Category Archives: Game

Game

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Residence: Beverly Hills, CA
Performance Date: March 20, 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“Doorknob… I think this was mostly a boys game… maybe not… so basically if someone farted then they had to call safety immediately, and if they didn’t and someone called out doorknob first, then that meant that everyone was allowed to punch the farter until he touched a doorknob. It was so stupid, but we all took it so seriously, and we thought it was so funny”

Eric is a 23-year-old USC graduate. He grew up in Beverly Hills and now continues to work in Los Angeles as an accountant. He is from a modest Jewish family and is the oldest of three children. Eric and his friends have been close since they were in elementary school and used to make anything and everything into a game. So of course when the boys were at the summer camp Hess Kramer in Malibu, California and they learned about the Doorknob game they were instantly hooked. Eric thinks that the game was significant because it reminds him of summer camp and of course all the other games they played. I had a bunch of friends over, including many of Eric’s friends and we were all hanging out when I asked out childhood games and instantly Eric and his friends burst out laughing because they all remembered Doorknob. This was the first time that I had ever heard of the game and so they had to explain the rules to me but none of them could give me a purpose for the game. I guess when they were all in 6th grade they were so amused by the game and that was the purpose of it.

The game is apparently well known and Wikipedia even has a page designated for it… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doorknob_(game) (3.24.07).

10727 Wilshire Blvd., #201 Los Angeles, CA, 90024 birnbaum@usc.edu

Rhyme/Game – Encino, California

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Residence: Encino, CA
Performance Date: March 17, 2007
Primary Language: English

“No cuts, no butts, no coconuts!”

Lindsay is my 22-year-old best friend and roommate. She grew up in Encino, California also known as “The Valley” but after graduating from USC last year, she lives with me in Westwood, California. Lindsay is a fair and practical person, which extends back to when she was a little girl and the notion of cutting in line. As a little kid, Lindsay was taught about the rules of cutting in line: the correct way to “cutsies” was to ask, but of course with asking came anger from the back of the line which is when it is appropriate to use the rhythm “No cuts, no butts, no coconuts!” Lindsay learned the saying from her friends at school, who in turn learned it from their peers or possibly even older peers. “It was playground rules, all kids knew them, but no one knew where they came from.” Lindsay’s contribution to this collection of folklore was shared with me at Starbucks, as she sang the rhyme, she also pointed her finger in beat with the syllabus. “If you yelled out ‘no cuts, no butts, no coconuts’ you meant business,” Lindsay recalled. “There were rules and a general understanding about ‘cutsies’ and if you abused the rules then there was a consequence.”

I also used the saying when in elementary school and I don’t recall from whom in particular I learned it from, it was general schoolyard rhetoric. Lindsay and I both agreed that the saying was powerful, yes teachers could say no cutting in line but if you heard that rhythm coming from your peers it was serious. Lindsay explained that the singsong rhythm was significant because although it was a schoolyard song, it also provided a foundation for following rules later on in life.

Lindsay’s performance of the rhythm shows how ingrained and mesmerizing children’s rhymes can be. She probably hadn’t recited the rhythm in 15 years but it didn’t matter, she didn’t waiver in her performance.

Game

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Residence: Encino, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2007
Primary Language: English

“Personal Jinx… I think the saying was ‘personal jinx, you owe me a coke.’ If I said the same word at the same time as one of my friends said the same word, then whoever called out jinx first was the winner and the other person owed the winner a coke and couldn’t talk until the winner said her name 3 times”

Lindsay is my 22-year-old best friend and roommate. She grew up in Encino, California also known as “The Valley” but after graduating from USC last year, she lives with me in Westwood, California. She is the middle child, having one older sister and a younger brother. Lindsay and I spend a lot of time talking to one another but it was fun for her to think back on childhood memories for this collection project. Lindsay remembered how enthusiastic her friends and her would be about the game and how seriously they took it, “sometimes the person who was silenced by the jinx wouldn’t be allowed to talk for 15 minutes… and when you’re a 13-year-old girl, that’s very difficult… but we did it.” The Game itself is widely spread, almost everyone I know, has participated in jinx or knows about it. Lindsay even admitted that even now sometimes if her and a friend say the same word at the same time then she says personal jinx and everyone laughs because everyone has those memories back in grade school. There is something very universal about children’s games and that universality unites our generation. Lindsay said she learned about the jinx from her friends at school, that “one day I observed a jinx and that’s how I learned it… but its also been in television shows but I’m pretty sure I knew about it before I saw it on TV.”

