That Iconic ‘A Christmas Story’ Frozen-Tongue Scene: Explained

It's one of the most famous Christmas movie scenes of all time - Flick gets his tongue stuck to a flagpole. Fortunately, that didn't ACTUALLY happen, it was all movie magic!

"The sinister triple-dog dare" can make you do crazy things! 47-year-old Scott Schwartz was 14-years-old when he was cast in "A Christmas Story" as Flick. Although the movie takes place in the 1940s, it was released in 1983. Since then, he's been asked about the frozen tongue scene EVERY YEAR. In an interview with Yahoo, Schwartz said, "I get calls every year from [reporters], ‘Hey, we got a kid that stuck his tongue to a pole. Can you give us a comment?’ I go, ‘Yeah, he’s a schmuck.’”

To answer your first question, Schwatz told Yahoo, "No, it wasn't painful." He obviously didn't really have his tongue stuck to the flagpole for the movie, that's what a prop department is for! He actually had his tongue sucked into a tiny hole. Here's the scoop:

“They made a piece of plastic that they slid over [the flagpole]. It had a little hole in it with a suction tube that went into the snow — you couldn’t see it, it was a little motor, like a small vacuum cleaner, [and] the hole-opening [in the plastic] was about the size of your pinky nail. So when you put your tongue there or finger or whatever, it just stuck.”

Schwartz said that the worst part about filming the scene wasn't even the machine, it was the bitter cold. He said, "“We were two days out there, and it was between 20 and 25 below zero with the wind chill.”

So there you have it! Wow your family with this fun fact at Christmas dinner. Just DON'T dare anybody to do go sticking their tongue on anything!

[Via Yahoo]