Every time a coconut!

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on April 04, 2006

In Reply to: Every time a coconut! posted by RRC on April 04, 2006

: : : : Does anyone know the correct usage and origin of the phrase " Every time a coconut!"?

: : :
: : : It comes from the fairground game in which balls are thrown at coconuts balanced on poles. If you manage to knock over a coconut you win it. Hence, in your phrase, 'every one is a winner': you win every time.

: : : DFG

: : This is, I presume, strictly UK usage? I'd never heard it stateside, so I went googling. Many of the quotes dug up by google could be translated "every time," as if the "a coconut" were superfluous. I didn't get a strong sense that "winning" was as much an issue as inevitability. Did I mis-read the results?

: It's a British game called a coconut shy that's popular at funfairs, church fetes, etc. It's not that you win every time, it's that everytime you win, you win a coconut. While winning one coconut would be okay, there's not much point to winning a lot of coconuts.

- as in the old British song in which the fairground stall owner sings "I've got a luvverly bunch of coconuts / Roll a bowl a ball a penny a pitch" (VSD)

• Every time a coconut! Smokey Stover 05/April/06
  • A coconut? pamela 05/April/06
    • A coconut? David FG 05/April/06
    • A coconut? Victoria S Dennis 05/April/06
      • Too shy Lewis 06/April/06
        • Fair enough pamela 07/April/06
          • Fair enough David FG 07/April/06