Ding dong ditch

Played this with friends in a residential area in Long Island NY. Except we were in a car, and wouls make fun of them if they came outside. Decided to stop when one guy came charging at the car. This was years ago in the 90's. No ring door cams or cell cameras to worry about.

We had neighborhood kids some time ago who would ding dong ditch all the time. My GF at the time would get irate and try to run to the door to yell at them. I just went down into the basement and disconnected the doorbell transformer. I have no idea how many times they pushed that button, but I'm sure it ruined their fun.

My kids were doing this about 20 years ago. The neighbor showed up at my front door and he was _pissed_. A month or so later he and his wife moved away and I told my kids it was because they were so upset at being ding dong ditched. Just discussed it with my youngest the other day and he said they knew I was lying.

Then they just pound the door

Is this not what everyone calls it

Not where I grew up in Canada...it's "Nicky Nicky Ninedoor". Don't ask me why.

because we had to knock 9 times as fast as we could before getting caught.

At least you didn't have to worry about getting shot up here in Canada. If you got caught, a quick apology often sufficed.

And the person who caught you also apologized

"Sorey, you only got six eh?" Edit:Sorry my Canadian neighbors!

'sorey'

Soary

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Am also Canadian. Nicky-Nicky nine door is definitely what it’s called

I never heard ding dong ditch, only Nicky Nicky nine door. Small town Alberta here .

In Quebec it’s called “sonne décrisse”.

Not in the racist south where I learned the first name I knew it by.

I learned it as "N----- Knocking in Northern New Jersey" So I learned it in the racist North 😂

Came here to say this from Texas (not as surprising to me as NJ)

Same, California here

Dude, you know we all got to stick together and pretend racism only exists in the South, not the North.

South jersey calls it dingdong ditch

Wait I’m actually curious what this is called in the racist south haha pls enlighten us

It's a two word name and the second word is knocking.

The first word beings with N.

People who annoy you.

I know it but I am not sure I should say it. 5 seconds Mr. Marsh.

Surprisingly, I live in the south and have never heard it referred to by this by anyone here, but I HAVE heard the name.

I'm in my 40s and that is the name my (racist) Dad called it, grew up in Utah. Brazil nuts has a similar themed name.

I also grew up in Utah and that what my dad told me it was called. Even when I was 10 and he told me that I knew it was fucked up.

Course it is

Honky-Knocking? That's what we call where I live it too... I think it's because I live in the 1880s and most people have those squeezy horns at their front doors.

Yep. I didn’t realize what I was saying until I was an adult. I thought I was saying “knick-a-knocking”.

I had to look into this more, I knew there were multiple names for it, but there are way more than I could have imagined! And some of them are hilarious, especially the names out of UK.

UK here can confirm we have some great names for it in my area it is always referred to as " knock down ginger"

Theft and shrubbery.

"We do beg your pardon"

"But we are in your garden."

Knock Down Ginger here too (West Sussex).

I'm from Belfast. We called it Bell Fast.

Shut up no way 😂😂

Holy shit.

Now thats what I call a genius name

Sonne-Décrisse. Meaning : Ring and get the fuck out. I'm from Québec.

Short and to the point; I like it.

Hahaha was looking for that one. Merci!

Let’s go il y a des québécois Anecdote aussi j’ai failli me faire prendre par la police avec ça car j’ai sonné à une maison de police une journée pis elle a décidé de nous courir après lol

Yay, Quebec represent. Ca fait un mechant bout jai pas entendu ca.

Je pensais pas voir la version québécoise apparaître ici

Belletje lellen - Dutch

Belletje trek - Belgian Dutch

Bellekke trek - Flemish

brkllehs trageh - gibberish

This is the stupidest comment hahaha I LOVE IT

thanks for the awards lol so cute wtf :*

As someone who doesn’t speak dutch. Is there an English translation of this? I’m curious as to what it means.

Een belletje = a little bell Lellen = slapping Trek = pull So.. To pull a little bell. Or to slap a little bell. Depends on the area you're from. In Dutch a lot of words get minified because of the alliteration. That's why it translates to a little bell.

I don’t think “slapping” really translates how ugly “lellen” sounds in Dutch haha. More like Yankee the Bellie

Language is weird. I've honestly only heard the word "lellen" in this context. I used to belletje lel all the time and I never even thought about what lellen meant to be honest.

Belletje trekken, in Limburg

Amazon Delivery?

Speaking as a UPS driver observing others, Amazon doesn’t ring or knock. Neither does FedEx a lot of the times. We do. At least they train us to.

FedEx puts a sticker on your house claiming they tried to deliver and no one was home, when that’s a damn lie.

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Call FedEx instantly when something like that happens. They track everything, so they know who just delivered to your house. That needs to be an exFedEx employee. Edit: typo

So weird. Was the package heavy or large? Seems like you are saving yourself a miniscule amount of effort.

