Category Archives: Game

Game – Philippines

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 47
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Tagalog
Language: English

Folk game- tradition

Greased Pig:

A live pig is covered in grease.  Children chase it around trying to catch it.

This is a variation on the Greased Pole.  It is played interchangeably with the greased pole on all occasions.  It too is a game that transcends the nation of the Philippines and can include children of all ages and regions.  I imagine it is a variation played in rural regions more frequently than the pole, simply because a pole is typically more accessible than a pig.  The informant described this as a very fun game, a chance to get dirty and, quite literally, act like a pig.  She described that this would be done right inside the pig’s pen, all the children would file in and flail about trying to grab and hold on to the pig.  She told me about this just after tell me about the greased pole, often both these greasy games were offered simultaneously, as was the case on the Abukay Commemorative celebration.

A slightly more aggressive variation, this game must have been very much a special treat.  It requires very few materials, simply pig, grease, and chaser.  It makes use of items readily available in a Filipino and shows a resourcefulness that we see in many games.  For example, throwing a ball through something is quite a simply concept that has led to fanatic industry and incomprehensible amounts of wealth.  Perhaps in the future, greased pig catching will evolve into something of a more sophisticated game.

Folk Song/Game

Nationality: Caucasian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English

“Quack diddly o-so quack quack quack,

sing it, sam-a  rico, rico rico rico

fa-lor-a fa-lor-a, fa-lor fa-lor fa-lor

FA-LOR

One! Two! Three! Four!”

Everyone sits in a circle with their hands held out two their sides, with their right had atop the left palm of the person sitting to their right. One person in the circle starts, and with their right had, claps the open palm of the person to their left.  The claps continue to go around the circle until the song is over.  On “Four!” the object is to avoid being clapped.  The person who is about to be clapped must aniticipate this and move their palm away, while the person who is doing the clapping will try and be as fast as possible to hit their hand before they move it away.  Whoever fails, moves into the center of the circle—this is called “going into the pot”—where they simply start up another mini circle and play simultaneously with the larger circle.

With two people, each person faces each other, each curling their right had into that of the other to make a joint fist.  Each person holds there free left hand about eight inches away from their joint fist, and together alternate clapping the fist against each of their free hands.  The escaping on the last count still applies.

This is a hand game played with anywhere between two or more people.  The informant learned and played this game most frequently when she was a girl scout, but being so catchy it quickly transcended her elementary school

Kings Cup Drinking Game

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 19
Occupation: Software Designer
Residence: Toledo, Ohio
Performance Date: 4/15/11
Primary Language: English

The informant is a 19 year old Filipino female. She lives with her mother in Toledo, Ohio and has one older sister. She was raised Roman Catholic. She is currently a student at a university in Southern California. The informant is the co-president of the club volleyball team at her university.

The informant first learned this game when she started going to parties in sophomore year of high school. She played it for the first time her senior year of high school. Kings Cup is a drinking game played with a deck of cards. The informant would play it at parties, usually towards the middle or end of the night. In her experience, the rules vary from place to place. The rules she learned in Ohio are generally the same everywhere she has played, but certain specifics change. In the game, each card type in the deck has a certain significance, indicating a certain action to be done by the players. The cards are laid out in a circle. Each player draws a card and reveals it to the group and then performs the action indicated by that card. The card is then placed under the tab of a beer can. Eventually the pressure from the cumulating cards causes the beer can to pop open. The person whose card does this has to drink all of the beer. Additionally, if anyone breaks the circle created by the cards, they have to perform a forfeit, designated at the beginning of the game. This is usually something embarrassing, such as streaking. The specific card designations are as follows.

Rules:

Ace: Never have I ever. All players put up three fingers. Each player goes around the circle, saying something they have never done. If one of the other players has done that action they have to put down a finger. This continues until only one person has fingers still up.

2: Red to the head: If the two is red the player who drew the card has to drink two drinks. If the card is black, the player can give out two drinks to any other players to drink, either two to one person or one to two people.

3: The rules are the same as two but with three drinks.

4: Whores: All of the girls playing have to take a drink.

5: To the skies: The last person to put both of their hands in the air has to take a drink.

6: Dicks: All of the guys playing have to take a drink.

7: Social: Every person playing has to take a drink.

8: Abc: The players go around in a circle, each naming something that begins with their letter of the alphabet. The player who drew the card starts with A, the next with B, and one around the circle. The first to mess up has to drink.

9: Rhyme: The person who drew the card says a word or phrase. Each subsequent person in the circle has to say a word that rhymes. The first to mess up has to take a drink.

10: Categories: The person who drew the card picks a category and names something within that category. Each person has to name something in that category, going around the circle. The first to mess up has to take a drink.

Jack: Rule: The person who drew the card makes up a rule, which is in effect for the rest of the game. If anyone breaks this rule they have to take a drink. Examples of rules include no swearing or using names.

Queen: Questions: The person who draws the card looks at someone in the circle and asks them a question. This person should then turn to someone else and ask them a question. It goes around, until someone either answers a question or does not ask a question themselves. That person has to take a drink.

King: Waterfall: Everyone starts drinking at the same time. The person who draws the card chooses when to stop drinking. When they do, the person sitting next to them stops, then the person next to that person, and so on around the circle. In order to determine which direction the waterfall goes, the card drawer asks the two people sitting next to them a generic question. The first one to answer gets to be the second person in the waterfall instead of the last.

