This town throws pennies at people. They hurt.
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Published 2023-08-14
DoP: Dave Mackie davemackie.co.uk/
Camera; Jared Zwarts
Editor: Julian Domanski
Thanks to Dave Jacobs for the suggestion
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All Comments (21)
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Turns out tiny, unpredictable, fast-moving objects are really difficult to capture on camera! They're a bit more obvious in the later locations, but hopefully the slowed-and-zoomed shots will help...
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Tom reached peak Englishman the day he was attending a medieval ceremony where the rich vindictively throw money at the poors in a village with more pubs than normal, and upon being struck, reflexively yelled "oh bloody hell!"
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This feels like a sketch Monty Python would do to make fun of weird British town traditions.
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As a resident of Honiton, I can confirm it is like a medieval Monty Python sketch. But Tom should definitely check out the FLAMING BARREL RACING ceremony they do in the town next door... That's even more crazy!
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They were actually old pennies in the past, which would have had considerably more thermal inertia than the tiny new pennies they use today. Now if you were hit by an old penny it would have been quite painful as they were quite weighty.
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I absolutely love when town criers look like fictional town criers
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This is like a comedically evil thing the corrupt nobles of a town in D&D would do because the DM wants to goud you into reinacting the french revolution.
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Plenty of traditions have dehumanizing histories, but this one just seems so much less diluted than most. In my area something like this would have evolved into people throwing candy or small pastries out the window.
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After seeing them in Runescape, I can't believe town criers are not only real still but actually dress like that
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Only in England would people voluntarily go to a place to have pennies thrown at them by rich people.
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making poor people burn themselves picking up pennies is the most aristocratic activity i can think of
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"It's one penny, but I'm really proud of the penny" is the cutest thing I've heard all day 🤣
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+FISTFUL OF DOLLAR +ENRAGED +DISRESPECT
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A sadistic, dehumanizing act by the riches to the poor turned into a family friendly ceremony... I would not have believed it.
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It's like a Monty Python skit about a demented town: "We heat up pennies left by alcoholics and throw them at any poor bugger wishing to declare their humiliating obeisance to our proud tradition of gross inequality."
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Who else expected to see a tsunami of pennies being thrown at them from large buckets but then quickly realised it would be impossible
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This also happens at Lincoln College, Oxford, where I did my undergrad. Students throw (no longer hot) pennies from the tower over the main gate down in to th front quad where local primary school children collect them. This happens on accession day. The pennies used to be hot, to teach the children about greed. They aren't hot anymore, so the lesson may have been reversed!
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In whatever other country on the world would you expect "throwing scolding hot pennies at desperate, poor peasents" become a 700+ year tradition? xD
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This is exactly what I thought a town crier and mace bearer would look like. Amazing.
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“And sometimes, I have to wing it” Proceeds to explain everything