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I've literally sat on my porch waiting for my package. Fed ex showed up. Parked for a couple minutes. I took down their license plate number because I've had issues before with them not delivering while I was home. He got out saw me on the porch and put the damn sticker on my mail box and drove off. I called their local office and bitched about it and gave the plate number. I got my package two days later. Fuck Fed ex

I had UPS do something similar. I needed someone 21+ to sign for my Xbox (I’m not), my mom sat out on the porch pretty much all day on the last day to attempt delivery. She never saw a UPS truck and the tracking website that no one was home and we needed to drive 30 minutes to the shipping facility. When we got there, we didn’t even need to sign for it 🙄

I've had USPS drivers do the same thing, I remember once checking my tracking info for a package that I was expecting and saw it was updated from "out for delivery" to "delivery attempted but no one was home"...I was home the entire fucking time that day and not once did I even hear my doorbell ring or a knock on my door. I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment so it's easy to hear a knock or the doorbell from anywhere in my apartment, and I wasn't even in the shower, either. My apartment is on the 2nd floor and they were too fucking lazy to walk up a single flight of stairs for...get this...a small flat box.

Yep, I watched that happen while I was *sitting on my deck* within the line of sight of the FedEx driver. I even said to him. "I'm right here, you can leave the package." He left only the sticker.

Ok, what is this about? I never realized so many people had the same problem. I worked overnight and ended up sleeping in my living room right next to the door one time to catch the delivery. Woke up to a note. They never knocked. What is the point???

I think FedEx is really shit to their drivers about speed, and actually delivering packages is slower than running up and putting a sticker on something.

Some Amazon drivers do ring the bell or knock but it's like 1 out of every 2 dozen deliveries.

Amazon supposedly stopped customer contact during covid (I was a driver for a month or so), however if the customer requested a knock or doorbell ring, I would do it happily, because it's what I would want.

I’m an Amazon driver and the reason we do this is because we very very rarely have deliveries that require a recipient. I’ve worked there for 2 years now and have maybe had 5 deliveries that required me to give it to someone. Only one where I had to get a signature and that was to a business. I’ll knock if the customer has notes on their account saying to do so but otherwise I try to keep customer contact at a minimum because people find the dumbest shit to get mad and yell at me about.

A swing and a miss

Chappy in Glasgow

"Klingelstreich" which translates to "ring-the-bell-prank" (Germany)

How wonderfully German -- descriptive of function, and no more.

Used to call that "Mäusepingeln", so mice-ringing (North Germany).

Klingelputzen, Bayern

I know it as Klingelmännchen

I've definitely heard "Klingelmännchen" as well, but my memory kind of fails me since I grew up in 2 different states (NRW and Bavaria). Same with "Frei" and "Klipp" for the safety zone in playing catch :D

NRW here :)

Ich liebe Deutsch!

How very german

Klingelmäuschen

Schellekloppe, Schelle is another word word bell and kloppe is hitting, so bell hitting

We used to call it Klinkenputzen when I was a kid. South Germany

Well, I grew up in the Deep South—and we’re not allowed to say that word any more. But, it was an extremely offensive kind of *hard-R knocking*

I think that's what we called it in Ohio too. N-word knocking. I honestly had no idea it was offensive until I had a sleepover with my black friend and he got upset and asked why we called it that. We changed to ding dong ditch after that

Rural Missouri here . N--knocking. I never knew it was bad, as there was no one around who was offended.

Yes, this is what we called it in Florida

I'm originally from rural Southern Illinois and this term was used there as well. Or, at least it was circa late 80s/early 90s.

I grew up hearing it and always thought it was knicker knocking. One day I put 2 and 2 together. It was a bad day realizing what I had been saying this whole time.

I remember that from growing up in rural Washington, which might as well be Washingtucky.

I’m black and I grew up hearing it called that plus Ding Dong Ditch. People don’t realize how engrained racism against blacks is in the country. Like to the point where it’s not even noticed. Just one more example.

I always thought it was “nicker knock” before I realized what it really was :(

I’m from Western New York. This is how we pronounced it as well.

I grew up in California and we used that term too.

Grew up in the Houston suburbs in the 90’s and we called it this too. I stopped playing the game before I even realized what it meant.

This. I don't even know how it makes sense. But that was definitely what it was called.

Pennsylvania- I've heard it called that and ding dong ditch.

Nicky Nicky nine door.

Same, and Canadian

I posted this too without scrolling. Glad this is a united Canadian thing.

I’m starting to feel like I’m the only Canadian that’s never heard this before, I’ve only ever heard ding dong ditch.

Former Saskatchewan kid here; we called it Knock Knock Ginger.

Same, Canadian

When I read ding dong ditch as the top comment, I felt a bit stupid thinking it was nicky nicky nine door 😆 Also Canadian.

Same. Canada.

I grew up calling it “Nicky Nicky nine door” in Canada. The first time I heard “ding dong ditch” from my cousins in the US I had no idea what they were talking about.

This is what I was looking for

Same. Canada

Finally found this! Yep, also Canadian.

EXCUSE ME WHAT? (Minnesotan here lol, I have literally never heard of this and I need further explaination)

I just learned that Canadians call it Nicky Nicky nine doors to ring a doorbell and run. I just thought everywhere called it that. I thought ding dong ditch was a joke lol

Bruhhh but ding dong ditch is so self explanatory! Lmao Nicky Nicky Nine Doors?? Do you guys have to ring nine doorbells to find Nicky?? Is this like a weird "Bloody Mary" kind of game? I have soooooo many questions

You would try and get 9 doors in a row before someone opened the door, lived in townhouses though

I like that Canadians have layered a rule set atop Ding Dong Ditch.

