Category Archives: Game

Game

Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, TX
Performance Date: February 3, 2007

Drinking Game – “Biz”

My informant learned the drinking game, “Biz,” from her friend in high school.  She and her friends would religiously play this game before they went out to parties.  She has implemented this drinking game into her college life as well.  Her audience, a group of college students that were planning on attending a party, but had spare time to kill before they wanted to leave.  They had two goals, to drink and have fun.

The main purpose of drinking games is to create a purpose for consuming alcohol.  Typically, games propose some form of challenge and the people that mess up have to drink as a punishment.  It is ironic because in most games, the punishment is to drink, when drinking is the whole point of the playing.  In “Biz,” everyone must start sitting in a circle.  The minimum number of players you can have is three.  The more people you have participating, the easier (and less fun) the game is.  Starting at zero and continuing in numerical order, each person must say a number.  Each time a person is supposed to say a number that includes seven or is a multiple of seven, that person must replace that number by screaming “biz.”  Every time someone says “biz” the order of people in which numbers are said switches (clockwise to counter-clockwise or vice-versa).  When it is a persons turn, they must not say the wrong number, forget to say “biz” if appropriate, take too long, or drastically mess up the rhythm.  If they do, they must take a long sip of their drink.  After they drink, they have to start back at zero.  The game creates a vicious cycle because the more you drink, the more you mess up, and the more you mess up, the more you must drink.

Sumner remembers this game because she loves to play it, and enjoys teaching it to new groups of people.  It is a great source of entertainment, and for most, a very fun way to get intoxicated.

Additionally, there are many different versions of general drinking games.  I have heard of different variations of this game, where people will say different words or use different numbers.

This item is an example of modern folklore that has been developed relatively recently by today’s generation and is most common at high school and college campuses throughout America.  Drinking games have become very prominent since drinking among teenagers and college students has become more accepted and common. They demonstrate how different kinds of folklore cater to different cultures and lifestyles.

Game – University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Residence: Somis, CA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English

“The Hat Game”

Ryan is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California. He received a bachelor’s degree in Print Journalism and Political Science. He is a fourth generation English-German-American and grew up in the small town of Somis, a farming community near the larger city of Camarillo, California.

Ryan learned this game at the University of Southern California during a Campus Crusade spring retreat. A friend of his by the name of Andy Hubert taught him the game, though Ryan says that he has come into contact with many people across the state of California who play this game or a variant of it.

Ryan told me that before the game begins each participant is to write on a small sheet of a paper, a word or short phrase. There are no specific limits on the length or content of the phrase, but players are encouraged to avoid phrases that would be completely impossible to guess. At this point in the game, everyone’s written phrase or word is placed into a hat or some other receptacle and mixed together. The players are divided evenly into two teams. Each player on the team should be sitting next to someone from the opposite team. Players are to be arranged in a circle, sitting side by side with opponents. At this point in the game, someone is arbitrarily picked to begin the game. During the first of three rounds in the game, each individual in order of the circle will have one minute in which they are to take a phrase from the hat or other receptacle and during the first round they are to attempt to get their teammates to guess exactly what is written on the piece of paper by using verbal clues, though the actual word or phrase itself cannot be mentioned. If they are successful with the first paper, they try to do as many papers as possible in a one-minute time frame. When the minute is up, they are to return the un-guessed paper into the receptacle without saying what was on the paper. When the minute is over the person keeps the papers, which he was able to convince his teammates to guess the phrasing on. The receptacle or hat is now passed onto the left or right depending on the predetermined direction. This person does the same with his teammates until all the papers are gone regardless of whether everyone in the circle has had an opportunity to play or not. At the end of the round, the team counts the number of correctly guessed papers and records this score. Round two begins then with the person after the last person from the previous round. All of the papers, regardless of whether they were guessed in the previous round or not, are then returned to the hat. Round two is the same idea as round one except that players have to this time, act out the phrase to get their team to guess. This is done without talking. Round three then proceeds, however in this round, the player only gets to say one word with hopes of clueing his teammates in on the word written on the card. The score for rounds two and three is calculated in the same way as round way and is therefore based on the number of correctly guessed papers. The team with the most points at the end wins.

“The Hat Game” as described by Ryan Webb appears to be lore in the form of a game that is passed on between a particular folk group. The folk group is known to at least expand beyond the USC community, as Ryan tells me that he has played with people from other surrounding universities. In addition, I personally, am aware of people who play a variant of this game who reside on the Eastern Coast of the United States of America. As the game is not known to have been created by a specific individual, the rights to this game can only be said to be equally shared by all of its players.

Game

Residence: Somis, CA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English

“Ring Around the Rosie…”

Ryan Webb is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California. He received a bachelor’s degree in Print Journalism and Political Science. He is a fourth generation English-German-American and grew up in the small town of Somis, a farming community near the larger city of Camarillo, California. He is twenty-three years old. During his childhood he attended the Calvary Chapel in Camarillo, a place where he spent much of his time involved in activities with the children’s and youth ministries.

