Underwater Sardine Dance

In popular culture
Sardines are typically tightly packed in a small can which is scored for easy opening, either with a pull tab (similar to how a beverage can is opened), or a key, attached to the side of the can. Thus, it has the virtues of being an easily portable, nonperishable, self-contained food. The close packing of sardines in the can has led to their metaphorical use for any situation where people or objects are crowded together, for instance, in a bus or subway car. It has also been used as the name of a children's game, where one child hides and each successive child who finds the hidden one packs into the space until there is only one left out, who becomes the next one to hide.
Sardines are a prominent prop in Michael Frayn's farce Noises Off.