…a thousand times, your head actually falls off. :eek:
Yeah, I know. But I was told this as a kid, and I saw someone doing it (the slicing motion, not the head falling off bit) yesterday, and now I’m wondering where the frak that notion came from.
Any ideas?
No answers huh? See, I’m gonna’ take your word for it, but most of these dopers just gotta’ prove it to themselves, so now look what you’ve done…
Makes me want to try it with a video camera on me.
Does it work if you slice across someone else’s neck?
ME: (Slicing Bob) 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128… Just stand still, Bob… 129, 130…
I’m not sure what the GQ is here. Where did the notion come from? I don’t know, kids get lots of stupid ideas. As far as I know, it’s not widespread (I never heard of it, anyway).
Who did you hear it from? Other kids in the schoolyard? Or your parents? If it’s the latter, then maybe they told you that because they wanted you to stop doing it. As the father of a 2 year old, I can tell you that just saying “don’t do that anymore” isn’t good enough, you have to come up with some kind of reason. “Your head will fall off” would be a pretty good reason to stop.
There seems to be some serious stigma attached to this gesture; I don’t understand it myself. However I seem to recall that the NFL brought in some rule within the last few years where a player can immediately be ejected from a game for doing it. Maybe even suspended.
Anyway, I doubt you’re going to have much luck tracing the source of something that possibly only you have ever heard.
OK its taken me 5 minutes but I have just made the sign of the slash 999 times, the skin on my neck is a little sore but I detect no other ill effects. I guess I better post this now just in case. If you don’t hear from me again do not repeat this test!!
Any Dopers in Chicagoland wanna swing by figure9’s place? Y’know, just in case…
Something kids say to kids or moms say to kids to frighten them into being less annoying. Similar to if you keep making that face it will stay that way. Or if you do acid seven times you are legally insane. Etc.
For some people it is a realistic hazard.
because he ran away, screaming, some years ago.
This reminds me of the Billy Connolly sketch about the slightly older, more experienced boy introducing his younger friend to masturbation.
“Now remember. You only get a hundred of these, and then you die! You’ve just had one, so you’ve got ninety-nine left.”
"I was never so scared as the hundredth time I did it…
… it was the following afternoon."
experimental proof that it works!
it is a tough experiment to repeat though…
I note that figure9 hasn’t come back to prove that this theory is false…
Is it just me, or should the OP be read as “where does the basic finger across the throat gesture originate” as opposed to asking about the “thousand-times-lose-the-head variant”?
Just you. I can’t see how it could be read as anything other than the head falling off question.
Well, it does say:
so I can see how someone might get confused, but I think yours is the correct reading. The OP asks about a “notion,” not a “motion.” 
-FrL-
Well, I’d like to know where he got the notion.
Sorry, that was my bad. The notion, not the motion. 
It was told to me by some kid on the playground–I really can’t remember who. I get that a teacher / parent / older sibling / etc. probably told them that in order to make them stop doing it, but I was wondering if it’d shown up anywhere before–in fiction, for example.
checks thread Oh my God, I’ve killed figure9…