Ryan claims to have first learned how to play this game at church when he was about three years old. He said that he learned it from the other children in his Sunday school class. He says that the underlying text of the game is supposed to be about the Plague in Europe, but he does not know why children are fascinated with this game. He believes that children are simply ignorant of the lyrics and messages contained within the songs they sing and the games they play. In addition to playing the game personally, Ryan recalls times when he shared the game with younger children, such as those he babysat for, as he grew older.

According to Ryan, the game starts as the players stand in a circle and join hands. Then the players step forward while still connected to the circle, then the circle revolves around in a circular fashion as the children sing, “Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” At the point when this song is finished, everyone in the group falls down to the ground as though they have died.

It seems apparent that while Ryan may be correct in that the children are ignorant of the lyrics of some games, by the mere fact that the children are playing dead it appears that they understand the deeper meaning of this sing-song game. They are ultimately aware that when everyone falls down it is to represent the death of those, which are sung about in the song. This may prove evidence to the way in which children learn deep concepts about life, such as the inevitable presence of death in the world, through the format of a game or song.

Game – University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Residence: Athens, GA
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

“Andre Pong”

Wendy is a sophomore in college at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. She is originally from Marietta, Georgia a suburb of Atlanta located just thirty minutes out of the city center. Her parents are both from China and speak Mandarin as well as English. Wendy speaks mainly English but she is capable of understanding written and spoken Mandarin.

In order to play Andre pong, it is necessary to start with some basic materials. Andre pong requires, first and foremost, a large quantity of Andre (a cheap champagne that costs at average $4.99). In addition, it is necessary to have a table of substantial length along with twenty-two cups of the same brand and style as well as a ping-pong ball of regulation size. The table is set up as such: ten cups are placed on each side of the table in a triangular formation wherein the ten cups are in the same position as bowling pins. The remaining two cups are filled with water and used to clean the balls during play. Each team is composed of two team members who alternate taking turns in attempt to throw the ball into the opposing teams cups. Each time a ball lands in the opposing teams cup the team must remove to cup from the formation and subsequently drink the contents of the cup before play resumes. This process proceeds until one team has successfully tossed the ball into each of the opposing team’s cups. The ultimate object of the game is to beat the opposing team, though most players consider it victorious to consume that amount of alcohol in the process of the game regardless of the outcome.

Wendy says she was first taught the game upon her arrival to the University of Georgia in the fall of 2005. She encountered the game at a fraternity party at the Sigma Chi chapter at the University of Georgia. She says that the game is played both for the competition it provides as well as for its abilities to make the process of becoming intoxicated much more enjoyable.

It is interesting to find games such as Andre pong that involve both competition and heavy drinking. It seems that both of these: competition and heavy drinking are largely popular interests among college students in the United States of America. It is obvious that competition is valued at college campuses. If one is in doubt, he needs only to watch a college football game or basketball game and take notice of the intense rivalry and sense of school spirit found at most universities. In addition, teenage drinking levels have been increasing heavily over the last few decades to where it is no surprise that this is common practice at college campuses.

Game – China

Nationality: Chinese-American
Occupation: Student
Residence: Hacienda Heights, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2007
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Chinese:

??! ??! ??

Pronunciation:

Lao Hu! Bang Zi! Ji!

Meaning:

Tiger! Stick! Chicken!

This tiger stick chicken game isn’t necessarily a ‘drinking’ game since I was taught this game when I was just a kid. Basically, to play this game, one challenges one’s opponent by holding up a chopstick in a ‘on guard’ fashion as if crossing swords. The opponent, if up to the challenges, places his or her chopstick against the challenger’s. Then the game starts when both parties tap their chopsticks together three times, followed by yelling either tiger, stick or chicken simultaneousely. Stick beats tiger because the tiger literally gets beat to death with a stick. Tiger beats chicken because, well, tigers eat chickens. Chicken beats stick because chickens can peck a stick to dust.

I loved playing this game as a child and I still love playing it now. It’s pretty much a different version of rock paper scissor which is pretty much universal, yes there’s also a Chinese version of that. However, tiger stick chicken is particularly enjoyable because instead of motioning with your hands, you’re clashing chopsticks, something that’s not usually acceptable at the dinner table unless you’re drunk or in a ‘festive’ mood.  When I was younger, we played with soda and water, but when the participants are older, it is definitely more of a drinking game.

This may not make sense to most cultures, the bit about the stick and tiger, but there’s quite a bit of history behind that. There’s a legend about a guy named Wu Song who is famous for defeating a tiger with a club, literally a ‘stick’ when translated into Chinese. That’s why this tiger/stick combo seems natural to Chinese people though it might be odd with other cultures. Rite of passage anyone?