# What is the name for this type of playground "ride" ?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 5, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337 "2010-08-05T21:47:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/1 "2010-08-05T21:47:01Z")
They may not have them on modern playgrounds due to the safety considerations that seem to dominate all such matters nowadays, but…
ANY of several different rides basically consisting of an anchored center and something one would either hang on to or (more often) sit down on while it spins. You’d come running up to it and push, push, push it around in a circle until it had built up speed, then jump on and ride.
I just asked someone who said “merry go rounds”. I don’t recall us calling them “merry go rounds” and besides, when I think of “merry go rounds” I visualize much more slow-moving contraptions driven by some power source, with wooden ponies going up and down. Totally not that kind of thing. Damned if I can recall what we did call them though.
Still, that _does_ seem to be how they are [listed](http://www.willygoat.com/catalogmultiple.asp?name=merry_go_rounds&site=1) in some online catalogs of playground equipment.
Did y’all have any other name for that kind of thing?
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### Author:  [@ThirdOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThirdOne)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/2 "2010-08-05T21:57:46Z")
Yes, we called it a merry go round. The one with horses called a carousel, but we may have called it a merry go round. Of course, now I think about it, I’m not sure if we called a carousel a merry go round.
I don’t of any other names.
I know, real helpful :smack:
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### Author:  [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/3 "2010-08-05T22:00:22Z")
Merry go arounds is what we still call them. Our local state park has one, and that’s what the park rangers call it too.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/4 "2010-08-05T22:00:24Z")
We called it a merry go round - we also called the thing at the fair with the horses a merry go round.
I suppose you could also nostalgically call it the Vominator.
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### Author:  [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/5 "2010-08-05T22:00:34Z")
Always called it a ‘merry go round’ but the ones designed like an upside down cone that you can climb as it spins (and IME are much harder to get up to any serious speed) are witches hats.
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### Author:  [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/6 "2010-08-05T22:13:47Z")
I call it a “roundabout”.
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### Author:  [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/7 "2010-08-05T22:20:40Z")
Merry-go-round or roundabout.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/8 "2010-08-05T22:22:13Z")
I never heard anything but merry go round.
Oddly enough, I got an e-mail video of a couple of grown-ups or at least oldish teens sitting in one (it had walls but looked like your basic MGR) and some asshole had arranged a motorbike in such a way that his back wheel was against the side of the MGR and he revved up the bike to drive the MGR to a speed that was enough to throw one of the riders out on the ground.
If you haven’t seen the video I bet it’s on YouTube. Funny as those things go. May be German in origin.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/9 "2010-08-05T22:29:34Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLiwqmJY314)
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMY3c96xpDs)
and now with a bicycle
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqkF8VTCxaU)
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### Author:  [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/10 "2010-08-05T22:35:21Z")
> [@Flutterby](#):
>
> Always called it a ‘merry go round’ but the ones designed like an upside down cone that you can climb as it spins (and IME are much harder to get up to any serious speed) are witches hats.
I forgot about the witches hats. I hated those things. The only way we could keep those things spinning was to have 2 kids holding on and running the entire time.
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/11 "2010-08-05T22:50:43Z")
Here is another merry go round vote. That’s all we ever called them.
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### Author:  [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/12 "2010-08-05T23:40:46Z")
Big Spinner as well as Merry-Go-Round
> **[\#980 Old, dangerous playground equipment - 1000 Awesome Things](https://1000awesomethings.com/2008/07/18/980-playground-equipment/)**
>
> Slides used to be dangerous. After climbing up those sandy, metal crosstrax steps you got to the top and stared down at that steep ride below. The slide was burning hot to the touch, a stovetop set to high all day under the summer sun, just waiting...
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### Author:  [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/13 "2010-08-05T23:52:01Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#):
>
> > [@Flutterby](#):
> >
> > Always called it a ‘merry go round’ but the ones designed like an upside down cone that you can climb as it spins (and IME are much harder to get up to any serious speed) are witches hats.
>
> I forgot about the witches hats. I hated those things. The only way we could keep those things spinning was to have 2 kids holding on and running the entire time.
Those ones are the only ones I see in parks anymore, and speed is probably the reason. I can remember getting a doozy of a scrape and practically flying off a merry go round when I put my feet down. A witch hat never got fast enough for that.
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### Author:  [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/14 "2010-08-06T02:59:48Z")
We called them both merry-go-rounds.
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### Author:  [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/15 "2010-08-06T03:48:53Z")
Most kids I knew called it “The Spinner”.
But I called it the Vomit Comet. Seems like every time I got on one, my sister and her friends made me stay on it and spun and spun and spun until either I was flung off at a high rate of speed or vomited.
…but don’t think that I didn’t try to aim at my sister. I did.
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### Author:  [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/16 "2010-08-06T04:36:03Z")
Merry-go-round.
Fairground carousels (with the horses) were called the same thing where I grew up.
Gawd, those things were fun. It’s too bad they don’t come in adult sizes.
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### Author:  [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/17 "2010-08-06T04:39:23Z")
Merry go round.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/18 "2010-08-06T14:34:49Z")
Merry-go-round
Or as Bill Cosby so perfectly put it, “…it’s a thing where you go round in a circle for 5 minutes and then puke.”
I loved the merry-go-round at school.
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### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/19 "2010-08-06T14:40:57Z")
I’ve only ever heard it called “roundabout”.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-name-for-this-type-of-playground-ride/549337/20 "2010-08-06T15:05:40Z")
Merry go round here, too.
Anyone have a link to a photo of the “witches’ hat” things? That doesn’t sound familiar.
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