I suppose it’s the “swim” part that threw me off. Like if ESPN called the NFL network the football swim" network. I’m not upset about this, as I said I’ll get used to it.
When Cartoon Network launched the Adult Swim block of programming in the Fall of 2001 (originally it just aired Friday & Saturday nights) they used these promos. Hard to believe how long ago that was…
Well, it’s been around for 15 years now …
I have not watched the linked promos (kinda busy right now), but it would seem that the phrase “adult swim” was already well known to many folks, kids included. If you called something anything even RESEMBLING “adults only” I think a lot of people would get the wrong idea.
I would have been on your side. Stupid name. But now that I see all the cards laid out, makes perfect sense to me. Ingenious.
Is mature behavior expected of mature people?
I saw a sign once upon a time, at the entrance to a “clothing optional” beach that said: “Mature behavior required.”
I always understood that to be a euphemism, really meaning “Mature behavior forbidden”.
At a typical “Adult Swim” in a hotel pool, is “Mature behavior” required or forbidden?
What happens in the deep end stays in the deep end.
Starting 10pm ?
Its summer there ?
Something like these ?
As a lifeguard, this was the crucial part for me. We also had some work to do that we couldn’t do while watching in the kiddies in the pool. We were still on duty during adult swim but we weren’t watching the pool like a hawk during those times. We could also occasionally take a short dip in the pool.
Thank you or this thread, it clarified a few things. Never understood why the TV network was names that, nor this practice with swimming pools had such a name, the 2 merge together nicely.
That’s how I remember it but didn’t understand what was going on at that time. I was told that everyone had to get out of the water when the lifeguard blows that whistle, but the growups if they are in the water can stay in, and if they want to get in they can also.
Now that I finally understand what adult swim is, I have to say WTF, I can only imagine some pedophobic people secretly smiling in pleasure to see all the children be herded out of the pool, Children standing around sometimes shivering for no other reason then their own twisted sense of self pleasure.
Actually thinking more into this, IIRC it was also the time that the water was tested (for pH?), and the chemicals added or adjusted. This duty fell to the life guards who would be off their stands, which is more likely the reason that the children had to be removed, adults were considered to be generally more able to swim and not drown, nor horseplay and save enough to leave unsupervised for that time while the test is being done.
What? This is a whoosh, right?
I wanted to raise my hand and say I too used to wonder what adult swim was supposed to mean.
WTF? Not at all, that would be sick. It’s actually the time when the hot chicks who have been sunbathing for the last 50 minutes get into the pool to cool off. It’s Adult Swim, not Sicko Swim.
I’ll have to start looking for the signs…
Me too. I never was in a place where there was “adult swim”. It was always kiddie time. I am glad there is such a thing.
At the pools where we used to live (our apartment complex has a pool, so we don’t use the city parks’ pools in Indy) this is what it meant. During regular times, just two lanes laps were open, and the rest of the pool was occupied by kids horsing around. The two lanes that were open were in shallow water, and always seemed to be occupied by obese people walking back and forth.
During “adult swim,” which was one hour in the afternoon, IIRC 1-2pm, and the two hours before the pool closed, 7-9pm, the lifeguards put up the ropes that made swimming lanes across the whole pool, so all it was for was swimming laps. There was no play area, and the water slides were closed in the diving pools, which were only for people practicing serious diving off the high boards.
Kids we allowed, if they wanted to swim laps; you would occasionally see middle schoolers doing some serious diving, and you’d see plenty of high schoolers. People who swam on high school teams needed to keep in shape over the summer. There was some rule that anyone under a certain age had to have a parent (or some adult) present (IIRC, anyone under 16 who had not passed the Red Cross Advanced Swimmers’ test, and anyone under 12, even if they had), although that may have changed recently, because a lot of places that didn’t used to require the presence of an adult, were changing policies.
There was probably some age, like 8, below which you were just plain banned from the “adult swim” regardless of your desire to swim laps, or your discipline and ability to do so. But I don’t know what it was.
Also, “Adult Swim,” isn’t a network. It’s a block of time on the Cartoon Network. The shows are “adult” in the pornographic sense. They used to show Home Movies and Futurama during Adult Swim.
Speaking as a former Lifeguard Training Instructor, the lifeguard(s) should keep an eye on the kids and look for early signs of hypothermia. On a not-quite-so-hot summer day, when the water is cool, some of the little kids will start shivering and turning blue but they’re having so much fun that it overpowers their common sense. A good lifeguard will see this coming, blow the whistle, and announce “adult swim”. All the kids have to get out of the pool for at least ten minutes, allowing them to calm down, dry off, and warm up. The adults like it too because they get a chance to get in the water and cool off without all the splashing and squealing.
Some pools might have “adult swim” scheduled during certain hours of the day.
A more common practice is that a large pool with have a schedule where part of the day is for “free swim” (splashing squealing kids), other times for swim lessons, others for aqua aerobics, and then the rest of the day is generally “lap swim”. You don’t have to be an adult to do lap swim, but you are expected to swim… laps. And no horseplay. So that’s kinda like adult swim but it’s based on behavior, not on age.
If you were at a swinger’s resort then maybe “adult swim” would have some other meaning involving dildos and lingerie but that would be the exception rather than the rule. But if that were the case, I can totally see why they would choose 10pm to midnight as the time slot.
That’s how it started. Now it’s treated as a separate network that shares time on the Cartoon Network’s channel.
I don’t know what pools YOU went to, but when I was a kid it just meant that we all hit the concession stand and dripped water onto the picnic tables while the adults had their time and the lifeguards made sure there were no bodies on the bottom of the pool. Such was our youthful understanding of the concept, anyway.
I assume you meant AREN’T. We’re not talking Fritz the Cat here…
Even if there is a speciic age cutoff, I suspect if someone is a year or two below it, and doesn’t look young, and isn’t bothering anybody, the lifeguards aren’t going to ask them to show ID.