# Ow! Whaddya call that? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 23, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005 "2007-12-23T07:56:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pel2na](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Pel2na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pel2na)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/1 "2007-12-23T07:56:50Z")
I’ve always found it fascinating how kids everywhere do the same basic stuff to and with each other, the only differences are in what these activities are called. Farting, for instance, can be known as a poot, putt, toot, cut one _ad infinitum_ . What I’m interested in at the moment is that almost universal form of painful annoyance where one puts the tip of one’s thumb in front of the middle finger, tenses the muscles, then lets the middle finger fly against the victim’s skull. The hardness of the fingernail helps it to sting effectively. We used to call this a “thimp”. From friends who’ve grown up in other places I’ve heard “thork”, “thwack”, “thumper”, and (how this evolved I know not) “monkeybunks”. What did you and your friends call this? And did you have a different name for the earlobe variation? ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/2 "2007-12-23T08:01:29Z")
We always just called it a flick. My sister used to flick my ears all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/3 "2007-12-23T08:23:50Z")
I go with “flick”. Although “thwack” does spring to mind as well. ---
**Author:** ![pprgrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f6c823/32.png) [@pprgrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pprgrl)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/4 "2007-12-23T13:54:34Z")
Another flick. My mother used to make all of us kids sit in the row in front of her during church so she could flick our ears if we got rowdy during the sermon. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/5 "2007-12-23T14:20:37Z")
We called it thip. I postulate that thip and thimp are onomontopeic representations of the sound made by the fingernail against the thumb (i.e., the sound the thimper hears), whereas thwack and thork are representations of the sound the fingernail makes striking its target (i.e., the sound the thorkee hears). I am unable to form a hypothesis about monkeybunks. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/6 "2007-12-23T14:22:36Z")
Flick. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/7 "2007-12-23T15:38:23Z")
We call it a flick. FTR, a “thwack” is when you take your marching band folder (with all the marching charts in it), roll it up into a cylinder and smack a guy in the nuts with it. Ha ha…_sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Fetchund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Fetchund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fetchund)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/8 "2007-12-23T15:39:34Z")
Thump. Never had the earlobe variation. (There is yet another thing to be grateful for!) ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/9 "2007-12-23T16:32:12Z")
Flick. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/10 "2007-12-23T16:44:08Z")
Flick, it was always a flick. Though if you do it to the arm it’s a leprechaun kick. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/11 "2007-12-23T19:18:25Z")
Flick. That’s all I’ve ever called it, or heard it called. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ow-whaddya-call-that/431005/12 "2007-12-23T19:26:15Z")
Another one for flick here. Thumps and thwacks were usually worse than flicks and either involved open hands or objects.