Chinese fire drill

A Chinese fire drill is a harmless prank, or perhaps just an expression of high spirits, popular in America during the 1960s, in which all a car's occupants get out, run around the car, and return to their own (or other) seats, while the car is stopped at a red light.

The figure of speech, often used to mean any ineffective and chaotic exercise, comes from a British tendency, around the time of World War I, to use the adjective Chinese as a slur, implying "confused, disorganized, or inferior". ^{[1] (http://www.word-detective.com/back-x.html)} This is in sharp contrast to calling a sports team Braves based on the belief that Native Americans were great warriors.

Today the expression may seem to have lost much of its insulting meaning and many people say it without realizing the offense it might cause to others.

External link

• practical joke (http://homepages.tesco.net/~scotsnet/o.f.carter/fun/fun229.htm) -- a rougher version