Shotgunning
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- This article is about the drinking practice. For other uses of shotgun, see shotgun (disambiguation).
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Shotgunning is a means of consuming a canned beverage, especially beer, very quickly by a particular technique involving punching a hole in the side of the can. It is usually practiced as a form of drinking game and is especially popular among college students. In Australia it is called doing a "sub". It has also been called "springing a beer" in parts of Western Canada (apparently to make it sound more appeasing to "rookie drinkers").
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[edit] Procedure
To shotgun a beverage, one punches a small hole in the side of the can usually near the bottom while the can is upside down. By tilting the can carefully, the puncture will go through the air-pocket in the can, keeping the beverage from flying out; this is usually done using a key or other sharp instrument. Lacking this, teeth can be utilized by the experienced shotgunner. The drinker then places this hole to his or her lips, tilts the can right-side-up, and pulls the tab in the usual manner. The combined effects of gravity and the pressure change that follow when the tab is pulled cause the beverage to be forced out of the can, and into the drinker's mouth, very rapidly. Unless one is skilled in the technique it is easy to become soaked as the drink rushes out of the can. Depending on the beverage and the way the technique is performed, a beverage of twelve US fluid ounces can be consumed in well under 10 seconds. Accomplished shotgunners can consume this amount in as litte as two or three seconds.
The method of shotgunning a beer is demonstrated by John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga in the 1985 film The Sure Thing. Film critic James Lipton once appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien to "discuss" the film, but was instead told that the staff really just wanted him to shotgun a beer on camera, a request that Lipton gladly fulfilled. A more updated film featuring the art of shotgunning can be seen in the 2002 film FUBAR and in the HBO show Entourage. Furthermore, the most recent Hollywood documented depiction of shotgunning can be found in Broken Lizard's 2006 film "Beerfest."
[edit] Variations
[edit] Strawpedo
Strawpedoing, or shnorkelling, is the equivalent of shotgunning when a glass bottle of alcohol used. A bendy straw is inserted into the top of the bottle and the small end is bent down and held over the edge of the bottle. To drink, the mouth of the bottle and the elbow of the bendy straw is put in the mouth and upended. The bendy straw ensures a steady flow of air into the bottle, and the drink can therefore be consumed very quickly.
[edit] Inverted Shotgunning/Blowholing/Speed Holes
A variation on the same theme arose from the necessity of not spilling beer, as is common with a shotgun. In this method, one must drink about 1 inch of the liquid inhabiting the can, and then poke a hole near the top, above the liquid level, on the side of the can that does not have the tab hole. In other words, the side of the can that faces upward when drinking. The beer is then drunk from the normal drinking hole in the can. Inverted shotgunning is actually a less accurate name for the method, because it is not actually shotgunning; shotgunning utilises both the passage of air and the pressure of gravity, while inverted shotgunning considers only the passage of air. The word "blowholing", while more accurate (the added hole emulates a sea mammal breathing in through its blowhole), is not used as commonly as it has a sexual connotation attached to it. "Speed hole" is another common, accurate terminology, particularly used by those who insist upon using this technique every time they drink from cans, rather than when they simply mean to consume the whole can in one go.
The method for puncturing the outside of the beer can varies but the ideal method is to use the pop tab. Break the pop tab off the top of the can after the can has been opened and a slight amount of beer has been consumed from the can. Next, rub one of the narrow ends of the tab against the can back and forth with force just below the lip of the can. The aluminum will wear thin and you can stick the tab through the side of the can creating the blowhole. This method is considered the most skillful method for puncturing the can (beyond absurdity such as biting through it).
