Neck and nominate: why the cat’s out of the bag on this age-old uni tradition

“When the history books are written, the January of 2014 will go down as the month when one of the last worldwide conspiracies of humankind was exposed. Yes sports fans, the shlid has been lifted on our doctrine of neck and nominate.

Our once secret societies have been prised open and we must now suffer the inevitable trial by press. No more will the mantra of ‘Neck your drink. Nominate another. Don’t break the chain. Don’t be a dick’ be etched onto the liver of an unsuspecting nominee.”

Unfortunately I cannot give the Daily Mail-reading public the satisfaction of confirming that the above was said to the members of my sports team when the story came out.

In case you missed it, last week the national press jumped on the ‘stupid new drinking game‘ #NEKNOMINATE ‘invented’ by Australians, wherein YouTube videos show youths ‘downing drinks in disturbing ways‘.

‘Neck and Nominate’, rather than its ugly Aussie sibling, has been and always will be a casual and light-hearted drinking game between mates that, contrary to reports, has its roots in English boozing.

No-one knows exactly when the concept arose or where but what is for certain is that it is much older than the Aussie incarnation currently taking Twitter by storm. An elderly Tab guru I spoke with recalls the game being played in Cambridge as long ago as 2008.

I became aware of the game a little over a year ago, was nominated, and drank beer through a traffic cone. Other clips included remakes of Lord Of The Rings and Hitchcock’s Psycho, while one particularly bespoke video featured an informative tour of Sevenoaks.

So we revelled in our cultural chinning unbeknownst to the outside world. It became a perfect way to remain in contact with alumni of our club without burdening the public with having to witness some incredibly slow bolting.

But in all seriousness, we were aware of how idiotic it would be to make our activities public, so ‘Neck and Nominate’ remained a private forum.

This is where the Aussies came in. Like with cricket (although given recent events, maybe not), they have butchered an English concept by pulling ‘#NEKNOMINATE’ out of the furnace.

In unleashing the concept onto social media, a formerly amusing concept has been blown out of proportion by idiots intent on destroying not only their livers but also any employment prospects.

And given the continual spiral, you can only see it ending in a haze of alcohol-induced destitution.

This is a tale of an innovative idea, manifested beyond recognition and cast into the realm of tedious social media crazes.

I lament this distortion but wish to prove my faith in the original concept as a bit of fun between mates. So I have included my ‘Neck and Nominate’ but don’t expect me to nominate you, faithful Tab readers.

This article was originally published on The Tab Exeter.

Do you enjoy an occasional quiet beer with your friends? Send your Neck and Nominate videos to [email protected] or tweet us @TheTab