THANK YOU for correcting that! My poor non-native English speaker self spent part of this morning frantically searching the Internet for the meaning & origin of this expression. I went as far as drawing parallels with the phrase "hit the trail" and similar ones, thinking it might have something to do with some Old West parlance. Of course it never occurred to me that it could have been a typo; oh well, that will teach me
I did not even think the people who were advising Maniac to be careful were putting him on
trial; in general it is good advice, because it is considered poor manners to tickle random girls just because they look beautiful. As for myself, my own response was humorous, not mocking. In occasions like this, I would refrain from tickling customers or their relatives and not consider this as a missed opportunity, but rather a good opportunity to maintain my professionalism.
With that being said, my female colleagues and friends have already found out that if the context is right, it's GAME ON. One anecdote among many: we were sitting in a conference room. Because our boss had bought a table that was almost too large for the room we were in, we had our back almost against the wall. At some point I had to stand up, and walk past a female colleague who was blocking the way. I asked if she would let me through, then she replied: "Nope. Gotta cough up 100 first." I responded by poking her sides, which made her jump out of her chair and I daresay almost out of her skin. I kept going for a few seconds until she said she was sorry, to the hilarity of the other attendees. Short but tremendous fun, and however
impromptu and surprising that this was, no one thought of me as creepy or weird. Maybe very Western, at most?
May I ask, Maniac (lol), what job it is you do where people seem drop Fetish Fuel over the workplace quite regularly? Sounds like both a blessing and a curse, depending on the conditions