So many hockey fans want to act like it’s hilarious, the act of strapping a dead fish to some part of one’s body for the purpose of tossing it onto the ice at an NHL game.

A dead fish on the ice! How will Aziz Ansari ever top that piece of comedic genius?

Yeah, it’s not funny. It’s not charming. It’s not even original.

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When the city of Pittsburgh decided Tuesday to charge a Nashville Predators fan with three offenses for allegedly smuggling a catfish into PPG Paints Arena and allegedly hurling it onto the ice a few minutes into the second period of the Stanley Cup Final Game 1 between the Preds and Penguins, many on Twitter reacted as if the authorities had overreacted. The charges have since been dropped.

The spectator, Jason Waddell, seemed fairly pleased with himself as he was removed from the arena following the incident. Tuesday morning, he was charged with disorderly conduct, disrupting a meeting and possessing instruments of a crime.

The charges sound a bit more consequential than the act itself, and probably will be pleaded down to something approaching a stiff traffic ticket.

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For many years, it was common for a Detroit Red Wings fan to sneak a dead octopus into the arena and throw it on the ice. The tentacles of the octopus were supposed to represent the eight victories required to win the Stanley Cup. That’s how old that tradition is. It goes back more than 60 years, to a time when we didn't have to worry so much about terrible things happening when gathering in public.

Now, we walk through metal detectors on the way into our sporting events. Such a device cannot detect a fish unless said fish still has a hook in its mouth.

Nashville is a wonderful city. It has developed an entertaining and accomplished hockey team. It’s OK for Predators fans — really, it is — to sit back and root for their team to win games without throwing garbage onto the ice in an attempt to seem hockey-hip.

It is unwise to laugh off incidents such as this, however. This is not sneaking a miniature Reese’s cup into your wife’s purse so you don’t have to pay movie-theater candy prices.

The planning that goes into successfully smuggling something as cumbersome as a dead fish into a sporting event theoretically could inspire someone who wishes to carry in something more dangerous, and prove that it’s possible to do so without detection.

Is someone’s borrowed hockey tradition worth that risk?