To Lindsay, this game embodies childish antics. Lindsay, like most other kids, learned most of her social interaction skills while at school and this game was just another way of socializing and learning to be part of a group. The game was also an equalizer, you didn’t have to be the smartest or the most athletic to win, you just had to talk to your friends to participate.

The amazing thing about this game is that even in examining the rules, there is something quintessentially American about it because to lift the jinx, the winner must say the losers name 3 times. The number three seems random, but it’s a comfortable number just like the 3 Little Pigs and others. Even Axel Olrik’s Epic Laws describe the use of 3.

Game

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Encino, CA
Performance Date: April 2, 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew

“’This is how to start a thumb war, and both people should say it simultaneously…

1, 2, 3, 4 I declare a thumb war… 5, 6, 7, 8 Try and keep your thumb straight…’

This is the official thumb war starter, I always pronounce this rhyme before a battle! With the rhyme also comes hand gestures though, the competitors hands should be interlocked and then as the rhyme is said, the opponents cross their thumbs back and forth until the song is over and then the battle begins.”

Shauna was born and raised in Encino, California. She now attends CSUN in Northridge California, where she lives with her boyfriend. Shauna was taught this thumb war rhyme by her father when she was 3-years-old. Her father was always engaging Shauna with games and riddles and make a point of  always teaching her the “official way of doing things.” Shauna explained to me that thumb wars or thumb wrestling “is a serious sport, there are rules, and cheating is not tolerated!” The game is always started by the song and then two thumbs proceeded to battle until one thumb pins the other one, some variations have a specific number of seconds that the pinning must last, like in wrestling, but for Shauna, “a pin which lasts more than a second or two is legitimate.” The game itself is a common childhood game and Shauna remembers it being a game her parents used to suggest on road trips or plane flights when it was hard to carry a board game or other forms of entertainment.

Shauna demonstrated the rhyme and how to play the game when we were out to coffee, after learning the rhyme and the rules such as not using other fingers to help pin the other person’s thumb, we played. The idea of the game is obviously to play with another person, so not only was she a performer and taught me, I then became an active participant and could now teach someone else. I was a passive observer and then became and active participant.

Ritual

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 50
Occupation: Instructor
Residence: Chandler, AZ
Performance Date: March 27, 2007
Primary Language: English

“The And Game”—a game on Christmas Eve where everyone gets in a circle and passes little gifts around every time the word “and” is mentioned from the book The Night Before Christmas

Notes:

The informant told me that every Christmas Eve, his family gets together with his wife’s side of the family at one of the relative’s house. After they eat dinner, but before they open presents they play what they call “The And Game.” Basically the host of the party buys an array of little gifts (like $5 dollar Best Buy gift certificates or boxes of chocolate) and wraps them up and gives one to each individual. They sit in a circle and pass the gifts around every time the word “and” is mentioned in the story The Night Before Christmas. One of the kids reads the story, making sure to emphasize each and, so that the passing goes at the right pace. There are enough “ands” in the story so that you don’t end up with the original gift you started with. He mentioned that they have been doing it for over 20 years now, and that he isn’t sure how it exactly started, but that every year they would read the book, and the game evolved out of it. He also said that it has become a pretty funny game because the children are getting older and the men like to try and unwrap the gifts before the game is over, so that you can peek at the gift. The men were unwrapping the gifts so much, that the informant’s wife decided to double wrap the and gifts one year, with packaging paper (virtually un-breakable) as the first layer and wrapping paper on top. When they attempted to unwrap the gifts, all they saw was brown paper.

I think that this ritual represents the many different customs people have around the holidays. The holiday season is full of different traditions families participate in, whether it be dealing with presents, Christmas decorations, or Christmas dinner. I think this particular ritual was born out of a tradition of reading the book, but when people got bored of the book or little kids got antsy to open the presents, the family adapted the tradition to a more interactive experience while keeping the tradition alive. This custom seems unique, as there is no real tie to it in anything online, however it does have similar elements to Hot Potato, in which a hot potato is passed around the group with the last person holding the potato when the music is turned off being out of the game.