The Great Outdoors' Labubu: The Reason Younger Generations Love Discovering Conkers?

Name: Conkers.

Age: Brought into the UK over four centuries back.

Look: The outdoor world's Labubu.

No, I don’t think that’s right. It is. Check out a social media video of someone revealing a conker, and you’ll probably hear them call it “the earth's Labubu”.

Unboxing conkers? What on earth are you talking about? Oh wow, you really are not up to date, aren’t you? Young people are taking to TikTok to film themselves removing conkers from their prickly shells.

But why? Because of the feeling of amazement! When you open up a conker, you never know what you’re going to get. Could it be large? Might it be flattened? How shiny will it be? It is like a mystery box every time!

Do Labubu dolls share those traits? No, they’re vaguely hellish-looking dolls that have become collectible because they are sold in mystery boxes.

Can someone please tell gen Z that they’re doing conkers wrong? Are they? How do you do conkers, then?

Thread a lace through the center, and try to destroy everyone else’s conkers. Is that true? That’s unusual.

Yeah. You’ll have a much better chance of winning if you soak the conker in vinegar overnight and then heat it in the oven. You're not joking?

Truly. And should you gather an excess, you can hurl them across the playground and all the other kids will compete to grab them. A lovely item from nature like a conker, and you use it as a weapon? A weapon that comes with a lengthy list of complex and confusing guidelines?

It’s traditional! King Charles literally just presented the World Conker Championships with three hundred horse chestnuts! At least young people are just recording videos.

Why don’t you know this? At a guess, because certain schools prohibited the game two decades ago, due to concerns over well-being.

The modern world never fails to amaze me. Maybe revealing horse chestnuts just isn’t your thing. In which case, perhaps you would be better suited to some other hot new youth fads.

Oh really? Like what? Well, there’s this thing called knitting, and something else called pottery that I can describe for you.

Those hobbies are ancient! Let me guess, you boil the needles in cider and then use them to poke each other?

Certainly not! OK, calm down. I assumed that all older generation's pastimes involved violence in some form, after that conker thing.

This is overwhelming. Relax for a moment. If you need me, I’ll be opening plant seeds online.

Do say: “Social media loves showcasing nut discoveries.”

What to avoid: “That's crazy.”