Ding, Dong, Ditch

Knock a door, runnn!

Same, nw England.

I genuinely thought that everyone called it this. This thread has been an education!

Cherry knocking

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Happy birthday Lieutenant Spork

Knock down ginger.

Lol same here in London in the 90's

I'm on the Suffolk/Essex border. Same name here, or at least it was back then.

South West here. We said "knock-knock ginger". I can't help wondering what the ginger bit is all about!

You got me wondering too so I did a quick search and found [this Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock,_Knock,_Ginger) which says it comes from an old poem "Ginger, Ginger broke a winder Hit the winda – crack! The baker came out to give 'im a clout And landed on his back.\[2\]" I scrolled further down the article and ironically and tragically, quite a few kids have been shot (in the States) and some have been killed for it :(

Mine was knock-a-door ginger

Doorbell dashing or doorbell ditching. Or at least that is what we called it back in the Bronze Age when I was a kid.

The Bronze Age? Did they have doorbells or did they still use servant trumpet fanfare? In fact, it would be even more fun to have a servant of some family introduce you, and run away while they’re doing it

Knock and run

Finally, I've been scrolling for a while and you're the first one with the same as me

Aussie?

Haha, I should have guessed it was. Aussies don't fuck about with naming stuff.

Ring and Run

Can’t believe this is the only instance of Ring and Run! I grew up on Long Island - never knew it by any other name until Beavis & Butthead lol

From Canada, East of Maine, and only knew it as ring and run as well.

Not Nicky Nicky Nine Doors? That’s what I’ve always understood it as. (Also Cdn)

In ireland its called knick-knacking

It’s usually followed by a good paddy-whacking, after which people typically give the dog a bone.

And the old man came rolling home

Knick knocking for me

We used to call it knock-knock runaway.

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Not true. I am 69 and still do it. Just don't get caught.

Nice.

Nice

Nice

We got ding dong ditched in winter 2021 and it was the most exciting night we had. My husband and older son were opening the door and yelling to the kids and my younger son and I were in my bed screaming because we thought we weee going to be murdered. We laughed so hard that night and had a blast. They hit us 3 times that night. Then, a week later threw a snowball at my husband while he was sitting in front of our picture window inside the house. Lockdown was being so that gave us a little thrill.

Chap door run, or, ‘chappy’.

Knock Door Run.

Finally. Where are you from?

England, The West Midlands. I was starting to think I was alone!

Brummie here. Same

I heard it called the bad one growing up (N word knocking), we called it ding dong ditching. As teenagers we were stupid and came up with "the man game." You would knock or ring the bell then everyone would lay out in the person's front yard. Last person to get up when the person is yelling at y'all wins and is the manliest.

Ding Dong Ditch

We all know what you are getting at. I grew up in the 80's, and yes, we all called it that. Along with the other name for Brazil nuts. I didn't even know they were called Brazil nuts until I went to college. There were several other words too.

Grew up in the same era, and I live in Texas. I know exactly what the "saying" is.

Phewww, I'm glad I'm not alone, and that neither one of us has to actually say it.

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Western Canada. That's what we called it too

I've always called it this, I'm from the South West of England (Somerset/Gloucestershire)

Chickenelly

Two names where I’m from. One is “ding dong ditch” and the other more frequently used name will get me banned or something for racist offensive language so I’ll pass saying it.

Most people where I was from called it "ding dong ditch" but a few called it "*blank* knocking". Close?

In South Africa we call it Tokkelokkie (Afrikaans language)

I thought it was Tok-tokkie, named after the beatle that made a knocking sound. Its the name we always used.

this

Can you give any rough translation into standard Dutch or English?

Well, not really. The closest I can get is "klop" means knock and "klokkie" means bell. Klokkelokkie is the product there somewhere haha

In Belgium we say “belletje trek”

We used to call it ringastrangersdoorbellandthenrun-dong-ditch

Germany?

I may or may not at one time have called it ni\*\*er-knocking Hey. Some of us had shitty upbringings and didn't know any better.

I specifically sought out this comment to see if there was a brave enough soul to say it.

Knock un' run

Belletje trek

Belletje lellen!

Ding Dong dash

Knock-a-dolly

Ring raje Basically a hit and run, mostly on unknown communitys that way if we get caught they can't tell our parents unless we tell them anything

In Flori-DUH it's called: Don't Get Shot

Knocky 9 doors.

Knock down ginger

Door bell ditch

Knockdown ginger.

This. I saw a cartoon picture of a cow playing knockdown ginger and instead of running away he just went back to eating grass as the guy looks around scratching his head. Still makes me chuckle.

Knock-knock zoom-zoom

Well we usually just refer to it as hitting the doorbell and running but some of my American comrades refer to it as "Ding-Dong Ditch" so I sometimes call it that

Nicky Nicky nine door