having offered her a lift home from their local nightclub.

The man yesterday received an eight-year sentence with the final three years suspended. An 18-month post-release supervision order was also imposed and the man was registered a sex offender.


Woah!  Steady on, Your Honour.  First of all, the man above is 38 years old.  

Apart from that, It's something of a leap – even from comfort of a well-upholstered judge's seat – to equate a stupid drinking game played by young people incapable of actual social interaction with acts of murder and rape. 

Surely if all these silly dares take place in front of a PC, laptop or smartphone, it's more likely that participants with be up in their bedrooms with the doors locked, and are more likely to fall into their beds after their Jägerbombfest?   They're quite possibly less likely to be outside causing inconvenience to others, as happened in my day. 

And rape?  Sorry, I am not making light of this, but has Judge Carney never heard of Brewer's Droop?  If our pampered youth manage to stagger out of their safe suburban homes after a session of neknomination, they are highly unlikely to be any condition to rape or murder.

No more than Grand Theft Auto, a silly craze cannot be held responsible for such serious crimes.    Someone who does such things will do so without any encouragement.  

We are faced with a tsunami of hyperbole and hysteria, more like. 


8 comments:

Ella said...

There has always been drinking games. Nowadays the are more public but... I remember (I stress there was alcohol involved here!) a long time ago, when a gang of us women were having a few bevvies at home, and before you know it I was behind the camera taking pictures of the rest of the lassies topless. the plan then was to get the film developed and partners had to pick out who was their missus...

Ella said...

Just thinking sure didn't we have spin the bottle too....

waveboy said...

...and he drove home too, after the eight pints!!! I wonder if the judge noticed that little breach of the law on his eagerness to make his dramatic tsunami allusions.

old pisshead said...

yeah , I was involved in that game last night , ya know how it is - your out with the homeys n' sumwan dares ya n' next thing yer downing a pint of noxious disgustin alcohol an yer sick n' dizzy an ya want to fight the barstaff anyway im never drinkin that stuff again, I think it was called harp.

old pisshead said...

an don't mention the state o me skivs dis morning yid sware id eatin curried slurry

The Gombeen Man said...

That Harp stuff is dangerous. Hope the good judge does not hear about it!

Anonymous said...

ah jaysus, diden I go and do it again last night, me fella sez hes leavin an taken his three kids for fuck sake that still leaves fore of them to mind an me head is bangin an im suppose to be goin out tonite an socialservices wont do babysittin on a sunday ah fuck, this countrys a bleedin joke

The Gombeen Man said...

"Never again"... that's what I'm always telling myself...