Analysis: This game is an excellent example the defining characteristics of folklore: repetition and variation. In the informant’s own experience, she has seen variation in the details of game depending on where and with whom she plays it. Almost every person who plays this game has come into contact with different rules. Perhaps the proximity to alcohol increases the possibility for variation. It is also interesting that this game is an imposition of rules upon an ostensibly disorderly and unruly activity. Perhaps it is the inherent unpredictability of drinking that stimulates the development of a set of rules for action, in the form of a game. While some drink to step outside the bounds of society, the fear that alcohol can push people too far may contribute to the popularity of a game that adds structure to the activity.

Annotation: iPhone Application: King’s Cup. By Bobby Cronkhite Software. 2/25/2011.

Never Have I Ever Game

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Toledo, Ohio
Performance Date: 4/10/11
Primary Language: English

The informant is a 19 year old Filipino female. She lives with her mother in Toledo, Ohio and has one older sister. She was raised Roman Catholic. She is currently a student at a university in Southern California. The informant is the co-president of the club volleyball team at her university.

“Never Have I Ever” is a game the informant learned freshman year in high school. In her experience it is most commonly associated with alcohol, although it is not necessary. Its main purpose is to a “get to know you” game. Although she first learned it in the context of parties, now she most often plays it with her volleyball team, mostly at the beginning of the season to get to know new team members. It lets people get to know each other by making public what the players have and haven’t done. Most commonly, the game revolves around sexual exploits, dating, drinking, etc. When alcohol is incorporated, players can either drink if they have or haven’t done something. The informant has played it with both rules. Similarly, at different times she has played it the winner has been designated by the person who keeps up the most fingers or who puts them all down first.

Rules: Each player puts up all of their ten fingers. Going around in a circle, each player names an action that they have never done, phrasing it “never have I ever …….” If anyone playing has committed the action they have to place one finger down. The players continue around until all of the player except one have had to put down all of their fingers.

Analysis: “Never Have I Ever” is an interesting example of the negotiation of culturally excepted female behavior. In modern society, female promiscuity and such behavior is highly stigmatized. Bragging, or even blatant sharing, of social or sexual exploits is still somewhat frowned upon. This game provides an outlet for females to share their experiences without having to explicitly state them; they only have to reveal if another player brings it up. It is also a way in which female players can gauge how experienced there in comparison to others. But at the same time the game itself does not completely de-stigmatize such actions. There is ambiguity to whether it is more acceptable to be the one with the most fingers up or the most down. There is no clear designation as to which state is dubbed the winner or loser.

Annotation: Shepard, Sara. Never Have I Ever. New York: HarperTeen, 2011.

Jokes

Nationality: English
Age: 52
Occupation: Journalist
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/22/11
Primary Language: English

The informant is a caucasian female in her 50s. She was born and raised in England. She, and her three siblings, were raised as orthodox jews. After university, the informant moved to Northern California for graduate school. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she now resides. The informant trained in school as a biologist, but switched to journalism and now works for a large newspaper. She is divorced with one child.

Following are two jokes the informant learned from her father.

Joke #1:

The informant learned this joke from her father. He started telling it to her and her siblings when they were very young and has continued to tell it to them even while they are in adulthood. She retold it to her siblings during childhood. The informant considers this to be on of the worse, most pathetic, cringe worthy jokes that she knows. Its telling, however, reminds her of her father in a very affectionate way, and so even while she hates the joke, she will tell it to others and enjoy being told it by her father.

Text:

What did the earwig say as he fell off the cliff?   Earwego!

Joke #2:

The informant was told this joke by her father. He told it his children when they were teenagers. Part of the joke was the story that went behind it. Her father first learned it from friends at school. He did not understand the implications of the joke and so he told it to his parents, who were extremely shocked. In the informant’s opinion, it is this back story that makes the joke worth retelling.

Text:

A woman is in the hospital, lying in bed, with her new baby in her arms. And a man is standing by her bed looking at the baby. A little old lady passes the bed. Looks at the baby and says, “oh what a beautiful baby, doesn’t it look just like the father.” And the man turns to her and says “Chuck it Mrs., I’m the lodger”.

Analysis: The first joke makes an interesting case. The informant herself states that she thinks it is a terrible joke, with little to no comedic value. And yet she enjoys having her father constantly retell it to her and will tell it herself to others. The informant’s propensity to transmit a “bad” joke has to do with the emotional significance she attributes to the joke. This emotional tie is probably heightened by the geographical distance between the informant and her father (Los Angeles to England). This example illustrates that it is not always the lore itself, its comedic value, etc., that determines whether it will survive and be passed along through society. There are other factors, besides quality, such as emotional resonance and context, that can be more important in determining the propagation of a piece of folklore. The second joke is another example of this. While this joke does contain more strict comedic punch, it is not this that drives the informant to retell or remember it. It is the associated story about her father that keeps this joke towards the forefront of her consciousness. In this case, the story behind the joke, a funny tale in and of itself, supercedes the actual material of the primary joke. The joke becomes a vessel for the telling of the amusing story about her father. In both of these cases, the piece of folklore cannot be extricated from its context, as it is the context that defines the jokes in the mind of the informant and propels their remembrance and continued use.