Man asks for help after son finds 'shiv' in Christmas cracker
A guy was left baffled by the ‘shiv’-like prize his son won in a Christmas cracker - and I’ll be honest it’s got me stumped as well.
Thousands of Brits will have pulled a cracker on Christmas Day this year, donning their colourful paper crown and reading out one of the worst jokes known to man.
Alongside there is also, of course, a small gift - which is often something that is ostensibly useful but in reality is too small to be practical, such as a tiny set of screwdrivers or a notepad with pages so teeny they can barely fit one word on.
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But in the case of dad Mike Crees the prize actually turned out to be a bit of a puzzle as he had absolutely no idea what it was supposed to be.
In a post on the Dull Men’s Club Facebook page, Crees asked: “A ‘cracker toy’. But what is it? Sturdy metal, resembles a small letter opener, no holes or hinges, not particularly sharp (but confiscated from the 10 year old due to it being wielded like shiv).
“Not an oyster knife, a bit lost really... But there will be some fellow dull men out there who know.”
For those unaware of the slang term, a ‘shiv’ is a handmade bladed weapon that resembles a knife and is mostly associated with prison inmates.
So, not very Christmassy.
Shortly after sharing his post, answers began rolling in with plenty of folks agreeing that it did look very shiv-y.
“It's definitely a Christmas shiv,” said one person.
Another commented: “Think you were right with shiv.”
Someone else joked: “Someone in HMP Belmarsh is wondering what to do with a mini plastic comb.”
Others suggested that it may be half a pair of scissors or ‘scis’ for short.
A fellow Dull Man's Club member said: “It's a scissor. You need to get another one.”
While a second said: "It's half of a pair of scis…”
Although the dad was given no definitive answer, it seems that ‘letter opener’ was a fairly common consensus.
And given that Crees himself has described it was a ‘small letter opener’, I reckon that fits nicely with the tradition of whatever you get in a Christmas cracker being a bit too little to be of any real use.
But if you disagree, please feel free to let us know what it actually is in the comments.
Claire Reid