Monthly Archives: May 2021

Deceased Insect – A Fighter Pilot Bar Game

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Occupation: Aerospace Engineer/Retired USAF Fighter Pilot
Residence: Lancaster, CA
Performance Date: May 2, 2021
Primary Language: English

Context:

The informant, GW, is the interviewer’s father. He was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force during the late 1980s/early 1990s and participated in operation Desert Storm. I have heard him tell many stories from his time in the Air Force throughout my childhood, so I asked him to tell me some of his traditions to collect for my project. This was an informal interview in our household. The interviewer is indicated as SW in the text.

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Main Text:

GW: “The object of every fighter pilot game is to get other people to buy you beverages, mostly of the alcohol variety. Um, there were short games uh like, deceased insect, which uh, that was the code name because if you said the exact words for deceased insect… then everybody within earshot had to lay on the floor on their back as fast as possible, put their feet and hands up in the air to imitate the dead cockroach on the floor, and the last person to make it all the way to the ground was then the actual deceased insect and was responsible for buying everyone in proximity the beverage of their choice.”

SW: “Where does one learn deceased insect, who teaches it to you?”

GW: “Well usually you learn it by being the one guy standing after somebody yells “dead bug!” and then everybody else hits the floor and you’re sitting there standing… you’re standing in the middle of all of it going ‘what just happened?’ and everybody goes “ha ha! You have to buy everybody a round.’ … That’s how that works.

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Analysis:

As GW mentioned, many fighter pilot traditions center around drinking culture and who owes who the next drink. However, the game of deceased insect also serves as an initiation ritual and a prank to pull on new members who are not aware of its existence. By making new members of the group buy everybody a round, they are paying the penalty for being new. At the same time, they are now in on the joke and have a shared knowledge with other members of the group, and can later play the same prank on other new members of the group. In this way, deceased insect actually serves to create social bonds and obligations to other members, which is of utmost importance in a group that will be sent to war together.

Screenwriting Admissions – Champion Reveal

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Performance Date: April 16 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“When I went to admitted student day back as a senior, and there was like this panel of like upperclassmen getting ready to graduate and they were doing a Q&A…and they said that there was like a room somewhere that they go to specifically to do the applications each year to read them and then before we graduate they’ll take us to that room and be like “oh this is where you were chosen” or something like that.”

Context: This was an addendum to a different piece of screenwriting folklore, which is that each student was chosen by a “champion”, a specific professor.

Thoughts: This is an interesting addition to the larger piece of folklore (which you can find elsewhere on the archive). It makes sense that there is a singular room that admissions are done in if they’re actually fighting over students. It really does add to the cult-like feeling of such a small major. 

The Golem of Prague

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, Ca
Performance Date: 4/19/21
Primary Language: English

“Okay, so there was some Rabbi in Prague in like, fucking not this time but like the 1600s or some shit probably? Uh, and you know people in eastern Europe weren’t super fond of Jews all the time right, so he was like “I gotta protect my people,” so he built this giant like clay dude and he speaks the name of God in it’s mouth, and you know, ‘cause that’s how…that’s how robots work. And so the Golem came to life and he just kind of like helped out all the Jews in Prague doing like basic tasks and chores. Uh, until like…there’s different versions of the story, but I think one of the versions is he just straight up murdered a child, so the rabbi was like “Oh we gotta get rid of this dude” and so now he doesn’t exist anymore.”

Note: There are many versions of this myth. In the one I grew up hearing, the golem had the Hebrew word for truth inscribed on it’s forehead and was made to go to sleep by changing the word to the Hebrew word for death. Universally though, the golem went on a murderous rampage and was permanently put down and laid to rest in the attic of a temple, which you can still visit today. I do think this story says a lot about the behavior of the Jewish people through history — we have to help ourselves, but not at the cost of doing harm. 

The Game

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 19, 2021
Primary Language: English

“The Game? Like “I lost the Game?” It sucks and it’s stupid. Basically, if you think about the Game, you lose the game, and you can’t win. But if someone loses the Game, they have to announce that they lost the Game and then everyone else around them hates them because they also lose the Game and it sucks.”

Thoughts: This is a fun bit of children’s folklore. Almost everyone I know has heard of The Game, so I did some digging online about the origins. According to Wikipedia, it probably originated in England or Australia, sometime during the 20th century. 

PS: If you’re reading this, you lost The Game.

Dreydl

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 19, 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Biblical hebrew

“So, dreydl. It’s like this Jewish game that you play for the holiday of Hanukkah. And you spin a little top and it lands on one of four things, uh, which is either the letters gimmel, nun, shin, or hey. Uh, on a gimmel you take all of the money that’s in the pot, on a hey you get half of it, on a shin you put some of yours in, and on a nun you get nothing. And you take turns until someone gets all the money. It’s usually played with fake money called gelt, it’s chocolate and it kinda tastes bad, but like that’s the game. The letters…I don’t know what the Hebrew is, but it translates to a great miracle happened there, and there means Jerusalem.”

Note: The letters are:

נ – nun

ג – gimmel

ה – hey

ש – shin.

The Hebrew phrase is נס גדול היה שם, which is pronounced as “Nes gadol hahah sham.” It means what he said it means.