The Spoon Game

I went out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen with some friends to celebrate a another friend’s birthday.  The restaurant was pretty crowded that night, so we waited a while to put in our orders and after we finally did put in our orders we knew it would be a wait until we got our food so my friend Erin explained to everyone the spoon game so we could play it while we were waiting.  In the spoon you put an equal number of spoons on the table as there are people at the table.  Then everyone closes their eyes and someone says something that they have never done.  However if you have done whatever it is that particular person says that they have never done you take a spoon from the middle of the table and hide it in your lap.  Then everyone opens their eyes, and from the number of spoons left on the table everyone knows whether others have or have not done something, but they don’t know exactly who has done or not done something.

The game is similar to the popular game truth or dare in the sense that it allows its participants to reveal something, perhaps a secret about themselves or something they wouldn’t normally admit to, yet it also allows for the participants to keep an element of anonymity.

Erin said she learned this game from her friends in KCM who were playing.  KCM is a Korean Christian group/club on USC campus.  She said she played the game once and liked it which is why she remembered it and taught it to us at dinner.  In this instance, Erin went from being a passive bearer of folklore to an active bearer.  I think people enjoy playing these games because it allows people to somewhat reveal their secrets, but not completely.  The appeal must lie in the fact that sometimes it is really difficult to keep a secret.