Two Kids Try Real-Life ‘A Christmas Story’ Pole Licking Trick Much to Their Dismay

You knew this was going to happen someday and it did in the city of Chesterton, Indiana. Two boys in the fourth grade were on flag duty at their public school on Friday – which consists of raising and lowering the Stars and Stripes – when they decided to see if a scene they’d watched in the classic holiday movie “A Christmas Story” was true.

So they stuck out their tongues and licked the pole in the freezing cold winter. Both quickly discovered to their shock and panic that the consequences depicted in the movie were all too accurate. Gavin Dempsey and his friend James Alexander became stuck and couldn’t free themselves.

“I decided to try it because I thought all of the TV shows were lies, but turns out I was wrong,” Gavin admits ruefully.

James confessed to his mother that they got the idea from the flick. “When you’re young, you’re just messing around,” he explains.

Gavin’s mom Billie was stunned when an official called her from the school to explain that her son’s tongue was bleeding, after he was rescued from his embarrassing predicament. But she claims the nurse who was tending to the pair couldn’t help referencing a famous line from the film as she treated their wounds.

“[She] asked them, ‘OK, who double-dog dared who?'” she laughs.

James’s mother hopes her son has learned his lesson. The one thing she doesn’t plan to do is give him a licking. She figures the one he gave himself was probably punishment enough.

Photo courtesy: Warner Home Video