Blinker Bad? Tighten the Socket

Over dinner, Ariel shared with the family that my right front blinker wasn't blinking. She claimed she was sitting behind a car in traffic signaling to turn right, and there was no blinking reflection off the car ahead of her (her dad was very impressed she'd pay attention to this). Tom verified the issue and in a few minutes had it fixed. He first verified that the bulb was good. Then he pulled the metal socket out of the plastic housing, bent the contacts a bit, reinstalled everything, and lo-and-behold I can blink on both sides again.