http://www.politicollision.com/story.php?title=mooning-is-back-%E2%80%93-and-heres-why The best moonie of all time wasn't a moonie at all. At the Brits in 1996, Jarvis Cocker took to the stage as Michael Jackson sang Earth Song, bending over while crowds of wide-eyed children milled around weeping "what about us?", Cocker waggled his hands about his bottom, like a duck paddling to stay afloat. Crucially, there was no nudity. It was maximum ridicule with minimum vulgarity. The same can't be said for Elton John. There he was, earlier this week, on his yacht on the French Riviera, dropping his shorts to salute Michael Caine's passing ship. It was the full moon, and not for the first time. Last week, John also went bottoms up with his friend David Walliams as Simon Cowell sailed past. The photos are a reminder of why mooning is such a versatile gesture – shocking, silly, exuberant, grotesque, as embarrassing for the mooner as the mooned-at. But it remains popular: Anne Hathaway, Gerard Butler and Robbie Williams have done it; the partner of Olympic cyclist Dani King bared his bottom while out partying last week; a man in Manitoba was arrested for mooning last month. And in June Madonna revealed her G-string at a concert in Rome. Adults often seem convinced the trend has tanked, but that's almost certainly because we're not at school any more. The period in our lives when people feel compelled to press their naked bottom against a window does, thankfully, end. (See also: wedgies, goosing, love bites.) Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:51:23 EDT en