Chair

[frumpy]

I heard from a reliable source of mine....it started at AX sometime after 1997, but before 2000....I'm still trying to clearify exactly which year it had happened though...97,98, or 99...?? :? It happened either at the same year as Fanime, or the year before.

[the_Pink_Panther24]

this is totally unrelated, but after seeing the_Pink_Panther24's avatar, i was suddenly reminded of the "Lupin owns Spike" (i totally agree) flyers @ the dercosplay. anyhow, the_Pink_Panther24, monkey punch gots a new series.. its called 'cinderella boy.' The name is retarded, but the series is like neo-lupin. you might like it

really now? i will have to check that out   :D  
though my funds are kind of drained from buying the neo ranga series  :x
but suddenly im compelled to see the anime with the bizare name...because its like lupin......and lupin is the badest ass of the bad asses..


besides jigen...

[zimbach]

I heard from a reliable source of mine....it started at AX sometime after 1997, but before 2000....I'm still trying to clearify exactly which year it had happened though...97,98, or 99...?? :? It happened either at the same year as Fanime, or the year before.

Trust me dear, it's not that old. It started here in 99, after Mike Wright told the audience about the rock at ComicCon. He was the chair-man at the time, after all.

[swordofthebezerk]

Hey thanx for the history lesson. I finally know why i was chanting chair and box and cane during the AMVs. I figured that it had history since a lot of people joined in so quickly.

[KinFreon]

Hmmm...if some guy in a suit at Cosplay or even Karaoke stood on top of a chair and sang "Fly Me To The Moon"...would he be "The Chair-man of the Board"? ^_^

Okay, that was wrong. Time to hit my sugar-free sours again.

[Daisho]

Okay I can get my first "Chair" incident narrowed to AX96, I think.  It was the year I was a gofer.  I had to do a google search to match the guests since I know I got Ai Orikasa and Yumi Takada to sign my Tenchi laserdisc that year.

*Actually perhaps it was 97 I don't know if I had a chance to go to masquerade in 96.*

Anyhow Evangelion was new and someone did some skit called "Waiting for Gendou"  In it Gendou sat there on stage doing absolutely nothing.  After it was over they pulled off the table but left the chair.  We started to chant "Chair!" just cause they took so freaking long to set up for the next skit.  When they were announcing winners I do believe we were also chanting for the chair to win.  Needless to say I was in the simulcast room where people tend to be a bit rowdier and stuff.  For those who remember that was the year that Peter Brown went on stage and did the transformation of Sailor Starfighter.

[KinFreon]

Word of the "Chair" phenomenon has spread here to the Northwest since then, and the staff at Sakura Con always work heavily against anything like that happening.

[Tama]

Chanting is Universal.  This whole AX had it first thing really irks alot of fanime people.  Fanime made it an institution so even if AX chanted chair first at some point we say "IT'S OUR'S NOW!" And that's all that matters!  :lol: Bwah ha hah! Besides *sniff* We do it better, I'm sure. *Sticks tongue out and darts from the room*


Chair! Box! Head! Chair! Box! Head! (Poor Lina)
Chair is fun. Don't mess with Chair!

*Disclaimer: It's all in fun people!

[EternalMalachi]

About the chair.  I heard a story from my friend after he came back from Otakon 2000.  He said during a cosplay theatre thing that there were a few minutes between one of the skits that no one was doing anything, but the previous people had left a chair up on stage, so people started chanting "Chair! Chair!" and that after there was some poem/song about the chair posted on some sites.  When he came along with us this year, he found it odd that they were doing the same thing, though I do not think it is something that originated here at Fanime like some people seem to think since the Podium master commented something like "See, we too have chair technology."  Just my thoughts.

[Ali]

I'm not sure where it came from... Out on the east coast, you get people swearing it originated at Otakon.
Perhaps it's like "Gin and Tonic" from Hitchhiker's Guide... all cons were fated to create it at one point or another.

[bunny]

it's one of those "you had to be there" things i think.... it's become such a con legend now, all the cons are competing for the title of "the one that started the chair chant". personally, i think it was fanime, but hey, that's my home con, and i'm biased. :)

(btw, i hope we're done with chair, and move on).

i think the funniest chant though, wasn't chair or head or even box (though i loved the boxes), but JER-RY JER-RY! anyone remember that one?

[Tsubasa]

I'm still pretty certain that the chair chant did begin at Fanime.  I suppose I cannot bring any more evidence than "I've heard a lot of people say it did and I think I was there myself," but from the sheer number of people I've heard from, Fanime is by far the most likely location of origin.

Oh, and Jerry is awesome.  Too bad he wasn't in the Der Cosplay staff this year.  Actually, he was sitting in the audience in the chair right adjacent to me. ^^

[Okach]

I don't think the "Chair" chant is something that FanimeCon necessarily should be proud of doing best :-P.  I place it in the same category as heckling from the audience.  Having said that, I agree that"Jer-ry" was pretty entertaining.

AX '96 had the "Chair" chant.  It was on a friend's Masq videotape.

[MisakiFan41]

Not to mention this staff worker here

http://www.teammisaki.org/Images/DSC_0663.JPG

Is now famous for holding the sacred "Chair" ;D

[shyguy_2357]

yah so the chair was left on stage and became its own act...

sometimes staffers who run across stage...

get teased by Deiter and have their 2 seconds of fame... =P

it happens ppl... only at Fanime  :roll:

[Ikari]

I'll have to check through my picture archives to see what year the Boxes also made their appearance, since there were chants of "Box!" as well.

The Boxes made their first appearance in 2000. I'm friends with one of the guys inside the box. ;)

[MeliCat]

I'm highly irritated by the whole "Chair" thing. It's bad enough I have to wait for Der Cosplay to start, but on top of that I have to hear "Chair" chanted at the top of the lungs of heavy, excited fanboys who are showering me in spit, about to knock me over from flailing thier hands in the air and about to blast my eardrum out! *hisses* I vol. to jet on stage when the chair is there... like a ninja... and SET IT A FLAME!!! NO MORE CHAIR YOU B@STARDS!  :twisted:   Ahem, in short, I've been trampled, slobbered on and lost my hearing in an ear all because of that damn chair. Let it never return again.

.+:*MeliCat*:+.

[MainStageTech]

Cheering for inanimate objects left onstage during masquerade has gone on for a long time. The first one I can think of that I recall was a large prop (foam or paper-mache, not sure which) rock left onstage at San Diego ComicCon's masquerade... I think in 1994 or 1995 I'm not quite sure.

Since then there have been all sorts of fun variant "rock" skits at SDCC.

[Croquet]

I have yet to experience the "chair," but it seems quite shrouded in mystery. I mean, no one is sure of it's origins, and there are disputes over which con made it up first? This would make a wonderful documentary. "Chair-the hunt for it's origins..." Seriously man. Seriously. Anyway, it sounds like it's all in good fun!

[Croquet]

One question that I've been wondering about. Der Cosplay. Why "Der?" I know because it's the appropriate gender for the word "cosplay," but why are we using German? Is there a reason? Did it begin in Germany? Cause honestly I have no clue.